Nikhil Pradhan, a senior from Acton-Boxborough Regional High School won a bronze medal and a $1000 scholarship at the prestigious Siemens Westinghouse Competition in Math, Science & Technology. The competition recognizes remarkable talent early on, fostering individual growth for high school students who are willing to challenge themselves through science research. Through this competition, students have an opportunity to achieve national recognition for science research projects that they complete in high school.

The finalists were recognized at a ceremony held at MITon November 6th. Nikhil Pradhan won the  bronze medal for his project titled “The Thermodynamics and Kinetics of the Coil-to-Helix Transition of Polyalanine”.  Nikhil Pradhan hopes that his research might help with finding a cure for Alzheimer's disease. Using computer models that illustrated the behavior of protein chains in solution, his project studied the mechanism of how proteins form more complex structures. He found that the energy considerations in the hydrogen bonding of polyalanine are the controlling factors for overall behavior of polyalanine in its transition. His study might improve the ability to model proteins on the whole.

"This year 1,213 students entered the competition. About 257 made it to the semi finals. These semifinalists were interviewed by leading scientists and technologists at MIT and five were selected as regional finalists" said Marie Gentile, who is the Institutional Relations Director for the Siemens Foundation.

“The whole experience was very exciting for me. It was very inspiring and humbling for me to see the work of my peers who were part of this competition” says Pradhan.

What does the future hold for him? “I was always partial to the sciences. This experience gave me a greater understanding of engineering and I really love it. I hope to pursue a career in engineering” says Pradhan.

Nikhil is the son of Sangeeta and Tushar Pradhan of Boxborough, MA. “This is a great achievement for Nikhil.  I pray that he can do more in his field of interest” says Sangeeta.

Nikhil is actively involved in high school speech and debate tournaments. He enjoys baseball and basketball and has volunteered for the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life. He plans to study bioengineering and economics in college. 

Nikhil Pradhan is one of the group of  five regional finalists from the New England which included Eugene Dao from Acton-Boxborough Regional High School, Acton, MA; Krishna Gupta from Phillips Academy, Andover, MA; Shane Mulligan from Staples High School, Westport, CT and Morgan MacLeod, Greely High School, Cumberland, ME

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