Irvine student wins $10,000 Google science award

2011-06-01 17:20:36

IRVINE If winning first prize at a schoolwide science fair seems like a big deal, then imagine how 14-year-old Nimal Subramanian felt recently when he won the People's Choice Award for the first Google Science Fair, an international competition.

As the recipient of the most of the public's online votes, Nimal won a $10,000 scholarship and is now one of the top 15 finalists before a panel of judges. The judging for the grand prize is July 11. The fair drew in about 7,500 entries that were submitted by close to 10,000 students from 90 countries.

Nimal, an eighth-grader at Rancho San Joaquin Middle School in Irvine, submitted his project "Cancerbuster" in the 13-14 age group. The project focused on whether the germination and protein content of certain seeds decreased when combined with a series of edible spices, such as pepper, cumin, ginger and hibiscus and the anti-cancer agent turmeric.

Q: How did you get the idea for this project?

A: My science teacher at school told us that this fair was going on. My mom and my family in India use a lot of the same spices in their cooking and I've never really liked them, even though my family's always telling me about how good they are for you. I wanted to do a project that would help people. There have been similar experiments published, but I used different spices in my tests.

Q: What was it like to win this award?

A: Winning this was like winning the Nobel Prize for me. It's given me the inspiration to reach new heights and I'm really encouraged now to keep trying to make the world a better place.

Q: What kind of work and time went into conducting the experiment?

A: Well, my younger sister Sraya had to wake me up about 20 minutes early before school for a week to check on the germination results, and then it took another couple of weeks to do the write-up. It didn't interfere with school or anything like that.

Q: What was your favorite part of doing the project?

A: I really liked seeing all the effects of the anti-cancer agents. I love the idea of helping people and when I get older, I plan on working on finding natural medications to help cure diseases and illnesses.

Q: What do you like to do for fun?

A: Science has always been a passion of mine, but that's not all I do. I've been in the Irvine Youth Basketball League for four years, and I'm on a swim team, too. I also really enjoy inventing stuff. Like when I was in fifth grade, I had this rolling back-pack that hurt when I carried it on my back, so I designed one where the wheels would retract when you put it on.

Q: Is there anyone who has been helping you along and mentoring you?

A: Both my parents have always been very encouraging and have taught me how to use various scientific techniques to do research. My dad is a scientist at UC Irvine in the medical department and my mom is an associate professor at Long Beach State.


To see a summary and presentation on Nimal's project, go to

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