For Immediate Release:
[threecol_one]Contact:[/threecol_one] [threecol_one]Bob Wisner, Fair Director860.395.8825 (cell)
director@ctsciencefair.org[/threecol_one] [threecol_one_last]Karen Cohen, Media
860.455.6459 (cell) or 860.228.5188 (office)
media@ctsciencefair.org[/threecol_one_last] Governor Malloy Addresses Science Fair Winners
Top Winners Announced at 63rd Annual Connecticut Science Fair
HAMDEN, Conn., March 19, 2011 – Governor Dannel P. Malloy was among the speakers at today’s award ceremony for the 63rd Annual Connecticut Science Fair (CSF). Nearly 500 students participated in this year’s event; of those, an estimated 150 finalists, their families and award sponsors attended today’s award ceremony, making the total attendance at the ceremony around 500 people.
“Being here today renews one’s faith in our possibility in Connecticut,” Malloy told the audience. “The young people in our midst are capable of great things. They have put together outstanding projects and research that may one-day solve problems in our society ranging from breast cancer to our dependence on foreign energy sources. They are already working toward solutions to the great questions the world must solve in the next generation.
“If you believe every headline in the newspapers, you’d think that our great days as a state and a nation are behind us — that could not be further from the truth,” he said. “We need to celebrate our greatness. These students who put together these projects and conducted the research behind them have been guided by great faculty at our schools and by their families. They are very impressive indeed. They need to understand how important they are. They need to understand that we know they have the capability to build up our state, either in companies that currently exist or in those that are not yet in existence. Connecticut has been a leader since the Revolutionary War. . . we can be a leader again. All are capable of greatness, and some are called to even more greatness. I’m happy to be here today to celebrate your success.”
This year, a record 70 energy-related projects were entered in the fair. Some investigated revolutionary concepts. For example, one student built a wind turbine that does not have blades; instead, it utilizes a turbine invented 100 years ago by the great genius, Nikola Tesla. Another used algae to create bio-fuels. Yet another project proposed using a kite that flies autonomously at high altitudes and acts as a wind-power generator to replace ground-based wind turbines.
Five top winners from the CSF will represent the state and vie for more than $5 million in cash and scholarships at the 2011 Intel International Science & Engineering Fair, the world’s largest pre-college science fair, being held May 8-13 in Los Angeles, Calif., and the International Sustainable World Energy, Engineering & Environment Project Olympiad (I-SWEEEP), May 4-9 in Houston, Texas. This year, for the first time, several top winners will receive an expense-paid trip to compete in the GENIUS Olympiad, a new international science competition focusing on global environmental issues that will be held at the State University of New York in Oswego, New York, June 26-30. The top four middle school winners will receive invitations to submit their work to compete in the nationwide Broadcom MASTERSTM (Math, Applied Science, Technology and Engineering for Rising Stars) Competition, a program of Society for Science & the Public.
The top two finalists from the Grade 9-12 Pfizer Life Sciences and Dominion Physical Sciences categories and a top finalist from the Alexion Biotechnology category who will compete at to the ISEF are: