Budding US scientists, including nine Indians meet Obama

US president Barack Obama has met 40 budding high school scientists, nine of who were Indian-Americans, the highest number from any ethnic community in the country.

Chosen from more than 1,600 applicants from across the country, these 40 high school scientists are the national finalists of the 2009 Intel Science Talent Search. The winner of this programme, to be announced later this week, would receive a grand prize of USD 100,000.

"He (Obama) discussed with us, how much he values science. The first thing he said that we need science, we really need to push forward science," an ethnic Indian scientist Aditya Rajagopalan, 17, said.

From Glastonbury, Connecticut, Rajagopalan has demonstrated a more efficient and less expensive approach to make ethanol, a clean burning alternative fuel that is derived from the fermentation of sugars extracted from plant biomass.

For almost all of these high school Indian-American scientists, meeting charismatic Obama and shaking hands with him was a moment that they would forget.

The Indian Americans said soon after meeting Obama that the president believes that science is the engine of growth of the country. These students left the White House highly impressed by Obama. 

"When you compare this with some previous administration, from both parties that the US has, I think, president Obama really understand the importance of science. I am glad, he took time out of his schedule to come in and shake hands with all of us. It was an wonderful experience," said Narendra Pundrik Tallapragada, another ethnic Indian school scientist.

Tallapragada 17, of Burke, Virginia used a "bottom up" atomic level approach to develop a complete theory for the bulk electrical properties of one type of crystalline solid for his Intel Science Talent Search project in physics.

"It was so amazing that we were able to meet him and shake his hand. He seems to be really supportive of us and the science in general," said Preya Shah, 17, from Setauket, New York, who has designed and synthesized a novel tumor-targeting conjugate drug for cancer treatment. This she believes represents a new generation of chemotherapy agent.

Suvai Gunasekaran, 17, from Wisconsin, who has focused on developing new methods to inhibit bacterial bio film growth on surface of implanted medical devices, said Obama shared with them how his daughter was interested in science.

"He told us about his daughter Malia is also interested in science; what she is learning in school -- about infectious diseases. He is really interested in science and wants to help science," Gunasekaran said.

"What's cool is that Obama is really on board in terms of supporting science education," said Aniruddha Deshmukh from Cupertino, California. "He said, he's supporting policies that would increase funding towards science and education programs on a very large scale in the US That's really key," he said.

His research focuses on boosting the regrowth of California sagebrush, Artemisia californica, in order to outgrow invasive grasses following wildfires.

"When we were with the president, we shook his hand, took a few pictures and then just talked about science in general. He seems to be really interesting. (He is a very nice guy and has good sense of humor too," Rajagopalan said as he left the White House with memories of his lifetime.

All the students personally had brief conversations with Obama, but it was more of a collective discussion during the meeting. These students welcomed Obama’s decision to put USD 1 billion in the stimulus package in basic science research.

"I think, he really understands that the federal government has a role to play in funding science. The federal government should drive forward the engines of growth – that is science and research," said Tallapragada.