Teen Honored for Advancing Cancer Study

RALEIGH — A North Carolina high schooler beat out 1,600 others nationwide to win a $100,000 scholarship Tuesday for developing a model she used to identify stage II colon cancer patients at a high risk for recurrence.

The model created by Shivani Sud, 17, also focused on identifying what may be the most effective drugs for treatment for those with a high risk of recurring tumors, according to organizers of the annual Intel Science Talent Search.

Sud, a senior at Jordan High School in Durham, was named the winner of the competition at an awards banquet in Washington, D.C., where 40 finalists have been showing their projects in competition for top honors.

More than 1,600 high school seniors entered the talent search with a wide range of projects, including one that identified more efficient solar cells for energy production and another that looked at the effects of a common pesticide on breast cancer and nerve cell degeneration.

The 67-year-old science search competition has previously awarded top honors to students who went on to win six Nobel Prizes, three National Medals of Science, 10 MacArthur Foundation Fellowships and two Fields Medals.