Winners of the first Google Science Fair (from left to right): Lauren Hodge, Shree Bose and Naomi Shah. (Courtesy of The Official Google Blog)
From NPR’s Here and Now with Robin Young
The first-ever Google Science Fair ended last month with females winning all three age categories.
The grand prize went to 17-year-old Shree Bose. The soon-to-be senior at Fort Worth Country Day School in Texas won for her groundbreaking findings into how to prevent resistance to the ovarian cancer drug Cisplatin.
Could this be a sign of the strides women have made in science and engineering?
Statistics show though they’re competing equally with men in terms of receiving science degrees, they still make up a significantly smaller percentage of the science workforce.
The key to advancement, some experts say, is what Shree Bose found in the university scientist who supervised her research: a strong mentor.
Bose told Here & Now‘s Robin Young that finding that mentor wasn’t easy.
“I was a 15-year old girl just randomly asking professors if I could work in their lab, and I got rejected,” she said. “The one who actually accepted me was a woman herself.”
Read about their winning projects here.
