It was a (science) fair to remember for Julia Ransohoff, a Menlo-Atherton High School senior and one of 40 teens attending one of the nation’s premier competitive scholastic science events, the annual Intel Science Talent Search held last week in Washington, D.C.
Among the top honors this year were for research that could lead to temperature-sensitive clothing and molecule-sized insulin pumps for diabetic patients; a chemotherapy delivery system to treat drug-resistant cancer without significant side effects; and math equations essential to developing a quantum theory of gravity.
Not your ordinary high school science fair, but Ms. Ransohoff was a contender. She investigated gender as a factor in donated stem cells used to repair cardiac tissue damaged by a heart attack, concluding that stem cells from adult female donors alerted a recipient’s immune system to a significantly greater degree than previously thought.
Ms. Ransohoff came home after the March 10 black-tie awards dinner with a $5,000 scholarship, a new laptop computer, and memories of some rare experiences.
She talked about her work at some length with Dudley Herschbach, a 1986 Nobel Laureate in chemistry, Harvard University professor and board chairman of the contest.
“He seemed very interested in my project,” Ms. Ransohoff said in a phone interview, adding that she felt treated “not like a celebrity but like an important member of the scientific community.”
Mr. Herschbach talks with every finalist individually, Intel spokesman Rick Bates said.
The actual judging, done by 13 working scientists, takes place over two days. Each student meets with three or four of the judges at a time in 15-minute sessions when the student fields questions, Mr. Bates said.
“It was pretty nerve-wracking and pretty intimidating, but I had fun with that even if you couldn’t answer the question right away,” Ms. Ransohoff said. “There were no obvious answers to the questions. They wanted to hear you think.”
Meeting the president
The finalists gathered on March 9 on the White House steps, Ms. Ransohoff said, to shake hands with President Barack Obama and pose with him for a group photo.
Mr. Obama told them how important they were to the future of the country and how proud he was of them and what they’d accomplished, she said.
They spent about 10 minutes with the president, and it happened to be about an hour after he’d signed an executive order ending federal restrictions on embryonic stem cell research. “It was a very exciting time to meet him,” she said. “I’m thrilled for him to do that, to separate science from politics.”
At the other end of the fame spectrum, Ms. Ransohoff, who was staying at the St. Regis hotel, saw actor Brad Pitt and former anchorman Dan Rather on separate occasions at the hotel, and actor Angelina Jolie working outdoors on the set of a film.
As for her experience with the other 39 science contest finalists: “We’ve really bonded and had a wonderful time,” she said.
