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Supergirly

The Winners of the Inaugural Google Science Fair Are All Awesome Young Women

by Alanna Bennett | 4:14 pm, July 12th, 2011


On July 11th, the top fifteen contestants of the first annual Google Science Fair all gathered at Google’s headquarters to compete. In all three age categories, it was intelligent young women who took home the top prizes. Lauren Hodge (Age group 13-14), Naomi Shah (Age group 15-16), and Shree Bose (Age group 17-18) all took home trophies for their entries, and Bose’s was for a breakthrough in the treatment of ovarian cancer.

Google made this statement about the girls:

The unifying elements of all three young women were their intellectual curiosity, their tenaciousness and their ambition to use science to find solutions to big problems. They examined complex problems and found both simple solutions that can be implemented by the general public—like changing your cooking habits or removing toxins from your home—as well as more complex solutions that can be addressed in labs by doctors and researchers, such as Shree’s groundbreaking discovery, which could have wider implications for cancer research.

Bose, who took home the grand prize, discovered a way to combat resistance to certain chemotherapy drugs and improve ovarian cancer treatments for women. Shah worked to prove that changes in indoor air quality can reduce reliance on asthma medications; Hodge studied the effects different marinades had on levels of harmful carcinogens in grilled chicken. All three are proof that women in the sciences can kick ass and take names.

As part of the grand prize, Shree received “a $50,000 scholarship, a trip to the Galápagos Islands with a National Geographic Explorer and aninternship at CERN,” yeah, that’s right, CERN, while Lauren and Naomi received $25,000 each in scholarship money and internships at Google and LEGO.

(via Google Blog)

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  • Anonymous

    Which one got the internship at LEGO? Because THAT’s the one I’m jealous of.

  • http://ladymercury-10.livejournal.com/ Maiasaura

    Awesome!  Girls kicking butt at science is one of my favorite things to hear about!

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_7G4SWUX2MCWWXLMYNN347JMIZY Frodo Baggins

    How this would be reported on a misogynist website:

    “Girls excel at cooking and cleaning!

    Three darling young things affirm that good housekeeping is important for a healthy family. They even won prizes for it, bless them!”

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Kristin-Frederickson/852880113 Kristin Frederickson

    I don’t think even a misogynist website could put a negative spin on a 17/18 year old discovering improved treatment for ovarian cancer. That’s pretty amazing.

  • http://anothernotebook.tumblr.com kalsangikid

    Speaking of Google, can the Mary Sue ladies add a +1 button to these things? Stuff like this is worth spreading every which way. :)

  • http://twitter.com/elizabethmarley elizabeth marley e.

    Firstly, congratulations to these young women. 

    Second, if you’re a teenager who is way into science like these girls are, how do you even get to the point where you could complete these projects? Are they large-scale? Do they have internships? Is it all just research based?

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