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4 Indian Americans win Siemens contest
Nineteen school students competed in the national finals of Siemens Westinghouse science contest, reports Meenakshi Iyer.
Four Indian American school students were among the winners in this year's prestigious Siemens Westinghouse Science competition National Finals.
While Kiran Pendri of Wellingford Connecticut and Desh Mohan of Denton, Texas received a scholarship of $50,000 and $30,000 each respectively in individual category, Benjamin Pollack and Abhinav Khanna of Plainview, New York in the team category got a scholarship of $50,000.
Amardeep Grewal of Beverley Hills, Michigan and Ran Li of Valley Stream, New York secured the fourth position in the same category.
The results were announced on Monday.
"These students have done magnificent work that any researcher would be proud of," said Thomas N McCausland, chairman of Siemens Foundation board. "The fact that they are still in high school makes their achievement all the more remarkable. Imagine what these young scholars will accomplish as adults."
Nineteen students competed in the National Finals, including six individuals and six teams. The national finalists previously competed in a series of regional competitions held at six leading research universities over three consecutive weekends in November.
While Desh Mohan's research may contribute to the understanding and potential clinical management of anoxic diseases such as strokes, Kiran Pendri's project incorporates recent Nobel Prize-winning chemistry research and contributes to the ongoing understanding of the art of synthesizing organic molecules.
Fluent in Telugu, Pendri is a member of the varsity math team and the senior judicial committee and his mentors were Professor Erik Sorensen and Dr Brian Goess, Princeton University.
The Siemens Westinghouse Competition was launched in 1998 to recognise America's best and brightest students in math, science and technology. This year, 1,684 students entered the competition, a 13% increase over the previous year.
