High School Seniors Win $100,000 Science Prize

Science Competition Nets Smart Students Big Bucks!

Imagine having $100,000 for college, and not even being enrolled yet? Meet Dmitry Vaintrob, Oregon high school senior and lucky recipient of a $100,000 scholarship from the Siemens Foundation. The scholarship, the Siemans Competition in Math, Science, and Technology (also known as the Siemans Westinghouse Scholarship) is one of the foremost science scholarships for high school students. It was awarded to Dmitry for his research in an innovative area of mathematics called string topology, which may provide progress in understanding electricity, magnetism, and gravity.

“His work is at the Ph.D. level, publishable and already attracting the attention of researchers,” said competition judge Michael Hopkins, a professor of mathematics at Harvard.

Several other students and teams of students also won prizes in the science competition, ranging from $50,000 to $100,000.

More About the Scholarship and How to Apply

Started in 1998, the Siemans science competition was geared towards providing scholarship money to the brightest (high school) minds in science and technology. Every year, Siemans awards almost $2 million in scholarships making them a valuable resource for students considering science fields. From their website:

“By supporting outstanding students today, and recognizing the teachers and schools that inspire their excellence, the Foundation helps nurture tomorrow’s scientists and engineers.”

The scholarship has reached such a high profile, that even the US Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings attending this year’s award ceremony at NYU. Interested in seeing the ceremony yourself? You can watch the webcast here.

Siemans’ has an online calendar that marks important dates in the scholarship application process. As the 2006-2007 competition has just come to a close, the dates have passed for this year but will be updated for next year’s deadlines soon. The competition process passes through three phases, according to the guidelines. The initial phase includes applications to the Educational Testing Service to outline their science project, abstract, and supporting documents. Three hundred projects are selected by judges, as semi-finalists who proceed onto the second phase: the regional finalists. At this level, students present their projects as a poster presentation to a panel of judges, followed by a question and answer session. These winners advance to the final phase as national finalists, who are then intensively judged. Those whose projects reflect the highest scientific merit are awarded the scholarships.

Not bad for a science fair project. In my day, all we got was a blue ribbon at best!

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