One researcher hopes to see if ammonium borane is a safer storage medium to power a hydrogen car. Another wants to find new ways to affix biological molecules, such as those in pharmaceuticals, to carbon nanotubes. It might be all in a day's work—except here the researchers are seven young women and five young men between 13 and 16 years old.
Ten students from the United States and two from South Korea have been named recipients of the inaugural CTY Cogito Research Awards from the Johns Hopkins University Center for Talented Youth.
Grants of $599 each were awarded to students or student partners who are currently in middle or high school and laid out plans to conduct research in the science, technology, engineering, or math fields.
Awardees may use their grants to purchase equipment, rent lab space, or pay for other project-related needs. Award winners will work with supervising mentors, blog about their progress on Cogito.org, and report on final results.
"Our center created the CTY Cogito Research Award to help motivated and prepared students to conduct promising research in the STEM disciplines," says Elaine Tuttle Hansen, executive director of CTY. "We congratulate the award winners for submitting proposals that demonstrated careful, high-level thinking, along with a curiosity about the world that will serve them well throughout their lives."
Cogito.org is an online resource that math- and science-minded teens can join for free that connects them with like-minded peers as well as working scientists and mathematicians.
