MEDIA RELEASE

Nolan Kamitaki, a senior at Waiakea High School, earned three awards and $9,000 last week at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in San Jose, Calif.

Kamitaki was among six Hawaii high school students to receive awards at the exposition. In all, 23 Hawaii students presented projects at the fair.

1st PLACE GRAND AWARD ($3,000) – Nolan Kamitaki, Waiakea, Senior; Project: “Gene Dosage and Expression in Human Lymphoblastoid Cell Lines”

BEST OF CATEGORY ($5,000 +$1,000 to school) – Nolan Kamitaki, Waiakea

2nd PLACE GRAND TEAM AWARD ($1,500) – Megan Kurohara & Hannah Rojeski, Hilo, Juniors; Project: “A New Spin on Green Energy: Increasing Hydrogen Evolution in a Spirulina Derived Photobiological system”

In addition to their awards, the first and second place winners get “naming rights” to minor planets in our solar system. This program is sponsored by the Ceres Connection at Lincoln Earth Asteroid Research from MIT.

4th PLACE GRAND AWARD ($500) – Malio Kodis, Waiakea, Senior; Project: “Diversity of Foliar Fungal Endophytes in Wild and Cultured Metrosideros polymorpha Inferred from Environmental PCR and ITS Sequence Data

4th PLACE GRAND TEAM AWARD – Michael Flynn & Taylor Nakamura, Maui, Juniors; Project: “Muon Detection at Elevation”

Special Awards given by organizations and corporations

AMERICAN STATISTICAL ASSOCIATION ($1,000 Award) – Nolan Kamitaki, Waiakea

EUROPEAN ORGANIZATION FOR NUCLEAR RESEARCH (CERN) – Michael Flynn, Maui, won an expense-paid trip to CERN to either Switzerland or France

“I hope that the energy these high school students exhibit about math and science will inspire yet another generation of innovators, scientists and entrepreneurs which will improve our world,” said Intel President and CEO Paul Otellini.

This year, competition consisted of 1,611 young scientists from 59 countries, regions and territories.

In addition to the three top prizes, the Intel Foundation awarded $8,000 to each of 19 “Best of Category” winners and also provided $1,000 grants to the winners’ schools and the affiliated fairs they represent.

More than 600 additional awards and prizes were provided by dozens of other corporate, academic, government and science-focused sponsors for their groundbreaking work.

The Intel International Science and Engineering Fair 2010 finalists were selected from 539 affiliated fairs around the world. Their projects were then evaluated onsite by more than 1,000 judges from nearly every scientific discipline, each with a Ph.D. or the equivalent of 6 years of related professional experience in one of the scientific disciplines.

The Intel International Science and Engineering Fair 2010 is funded jointly by Intel and the Intel Foundation with additional support from dozens of other corporate, academic, government and science-focused sponsors.

— Find out more:
www.societyforscience.org/isef/