NOAA PRESENTS AWARDS TO THREE STUDENTS
AT 2006 INTEL INTERNATIONAL SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING FAIR

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration presented special awards to three students whose outstanding projects further our understanding of Earth’s systems as part of the 2006 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in Indianapolis last month.

The “Taking the Pulse of the Planet” awards were sponsored by NOAA’s Office of Education, and designed to recognize the importance of the U.S.-led initiative to develop a global Earth Observation System.

The Intel fair is the preeminent science venue for pre-college students from around the world. Student finalists have gone through a rigorous competition to qualify and have won an all-expense paid trip to the event.

The recipients of the NOAA awards were judged to have created projects of the highest quality and relevance to NOAA science. The 2006 recipients and their award-winning projects are:

The winning students will have the opportunity to participate in NOAA research with a paid summer internship at a NOAA research laboratory, a paid research experience on a NOAA ship at sea, or a paid research field experience at a NOAA National Marine Sanctuary. Additionally, the students each receive a certificate signed by retired Navy Vice Admiral Conrad C. Lautenbacher Jr., under secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and NOAA administrator, and an engraved plaque.

NOAA’s award judges were George Sharman from the NOAA’s National Geophysical Data Center, Margaret McCalla from the Office of the Federal Coordinator for Meteorology, and Steve Gittings from NOAA’s National Marine Sanctuary Program.

This was the second year that NOAA offered an award at the Intel fair. Last year’s award winner, Ryan Reynolds Neely from Durham, North Carolina, will be an intern this summer with the Global Monitoring Division of NOAA’s Earth System Research Laboratory in Boulder, Colorado.

NOAA, an agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce, is dedicated to enhancing economic security and national safety through the prediction and research of weather and climate-related events and providing environmental stewardship of the nation's coastal and marine resources. Through the emerging Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS), NOAA is working with its federal partners, more than 60 countries and the European Commission to develop a global network that is as integrated as the planet it observes, predicts and protects.