13 Californians Win Honors in Science Contest

Thirteen California students were among 300 named Tuesday as honors winners in the Westinghouse science contest, the nation’s oldest high school science talent search.

The competition invites entrants from seniors around the nation, but is typically dominated by New York schools.

This year, 133 honors winners came from New York state, and 64 of them came from two high schools: the Bronx High School for Science and Manhattan’s Stuyvesant High.

By contrast, the 49 high schools in Los Angeles had only one winner: Bill Li-Chien Tsai, 18, who is enrolled in a special math and science program at Van Nuys High School.

Competitive New Yorkers “The high schools in New York are tremendously competitive, and from the chancellor (of the school district) on down to the principals and teachers, they take this very seriously,” said Dorothy Schriver, program director for Science Services in Washington, a group that runs the competition for the Westinghouse Educational Foundation.

“The New York schools encourage their students and they set them up with scientists to work in the labs. We haven’t found that attitude in California or elsewhere,” she said.

To be eligible, a student must undertake an independent research project and submit a detailed description of the project and the findings. There were more than 1,000 entries this year, Schriver said, and next week Westinghouse will announce the 40 national winners who will share in more than $89,000 in scholarship aid.

In recent years, according to contest officials, entries from California have fallen off. Last year, the state had eight honors winners, although none of the 40 national winners.

“The only reason I can give is that we have not immersed ourselves in the Westinghouse science project,” said Paul Possemato, director of the senior high division in Los Angeles. “We have not had many entrants, and some of that may be a lack of publicity for it on our part.”

In Los Angeles County, there were two honors winners from Alhambra High, a school that has regularly won the top honors in the county and state science fairs.

“We have an excellent science faculty. And the kids get a lot of support from home to produce these research papers,” said Frank Cano, school principal. “Over the last seven years, winning in these contests has become a matter of pride and tradition at our school,” he added.

Tsai, the one Los Angeles winner, lives in Northridge, but attends the math and science “magnet school” at Van Nuys High, one of three such programs in the district.

“He’s a dynamite student who has taken advantage of every opportunity,” said Carole Spence, administrator of the magnet program, noting that Tsai has taken extra classes at California State University, Northridge, has participated in Saturday science programs at Caltech in Pasadena and has attended the Thatcher summer science camp in Ojai.

Top Student Scientists California High School Finishers Westinghouse Science Scholarships and Awards Talent Search Jenny Ming-Chen Hwang, 17, Alhambra H.S., Isomerization of Phosphoenolpyruvate Carboxylase Arup Roy-Burman, 17, Alhambra H.S., Determination of the Carcinogenicity of Metal Compounds Richard Hai Dohn, 16, Savanna H.S., Anaheim, Isolation and Purification of Lactoferrin From Human Milk Gloria Jean Warthen, 18, Antioch H.S., Antioch, Will Vitamin B-12 Affect the Learning Ability of Planaria? Michael John Topolovac, 18, Torrey Pines H.S., Del Mar, Laminar Extension and Transitional Location in a Heated Boundary Layer Brett David Shurman, 17, La Jolla Country Day School, La Jolla, Subcellular Distribution and Partial Characterization of Phosphatidylinositol Phosphate Phosphatase Alan John Hu, 17, La Jolla H.S., La Jolla, Mathematical Selection of the Optimum Uniform Partition Search Hieu Duc Pham, 17, Tokay H.S., Lodi, Isolation of Histone from Chicken Erythrocytes Kenneth Hiroshi Hayashida Jr., 17, Los Alamitos H.S., Los Alamitos, Project Nitinol: Nitinol’s Properties and Applications in Outer Space William Joseph Bencze, 18, St. Francis H.S., Mountain View, Parallel Microprocessing Lance Elliot Holman, 17, Patrick Henry H.S., San Diego, Clinical Diagnosis of Hemophilia A Joan Yonat-Efrona Mathog, 18, Willow Glen H.S., San Jose, Solubility of Abiologically Produced Organic Solids in Liquid Ethane: Implications for Titan Bill Li-Chien Tsai, 18, Van Nuys H.S., Los Angeles, Minimizing the Total Drag of a Three-Dimensional Wing in Hypersonic Flow