Girls Take Top Science Honors for 1st Time

For the first time in the 9-year-old contest, high school girls have won both top honors at the Siemens Competition in science. The individual prize of $100,000 went to a Pennsylvania girl whose research into bone growth was deemed to be at graduate student level by the judges. She was proud to help reverse the male domination of math, science and computers, BusinessWeek reports.

Girls are “finally stepping up to the plate and are more than capable,” said prizewinner Isha Jain. Of the 1,641 students presenting 1,361 projects, a record 48% were female. The New York winners of a $100,000 prize wowed with research into tuberculosis; judges hailed the work, saying it “could lead to a new treatment for drug-resistant TB.” (More Siemens Competition stories.)