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President Obama Welcomes Science Fair Winners to Oval Office

October 4, 2011 at 2:00 PM ET by Lauren Andersen
Summary: 
In keeping with his promise to honor the winners of science competitions as much as those who win sports championships, President Obama welcomed the winners of the first-ever Google Science Fair to the Oval Office yesterday.
President Obama Congratulates Google Science Fair Winners

President Barack Obama congratulates Google Science Fair winners, from left, Naomi Shah, Shree Bose, and Lauren Hodge in the Oval Office, Oct. 3, 2011. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

In keeping with his promise to honor the winners of science competitions as much as those who win sports championships, President Obama welcomed the winners of the first-ever Google Science Fair to the Oval Office yesterday.

The winners, three young women from the United States, bested roughly 10,000 competitors from 90 different countries to earn top accolades from a judging panel of acclaimed scientists. Their victories represent the impressive accomplishments that students – including girls and underrepresented groups – can achieve in science, technology, engineering, and math subjects when given the tools and support they need to succeed.

In their meeting with the President, the winners described their hopes of earning advanced degrees in the sciences and making that research relevant to the lives of others in their communities.

The winners of competition are:

  • Shree Bose, 17 (Winner age 17-18 category, Grand-prize winner), from Ft. Worth, TX, discovered a way to improve ovarian cancer treatment for patients who have built up a resistance to certain chemotherapy drugs.
     
  • Naomi Shah, 16 (Winner age 15-16 category) from Portland, OR, demonstrated that making changes to indoor environments can improve indoor air quality and reduce reliance on asthma medications.
     
  • Lauren Hodge, 14 (Winner age 13-14 category) from York, Pennsylvania, tested the effect of different marinades on the level of potentially harmful carcinogens in grilled chicken.

Congrats to them all!