Tech Shout!

The Intel Foundation has announced the three winners of the Intel Foundation Young Scientist Awards at the Intel international Engineering and Science Fair, also known as Intel ISEF.

The Intel ISEF was presented by Agilent Technologies and was touted as the world’s largest science fair. Intel, who has been committed to helping students realize the promise of education for many years now, annually invests over $100 million worldwide to improve the quality of education mainly in the fields of math, science and technology.

The three winners are Dayan Li of Greenbelt, Md., Philip Streich of Platteville, Wis., and Dmitry Vaintrob of Eugene, Ore. These three were selected from over 1500 young scientists who participated from around 51 countries, regions and territories.

Li focused on angiogenesis- the growth of new capillaries from existing blood vessels. This is essential for tumor growth and metastasis. Thrombospondin-1 (TSP1) is one of the most powerful angiogenesis inhibitors and interacts with nitric oxide (NO), which can inhibit or stimulate angiogenesis. This study developed a quantitative, highly accurate and precise method to simultaneously monitor the expression of several tumor marker genes in human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) in response to TSP1 and NO. Li’s project may be able to provide invaluable information on drug targets and their potential to be regulated for the treatment of cancer.

Streich’s research study provided the first evidence that carbon nanotubes, which are among the strongest and most conductive materials in the world, are thermodynamically soluble. He further quantified this solubility and its limits by using static light scattering to measure a parameter called the second virial coefficient B. These findings may be the key to finally realizing the potential of nanotubes as a supermaterial.

Vaintrob’s sophisticated mathematical investigation evaluated ways to associate algebraic structures to topological spaces. Vaintrob proved that loop homology and Hochschild cohomology coincide for an important class of spaces. He also was the third-place finisher at the 2007 Intel Science Talent Search, which has often been called the “junior Nobel Prize.”

Besides the three young winners of the Young Scientists Awards, over 500 Intel ISEF participants received scholarships and prizes for their groundbreaking effort and work.

Intel awards included the 18 “Best of Category” winners, who were selected from the different categories. They were awarded a $5000 Intel scholarship and an Intel Centrino Duo Mobile Technology-based notebook.