NEWS RELEASE
August 20
11

Contact Information:
Tacie Moessner, Davidson Institute
tmoessner@davidsongifted.org, 775-852-3483 ext. 423 (PT)


TALENTED YOUTH EMBRACE CHALLENGE TO EXCEL

18 Students Named 2011 Davidson Fellows and
Receive $50,000, $25,000 and $10,000 Scholarships

(Washington, D.C.) – Producing highly-qualified professionals, including scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs is critical to maintaining economic productivity in the United States. Public discourse on our nation’s competitiveness tends to focus on the needs of low-performing students. As important to our country’s future success are the most capable of students, who are reaching high levels of academic excellence and deserve support. 

Among these high achievers, 18 bright young people named as 2011 Davidson Fellows exemplify the extraordinary work that can be accomplished by U.S. students who are given opportunities to excel.

The Davidson Fellows Scholarship program has provided nearly $4.5 million in scholarship funds to 184 Fellows since its inception. Earlier this year, the program was named one of the most prestigious undergraduate scholarships by U.S. News & World Report.

From working with a natural dietary supplement to test its effectiveness in treating cardiovascular diseases, to creating a method for emotion detection by computers, and developing an algorithm that automates the diagnosis of bladder cancer, the accomplishments of the 2011 Davidson Fellows, who range in age from 14 to 17, are a testament to effective teaching and mentoring, supportive families and individual determination.

Based on their achievements in the fields of science, technology, mathematics, music and literature, these 18 students will receive $50,000, $25,000 and $10,000 scholarships from the Davidson Institute for Talent Development, a national non-profit organization headquartered in Reno, Nev. that supports profoundly gifted youth.

“The Davidson Institute is built on the belief that individuals, who have extraordinary intelligence and talents, when encouraged and supported, can improve the quality of life for us all,” said Bob Davidson, co-founder of the Davidson Institute. “We are delighted to recognize this group of resourceful and distinguished young people for their fascinating projects – projects that have the potential to benefit society."

The 2011 Davidson Fellows have accomplished important work in a variety of subjects, such as:

  • Creating an economically efficient and functional humanoid robot;

  • Examining the progression of musical performance preparation; 

  • Designing a seismo-acoustic method for detecting landmines;

  • Establishing the first nontrivial analytic lower bounds for odd perfect numbers; and,

  • Developing a predictive model to detect adolescent depression.

“Davidson Fellows, who are on the cutting edge of science, mathematics and technology, and at the forefront of music and literature, demonstrate the potential of America's next generation of innovative leaders,” said Jan Davidson, Ph.D., co-founder of the Davidson Institute. “We applaud the tenacity of these gifted youth who embrace the challenge to succeed.” 

About the Davidson Institute
Founded by Bob and Jan Davidson in 1999, the Davidson Institute for Talent Development recognizes, nurtures and supports profoundly intelligent young people, and provides opportunities for them to develop their talents to make a positive difference. The Institute offers support through a number of programs and services, including the Davidson Fellows program and The Davidson Academy. For more information about the 2011 Davidson Fellows, please visit www.DavidsonGifted.org/Fellows.

2011 Davidson Fellow Laureate

$50,000 Scholarship

  • Miss Simone Porter, 14, Seattle, Wash.; Performance as Soundtrack of Process and Identity

2011 Davidson Fellows

$25,000 Scholarships

  • Mr. Arjun Aggarwal, 16, Columbia, S.C.; GNUT III an A.I.R.V.I.S. (Anthropometric Interactive Robot With Vision Intelligence and Speech)
  • Mr. Matthew Bauerle, 16, Fenton, Mich.; Reformulating the Newton Direction Computation as a Linear Least Squares Problem for Smoothed Overdetermined l1 Functions
  • Miss Marian Bechtel, 16, Lancaster, Pa.; A Stand-Off Seismo-Acoustic Method for Humanitarian Demining
  • Mr. Benjamin Clark, 15, Lancaster, Pa.; The Close Binary Fraction: A Bayesian Analysis of SDSS M Dwarf Spectra
  • Mr. Siddhartha Jena, 17, Bloomfield Hills, Mich.; Erythrocyte Dysfunction and Amelioration in Hypercholesterolemic Conditions
  • Miss Arianna Körting, 16, Gates Mills, Ohio; Celebration of Life Through the Piano
  • Mr. Caleb Kumar, 15, Blaine, Minn.; Designing a Java Program to Diagnose Bladder Cancer
  • Mr. Sunil Pai, 17, Houston, Texas; A Novel, Inexpensive, Nanotechnology-Based Approach to Determine Quantum Energies of Superoxide
  • Miss Lucy Wang, 17, Garnet Valley, Pa.; Predicting Adolescent Depression: A Secondary Analysis of Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance Survey

$10,000 Scholarships

  • Miss Cheenar Banerjee, 16, Rochester, Minn.; Artificial Emotion: A Novel Way of Emotion Recognition for Affective Computing
  • Miss Rebecca Chen, 16, Carmel, Ind.; Generalized Yang-Baxter Equations and Braiding Quantum Gates
  • Mr. Jayanth Krishnan, 17, Mahopac, N.Y.; Regulatory Signatures of Cancer Cell Lines Inferred from Expression Data
  • Miss Bonnie Nortz, 17, Fairport, N.Y.; Run and Run and Run
  • Mr. Anirudh Prabhu, 16, West Lafayette, Ind.; Lower Bounds for Odd Perfect Numbers
  • Miss Shalini Ramanan, 17, Richland, Wash.; Inhibition of Vascular Cell Migration by Bisdemethoxycurcumin: A Bioinformatics Based Approach to Identify Target Genes
  • Mr. Raja Selvakumar, 15, Alpharetta, Ga.; The Implementation of a GastroMicrobial Fuel Cell in Capsular Nanorobotics
  • Mr. Reylon Yount, 16, San Francisco, Calif.; The Second Silk Road: Bridging East and West Through Chinese Music

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Click here to visit the Davidson Fellows Press Room.

 

Davidson Institute for Talent Development
9665 Gateway Drive, Suite B
Reno, Nevada 89521
775-852-3483
Fax: 775-852-2184
www.DavidsonGifted.org