Intel ISEF 2009

I'm in Reno, Nevada at the 2009 Intel ISEF to promote training and education opportunities at the NIH. Yesterday and today, the NIH group helped with judging the "Cellular and Molecular Biology" and the "Medicine and Health" categories. It has been a wonderful experience - I am amazed by the quality of research these students have completed while still in high school! I've gotten to talk to a lot of them about their projects and they are all very motivated, bright, and exciting!

I did get a kick out of walking through the exhibit hall today during the judging and seeing rows of anxious-looking young scientists waiting for their projects to be judged. What a stressful situation for them! But...when (or where) else would you get to see row after row of professional looking teenagers who may be nervous but who are also super excited to be there (not looking like someone had to drag them there)!? There are over 1,500 student finalists here!

The Grand Awards Ceremony is on Friday. I'm lucky enough to be the representative from the NIH who gets to stand up and give brief comments to the audience. The organizers expect over 4,000 people to be in attendance. I'm pretty nervous! Hopefully, I'll be able to help inspire some of these great young scientists to continue advancing their scientific knowledge...we need them to!