Indians staying overseas never leave a chance to impress with their pool of talent. Glorifying India’s name recently, is the teenager Indrani Das who has emerged victorious in one of the most esteemed Science competitions in the world i.e. the Regeneron Science Talent Search Competition, hailed as the ‘Junior Nobel Prize’ for science.
The 17-year-old Indian American from New Jersey was awarded $250,000 for her research on curing brain injuries and diseases. Her groundbreaking project discovered a method of enhancing the survival rate of neurons affected by injury or degenerative disease in the brain. The neuron death is a condition that occurs when cells called astrocytes react to injury by growing, dividing and reducing uptake of glutamate, which in excess is toxic to neurons.
In a very proud moment for India another student of Indian origin, Arjun Ramani secured the third placewith $150,000 and around eight Indian-origin students were among the 40 finalists, each of whom received prizes of $25,000.
It is the oldest US science competition for students and is now sponsored by the medical firm, Regeneron, in association with the Society for Science and the Public (SSP). This competition has been labeled as the “Junior Nobel Prize” because 12 of the contest alumni have gone ahead and earned the Nobel Prize. It is one of the oldest science and math competitions in the world. According to the Society for Science and the Public President Maya Ajmera the finalists “are all poised to become our future scientific leaders”.