HS Students Win $100,000 in STEM Research Competition

One California student and three New York students were awarded grand prizes of $100,000 scholarships for their remarkable research in the Siemens Competition in Math, Science & Technology, the research competition for high school students.

Eric Chen, of San Diego, California, and the group of Priyanka Wadgaonkar, Woodmere, N.Y., Zainab Mahmood, Hewlett, N.Y., and JiaWen Pei, Valley Stream, N.Y., both took home $100,000 in the Siemens Competition in Math, Science and Technology, the nation’s premier STEM competition.

Eric Chen won the individual prize for his research on a new anti-flu medication that could help prevent the next flu epidemic. Priyanka Wadgaonkar, Zainab Mahmood and JiaWen Pei, won first team prize for their research on plants' resistance to ozone and discovered a gene that could defend crops against environmental stress such as pollution bacteria.