Five San Jose students among finalists for ‘Junior Nobel Prizes’
Five San Jose students are among the 40 finalists in the Regeneron Science Talent Search, a prestigious national contest sometimes called the Junior Nobel Prizes.
The competition previously was sponsored by Intel. The finalists, all high school seniors, include Rohan Mehrotra and Advait Patil, both of Lynbrook High in San Jose; Rajiv Movva and Justin Xie, both of the Harker School in San Jose; and Teja Veeramacheneni of Archbishop Mitty High in San Jose.
The finalists will compete in Washington, D.C., in March for top prizes, which range from $40,000 for 10th place to $250,000 for first place. Each of the other 30 finalists will receive $25,000.
The seven finalists from California are the largest state contingent in the contest, which previously was dominated by elite East Coast schools. In recent years, Bay Area students have annually finished in the top ranks of the contest.
The finalists were chosen from among 300 semifinalists, dubbed “scholars,” who advanced from 1,818 applicants. Each scholar and their school were each awarded $2,000.
The Society for Science & the Public founded the Science Talent Search in 1942. It was first sponsored by Westinghouse, then for nearly two decades by Intel. New York-based Regeneron Pharmaceuticals took over sponsorship in 2016. To see the list of all 40 finalists, go to www.mercurynews.com/ education.