Siemens Math, Science & Technology Competition Names $100,000 Grand Prize Winners
(Left to right) 2008 Siemens Competition in Math,
Science & Technology Team Grand Prize winners Sajith Wickramasekara and Andrew Guo and Individual Grand Prize winner Wen Chyan
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After reviewing 1,205 projects submitted by 1,462 students from 563 high schools in 47 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and three countries, the Siemens Foundation bestowed $100,000 awards to the individual and grand prize winners of its 2008 Competition in Math, Science & Technology at a grand celebration in New York, Dec. 8.
The competition, administered by the College Board, was judged by a panel of nationally renowned scientists and mathematicians headed by lead judge Joseph Taylor, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics and James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor of Physics Emeritus at Princeton University. Eighteen finalists competed in this year's national finals, including six individuals and six teams. The finalists advanced from one of the six regional competitions held in November at leading research universities.
"These remarkable students have achieved the most coveted and competitive high school science recognition in the nation," said Thomas McCausland, chairman of the Siemens Foundation. "There is no doubt that these scholars will change the world, starting right now, with their passion for math and science."
The top prize for an individual and a $100,000 college scholarship went to Wen Chyan, a senior at Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science in Denton, Texas, for his bioengineering research of antimicrobial coatings for medical devices. Chyan looked to design a specialized coating for medical devices to help prevent common hospital infections, called nosocomial infections, which afflict more than two million patients each year, killing more than 100,000 of them.
The top team prize went to Sajith M. Wickramasekara and Andrew Y. Guo, both seniors at the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics in Durham, N.C., who will split the $100,000 prize money. Their genetics research, which addresses chemotherapy limitations of resistance, toxicity and discrimination by screening for drugs with yeast, has the potential to easily identify new chemotherapeutic drugs and greatly improve existing ones. The team combined traditional genetics with cutting-edge computational modeling to try and identify new genes to target for cancer therapy.
The Siemens Competition was launched in 1998 to recognize America's best and brightest math and science students. By supporting outstanding students today and recognizing the teachers and schools that inspire their excellence, the Siemens Foundation helps nurture tomorrow's scientists and engineers. Entries are judged at the regional level by esteemed scientists at six leading research universities that host the regional competitions: California Institute of Technology; Carnegie Mellon University; Georgia Institute of Technology; Massachusetts Institute of Technology; University of Notre Dame; and The University of Texas at Austin. For more information, please visit Siemens Web site.
None of the regional winners left New York empty-handed. In addition to the grand prizes, the other National Finalists of the 2008 Siemens Competition received awards as follows:
Individual Finalists
- $50,000 scholarship: Eric K. Larson, Eugene, Ore.
- $40,000 scholarship: Nityan Nair, Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y.
- $30,000 scholarship: James Meixiong, Evans, Ga.
- $20,000 scholarship: Ashok Cutkosky, Columbia, Mo.
- $10,000 scholarship: Hayden C. Metsky, Millburn, N.J.
Team Finalists
- $50,000 scholarship: Eugenia Volkova of South Salem, N.Y., and Alexander Saeboe of Katonah, N.Y.
- $40,000 scholarship: Erika Debenedictis and Duanni (Tony) Huang of Albuquerque, N.M.
- $30,000 scholarship: Christine S. Lai and Diyang Tang of Acton, Mass.
- $20,000 scholarship: Raphael-Joel (RJ) Lim of Indianapolis, Ind., and Mark Zhang of Sugar Land, Texas
- $10,000 scholarship: Aanand A. Patel and William Hong of Fullerton, Ca.
  
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