Neil Kondamuri, 17, of Munster, has received top honors in a premier national high school science competition.
Kondamuri was named a semifinalist in the Siemens Competition in Math, Science and Technology. Siemens Competition is the nation's leading original research competition in math, science and technology for high school students and is administered annually by the College Board. A record number 1,348 projects were received and 318 were named semifinalists along with 96 students being honored as regional finalists.
Kondamuri's project originated last summer during a two-month high school honors science program at Michigan State University. Working along with mentor Zachary Huang, PhD, Kondamuri discovered new modes of learning in honey bees.
The project titled Relay Landscape Learning tracked honey bees' ability to learn navigational cues to return to a home base when released from different distances. He later submitted the project to Siemens and as a semifinalist received a $1,000 scholarship.
"I was in my room and looked online and was very excited," he said of being named among Siemens' class of 2009. "I jumped up and pumped my fists."
The son of Shaun and Padma Kondamuri, the Munster High School senior has received other honors as well. He participates in the business club DECCA. Last year he and partner Vivek Dasari received first in state for Internet marketing. As a sophomore they ranked 10th in the world in the international competition.
Kondamuri is the school's team captain for We the People. They compete at the district level on Friday and hope to advance to nationals. He's also team captain for the debate team, treasurer for student government and plays varsity tennis.
Outside of school, Kondamuri is an active member of Youth as Resources, a nonprofit organization in Gary that raises money for the impoverished. He was a panel member at an anti-poverty forum and last year helped with flood relief.
Kondamuri is applying to the University of Michigan and Stanford University to major in biology and is considering going into law or medicine.
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