A Bellaire High School student is one of three top winners of the world’s largest pre-college science fair, the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, a program of Society for Science & the Public. Li Boynton, 17, was selected from 1,563 young scientists from 56 countries, regions and territories and received a $50,000 scholarship.
Boynton developed a biosensor from bioluminescent bacteria, a living organism that gives off light, to detect the presence of contaminants in public water. Her biosensor is cheaper and easier to use than current biosensors, and she hopes it can be used in developing countries to reduce water toxicity.
In addition to the awards that she won at last weekend’s competition, her project has earned her a trip to Anchorage, Alaska in June as a result of the 2009 Texas State Stockholm Junior Water Prize Competition, and a trip to Prague this summer.
Boynton is also an artist, and her design won the poster competition for this year’s Science and Engineering Fair of Houston. For that, she won a $1000 scholarship, and her entry will be used for the cover art for publications, programs, posters, T-shirts and buttons for the 51st Science and Engineering Fair. One of her paintings won the Houston Sister Cities Young Artist competition this spring and went to Washington to represent Houston.
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