PHOTO LEFT, 2005-06 Siemens Westinghouse Competition individual category runner-up Kiran Pendri; PHOTO RIGHT, the runner-ups in team category Abhinav Khanna and Benjamin Pollack with their parents. From left, parents of Benjamin, Seth and Louise Pollack; Benjamin; Abhinav; and his parents Smiti and Ram Khanna at the Kimmel Center at New York University in Manhattan in New York on Dec. 5. (Photos: Bhavna Kaul)

Four students of South Asian origin were among the 19 national finalists of the 2005-06 Siemens Westinghouse Competition in Math, Science and Technology. The results of the national finals were announced on Dec. 5 at the Kimmel Center at New York University in Manhattan in New York. The finalists of South Asian origin are:

Individual category: a) Kiran Pendri of Wallingford, Connecticut; 2nd place, won $50,000 scholarship; b) Desh Mohan of Denton, Texas; 4th place, won $30,000 scholarship.

Team category: a) Abhinav Khanna and Benjamin Pollack of Plainview, New York; 2nd place, won $50,000 scholarship; b) Amardeep Grewal, Beverly Hills, Michigan and Ran Li, Valley Stream, New York; 5th place, won $20,000 scholarship.

The top honors in the competition went to Michael Viscardi, who won the $100,000 Grand Prize scholarship in the individual category and Anne Lee and Albert Shieh won the $100,000 prize in team category. In all, six students competed for the top prize in the individual category and six in the team category.

For all the four South Asian national finalists, a love for math and science is given. For Pendri, whose parents are organic chemists, love for chemistry is almost genetic. "Science is sort of an innovation. It is the motor of the world," Pendri told News India Times. In the summer this year, Pendri worked on the project for three months at Princeton University. Pendri's - who was placed second in the individual category - project, 'Macrocyclization using ring-closing Olefin Metathesis: synthesis of a 13-member Dithiolactone,' is on the ongoing understanding of the art of synthesizing organic molecules. This study might contribute to the future pharmaceutical and chemical manufacturing developments. Essentially creating a new 'Lego' shape, or building block, for creating new molecules, macrocyclization using a Ring-closing Olefin Metathesis allows for the creation of a useful mid-sized molecular ring that can serve as precursor for the synthesis of new chemical species. His mentors were Professor Erik Sorensen and Dr. Brian Goess of Princeton University. Pendri is in Grade 12 at Choate Rosemary Hall, Wallingford, CT.

Like Pendri, Abhinav Khanna, too, enjoys investing but his love for math and science goes a long way when as a child his grandmother used to give him math problems to solve for fun. Khanna who was never keen on research despite his mother telling him that if he wanted to become a physician he needed to get into research, being placed second in the team category in the Siemens Westinghouse national finals was amazing. His mother, Smiti Khanna, who worked in several research organizations, including Sloan Kettering for 13 years, said that she was "ecstatic and surprised too. I didn't expect him to do that well. I thought he would be No. 3 or No. 4," Smiti Khanna told NIT.

For Abhinav and his teammate, Benjamin Pollack, the experience was great. "The competition was so amazing that winning came almost second. Every single project we looked at was phenomenal," the teammates told NIT. Both agreed that they were more nervous at the regional level than in the national finals as they didn't know what to expect. The team was thrown a mini-prep rally at their school by the principal just before the national finals. "You see such things for sports not for academics. It is nice to see such a change coming about," said Khanna. Khanna and his teammate are the first in the school ever to win a regional final event.

Khanna and Pollack of Plainview Old-Bethpage John F. Kennedy High School, Plainview, NY, won the second place for their project 'Sexual selection in Drosophila: A behavioral, morphological, and geographic study.' By examining how females choose between males with different morphological traits, the team demonstrated sexual selection as a likely evolutionary mechanism in two different species of Drosophila (fruit fly) and in two different situations. One of these may represent a rare case of incipient speciation, that is the formation of two species from one. The results may provide greater understanding of how traits evolve in almost any organism. Their mentor was Dr. John R. True, SUNY Stony Brook.

Khanna wants to be a physician. Often times his father tells him not to be a doctor as he feels he can make more money outside but Khanna is determined to be a doctor. He has applied to Case Western, Rochester, Brown and Stony Brook Universities for a dual degree in B.S. and M.D. program.

As for Mohan, father Professor Chandra Mohan said, he heard about the competition in his school. He went through different labs at the University of North Texas before picking up a topic. "More than the prize itself, he got to interact with so many world-class scientists …it's such a honor," told Professor Mohan, professor of medicine at University of Texas. Professor Mohan his hoping that his son will be an inspiration for younger children to study science at senior levels.

Mohan for his part didn't expect to come so far. "There are over 1,600 applicants so there was a slim chance," he told NIT. But he was sure his research findings were significant for him to stand a chance. "It was interesting to study a simple organism to find out cures to diseases such as strokes. I wanted more people to know about it through my participation in the competition."

Mohan's - who ranked fourth in the individual category - project 'Molecular basis of Anoxia stress survival' may contribute to the understanding and potential clinical management of anoxic diseases such as strokes.

By studying the survival rate of male and hermaphrodite C. elegans nematodes in oxygen-deprived conditions, he was able to identify the hsp 12.6 gene as factor in male anoxia survival. His mentor was Dr. Pamela Padilla of the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of North Texas. Mohan is in grade 12 at Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science in Denton, Texas. He plans to be doctor. In his spare time loves to play basketball, tennis and football.

Like Mohan too Grewal, who is in grade 11 at Detroit Country Day School, MI, plans to be a doctor. He said his mother, who is a nurse, got him interested in medicine. He with his teammate developed a new type of band-aid, devised from chemicals found in one's own skin, to help heal 'chronic wounds,' such as those of diabetics, which take long to heal.

Grewal and Ran Li of Valley Stream Central High School, NY, earned fifth place in the team category. Their project 'A new spin on wound healing scaffolds: optimization through molecular and physical design,' was to create a more hospitable and structurally-enhanced second-generation hydrogel wound-healing matrix. Such research may help in curing wounds that fail to heal that are typical of patients who suffer from chronic diseases such as diabetes or who are bed-ridden. The team's study introduced a new molecular model system that may allow hydrogel matrices to bind growth factors critical to wound healing. Their mentor for the project was graduate student at Stony Brooke Hospital.

"We started the project with the intent of having fun and gaining experience; I had no idea we will get to the finals, where only 1 percent of total applicants reach. It is so hard to explain what it feels to be chosen for your scientific work," Grewal told NIT. Grewal's father, Jeat Grewal, who runs a real estate company with his four brothers in Michigan said that his son "always loved to read instead of playing in the backyard. If he doesn't get grade A, he becomes unhappy. I, and my wife, had told him give your best and don't worry about the end result," he told NIT. Grewal and his sister, who is studying to be a dentist, are the first children in their family to be entering the medical field. Among the colleges he is looking to apply include Harvard and Princeton Universities. When he is not studying, Grewal enjoys Bhangra. He was one of the founding members of the Bhangra team in his town.

Earlier in the year, 335 students from 36 states, as well as the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and an American school in Taiwan, were chosen as semifinalists out of 1,684 students who registered to enter the competition this year. The South Asians totaled up to 49 in the semifinals. Up to 30 individual students and 30 teams (of two or three members) was then selected to compete at regional competitions in November this year.

The top individual and team winners receive additional scholarships of $100,000. Runners up receive scholarships ranging from $10,000 to $50,000. Established in 1998, the Siemens Foundation provides nearly $2 million in college scholarships and awards each year for talented high school students in the United States.