North Hollywood : Science Student Wins College Scholarship

North Hollywood High School senior Kevin Shapiro left the Westinghouse Science Talent Search in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday2 with a $1,000 scholarship toward his upcoming Harvard education.

The 17-year-old Encino resident was one of 40 scientific wunderkinds to compete in the nation’s oldest science competition, whose previous finalists include five Nobel Prize winners.

During his weeklong, all-expenses-paid trip to the capital, Kevin met congressional representatives and toured the White House. Primarily, though, he was grilled on his independent research about a parasitic bacterium whose role in the ecosystem was largely unexplored previously.