Alumni, Broadcom MASTERS, Intel ISEF, Intel 鶹
Society Alumni Receive 2012 Davidson Fellows Scholarships
Twelve of the 22 young people recognized at an October 4th reception honoring the 2012 Davidson Fellows Scholarship recipients were alumni of 鶹 & the Public educational programs.
The provide awards in the amounts of $10,000; $25,000, or $50,000 to young people 18 and under in the 鶹 (science, technology, engineering, and math) fields as well as literature, music, and philosophy. Since the scholarship fund’s creation in 2001, almost $5 million has been provided to 206 Fellows. Bob Davidson, who co-founded the with his wife Jan, presented the awards to each student and said of the group as a whole, “Individuals with extraordinary talent, when supported and encouraged, can do great things.”
Each honoree had the option to give a short speech and several Society alumni took this opportunity. Saumil Bandyopadhyay ($10,000) described his physics project and his plans to use the scholarship to pursue a degree in electrical engineering next year when he attends college. Stan Chen ($10,000), now at Harvard, won the award for his project on grid graphs and spoke about his love of the “sleek minimalistic beauty of mathematics.”
Vaishnavi Rao ($10,000), now a senior in high school, talked about how her interest in the brain had begun in the 7th grade and continues to this day, while Naomi Shah ($25,000) discussed her plans to use the scholarship to continue her focus on environmental health research. Naomi, a high school senior, has conducted research on indoor air quality and asthmatics. She hopes to be able to “solve problems from the root, rather than treat symptoms alone.” Sara Volz ($50,000) joked about being “colloquially known as Algae Girl” for her research on using algae as biofuel. Her goal is to become a biochemistry researcher and professor, and in her quest to do so has “turned my room into a quasi-lab and adjusted my sleep cycles to the algae light/dark growth cycle.”
The full list of Society alumni honored includes:
Intel Science Talent Search 2012 finalists:
- Sitan “Stan” Chen
- David Ding
- Philip “Cody” He
- Xiaoyu He
Intel Science Talent Search 2012 semifinalists:
- Duligur Ibeling
Intel Science Talent Search 2011 finalists:
- Bryan He
Intel International Science and Engineering Fair 2012 finalists:
- Saumil Bandyopadhyay (also Intel ISEF 2010 and Middle School Program 2008)
- Ryota Ishizuka (also 鶹 2012 Semifinalist and Intel ISEF 2011)
- Nina Lu
- Naomi Shah (also Intel ISEF 2011, Intel ISEF 2010, and Discovery Channel Young Scientist Challenge 2007)
- Sara Volz (also Intel ISEF 2011, Middle School Program 2008, and Discovery Channel Young Scientist Challenge 2007)
Intel International Science and Engineering Fair 2011 finalists:
- Vaishnavi Rao
Congratulations to all of the 2012 Davidson Fellows!


