Top projects capture Westinghouse awards.A mathematical investigation of a special class of numbers, the discovery of a transcription factor regulating cells, and a system to spot ice forming on airplane wings won the top three prizes in the 55th Westinghouse Science Talent Search, sponsored by the Westinghouse Foundation in partnership with Science Service Inc., the publisher of Science News. Presented this week in Washington, D.C., the scholarship prizes-40 in all, totaling $205,000-went to 15 female and 25 male high school seniors from 12 states, chosen from 1,869 applicants. The top scholarship of $40,000 was awarded to Jacob Lurie, an 18-year-old mathematician from Montgomery Blair H.S. in Silver Spring, Md. His study of a class of the numbers called surreal, showing their relevance to specific types of computation and game-playing, represents an outgrowth of the mathematical discipline of game theory. The second prize of $30,000 was given to Ting Luo, an 18-year-old biologist from Stuyvesant H.S. in New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of . She identified a new transcription factor that controls a cell's response to external stress, including viral infection viral infection, n an infection by a pathogenic virus. A virus acts on the cell nucleus, taking over the genetic material within the nucleus and replicating itself. , cancer, and drug toxicity. The novel factor plays a role in a cell's expression of genes and synthesis of proteins. The third prize of $20,000 was presented to Matthew David Graham, an 18-year-old from Stanton College Preparatory School In 2000, Stanton College Prep was ranked first in Newsweek magazine's list of the top 1,000 public schools in the United States, in 2004, it was ranked second, in 2005, it was ranked third, and in 2006, it was ranked fifth. The 2007 rankings place Stanton at third. in Jacksonville, Fla. He designed and built an aircraft warning system that uses ultrasound vibrations along a wing's surface to detect ice. Analyzing the vibrational signals, a computer determines if ice is forming on the wing. Fourth- through sixth-place awards of $15,000 each went to Bruce Mizrahi Haggerty, 18, of Stuyvesant H.S.; Aaron Michael Einbond, 17, of Hunter College H.S. in New York; and Daniel Paul Weitz, 17, of Morristown (N.J.) H.S. Haggerty used statistical methods to improve geological age estimates of ancient lava flows and to relate them to mass extinctions. Einbond identified a protein binding pattern relevant to muscular dystrophy muscular dystrophy (dĭs`trōfē), any of several inherited diseases characterized by progressive wasting of the skeletal muscles. There are five main forms of the disease. . Weitz built a plasma generator in his basement to study chemical reactions. The seventh- through tenth-place scholarships of $10,000 apiece went to Brian Palmer Hafler, 17, of the Roxbury Latin School Roxbury Latin School, founded in 1645 and located at 101 Saint Theresa Avenue in West Roxbury, Massachusetts since 1927, is the oldest school in continuous existence in North America.[1] Roxbury Latin was established in Roxbury, Massachusetts in 1645 by the Rev. in West Roxbury, Mass.; Simon Joseph DeDeo, 16, of Phillips Exeter (N.H.) Academy; Sidney Hsiao-Ning Chang, 17, of Half Hollow Hills H.S. East in Dix Hills, N.Y.; and Vezen Wu, 17, of Stanton College Preparatory School. Naomi Sue Bates Bates , Katherine Lee 1859-1929. American educator and writer best known for her poem "America the Beautiful," written in 1893 and revised in 1904 and 1911. , 18, of Franklin (W. Va.) H.S., and William David Garrahan, 17, of Bishop Hendricken H.S. in Warwick, R.I., were named first and second alternates. Bates, Garrahan, and the remaining 28 winners each received $1,000. J. Richard Gott John Richard Gott III is a professor of astrophysical sciences at Princeton University. He is especially well known for developing and advocating two cosmological theories with the flavor of science fiction: Time travel, and the Doomsday argument. , an astrophysicist at Princeton University, headed the panel of 12 judges, which included Nobel laureate Dudley R. Herschbach Dudley Robert Herschbach (born June 18, 1932), a chemist and Frank B. Baird Jr. Research Professor of Science at Harvard University, won the 1986 Nobel Prize in Chemistry jointly with Yuan T. Lee and John C. of Harvard University, Harold Amos of Harvard Medical School Harvard Medical School (HMS) is one of the graduate schools of Harvard University. It is a prestigious American medical school located in the Longwood Medical Area of the Mission Hill neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. in Boston, and marine biologist Sylvia A. Earle of Oakland, Calif. Of previous Westinghouse winners, five have won Nobel prizes and many have become members of the National Academy of Science. |
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