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Girls Take Top Prizes in Siemens Competition

December 5, 2007

Isha Jain and the team of Janelle Schlossberger and Amanda Marinoff were named Grand Prize winners in the 2007–08 Siemens Competition in Math, Science and Technology. Jain, a senior at Freedom High School in Bethlehem, Pa., won a $100,000 scholarship in the individual category for research on bone growth. Schlossberger and Marinoff, seniors at Plainview-Old Bethpage John F. Kennedy High School in Plainview, N.Y., shared a $100,000 award for research on tuberculosis.

Students with math-related projects did well in the competition. Eighteen-year-old Jacob Steinhardt of Vienna, Va., won third place and a $40,000 scholarship in the individual category for a project that focuses on the use of algebraic theory in building highly efficient computer networks. He titled his research "Cayley Graphs Formed by Conjugate Generating Sets of Sn."

Ayon Sen of Austin, Texas, won fourth place and a $30,000 scholarship for his math-related project "Dissipation of Geostrophic Oceanic Flows by Quadratic Bottom Boundary Layer Drag." Sen was stimulated to study mathematics after reading Simon Singh's book Fermat's Enigma.

Alexander C. Huang of Plano, Texas, captured fifth place and a $10,000 scholarship for his project "Mathematical Modeling of a Eukaryotic Circadian Clock." His research, which focuses circadian-clock rhythms in bread mold, may be helpful in understanding the biological cycles of organisms. It may, ultimately, lead to better timing in the delivery of chemotherapy as well as in reducing the effects of jet lag.

"These students have climbed the Mount Everest of science competitions and reached the summit," said Thomas McCausland, chairman of the Siemens Foundation. "With all the challenges facing our world today, it is heartening to know these remarkable young people are working on the solutions."

The Siemens Competition was launched in 1998 to recognize the brightest math and science students in the United States. This year, a record 1,600 students registered for the competition.

Source: Siemens Foundation, Dec. 3, 2007; BusinessWeek, Dec. 3, 2007.

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Wednesday, December 5, 2007