Raghavendra Ramachanderan (17), who recently completed his class XII school-leaving exam from the CBSE-affiliated St. John’s International Residential School in Chennai, won the ‘Best of Category’ award for chemistry ($3000) and the SIYSS Dudley Herschbach award for the third best project worldwide at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) 2012 — the world’s largest high school science research compet-ition — held in Pittsburg, USA between May 13-18.
The SIYSS award entitles Raghav-endra to an all-expenses paid trip to Sweden to participate in the world’s largest youth science seminar, and includes an invitation to the Nobel prize ceremony in Stockholm in December this year. He was among six students chosen to represent India at ISEF 2012 in which 1,500 young scientists from 446 affiliated science fairs in 68 countries worldwide, competed for top honours.
For Raghavendra, the ‘Best of Category’ chemistry award is a second; his first win was for a project on drug synthesis at ISEF 2011. However, he is the first Indian student to get the Dudley Herschback award. His latest groundbreaking project enables energy conservation through the use of visible light de-oxygenation — a process by which oxygen atoms are removed from alcoholic substrates.
“Most fuels when burnt are oxidised into low energy compounds. My process uses sunlight to convert them back into high energy compounds. Given that sunlight is abundant in India and all reaction components in my experiment are reusable, the project has immense potential,” he explains.
A voracious reader of science books and journals, Raghavendra who is based in Bangalore but completed schooling in Chennai, discovered his passion for chemistry when he was in class IX, and took a gap year after his class X boards to work on chemistry projects. When he rejoined school for higher secondary education, he simultaneously pursued research at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore for a few months and in August 2011, as a class XII student, began working on his prize-winning project at the University of Regensburg in Germany.
Two years of strategic research and hard work has paid off. He has been recently selected by the Google Science Fair as one of 15 worldwide finalists, with the final event to be held at Google headquarters in California on July 23.
Adept at combining formal study with intensive research, Raghavendra has his future mapped out. “I plan to complete an undergraduate programme in chem-istry parallely with a Masters in biochemistry in an accelerated prog-ramme of the University of Regensburg within two years, and pursue research as a career. It’s what I do best,” says this brilliant young scientist who is clearly set to go places.
Hemalatha Raghupathi (Chennai)
Ankita Sehgal
Even as the London Olympics 2012 are about to begin, Ankita Sehgal (17), a class XI student of Delhi’s Ahlcon International School, is prep-aring for the Rio de Janeiro Olympics 2016. In January this year, she qualified for inclusion in the national squad for the 10-metre rifle shooting event. “Henceforth, in all international champi-onships in which India participates, I will be called in my capacity as a top-ranked sharpshooter,” she says.
Ankita attributes her rise to national status to her first coach Sapna, a former state-level markswoman. “My first coach was amazing and she taught me the basics so well that whatever I have achieved or will achieve, I owe to her,” she recalls. Entering competitive shooting in 2009 when she was in class IX, Ankita participated in local tourn-aments with excellent results, securing a gold medal in the Delhi state championships in 2010 followed by a silver in the open Delhi state inter-school shooting championship.
She also qualified for the Manav Rachna open shooting championship and repres-ented Delhi in the National Shooting championships from 2009-2011. Last year, she made the cut in two Asian Games qualification trials and the nationals in October 2011 before being invited to join the national squad early this year.
The only child of her parents — Surjeet Kumar, director of Sehgal Glowvision Pvt. Ltd, and homemaker mother Sujata — Ankita credits them for encouraging her in her chosen sport. “It was easy for me as my parents backed me at every turn and bought equipment worth Rs.2 lakh for me,” she says.
According to Ankita, her success in competitive shooting has improved her academic grades. “I was an average student, lazy and often left things to the last minute. But now I am more focused, regular with my studies and with improved concentration levels, I fared better than expected in my class X boards,” she says. Her routine comprises training and target practice for at least an hour daily and three-four hours on weekends.
Professionally, Ankita’s affinity lies with medical studies and she hopes to qualify as a cardiac surgeon. “I have been able to strike a balance between academics and sport, so I think even if I become a champion, I will make sure I complete my education,” she says. Preparation for the Asian Games 2014 and Olympics 2016 is right now her top priority.
Autar Nehru (Delhi)