Saratoga High School student Alissa Zhang is among 40 finalists who have been selected across the country in the 2012 Intel Science Talent Search.
Alissa was one of 1,839 high school seniors throughout the country that entered the competition, which was then , and now just 40 students remain.
Alissa was also among a pool of 29 Bay Area seniors who were semifinalists in the prestigious competition, equated to a youth winning the Nobel prize for science.
She competed against 271 other semifinalists from schools in 44 states, Washington, D.C. and three schools overseas.
Alissa is being recognized for a project about the molecular fingerprinting of glucose with Raman and SERS for noninvasive diabetes monitoring, said Board of Education president Cynthia Chang.
"We are very proud of the talents and achievements of all of our students across the district and Alissa is an outstanding student," Chang said, adding that the student's work recognized by Intel was impressive and worthy of the honor.
"It’s reflective of an outstanding educational climate that fosters innovation and exploration and promotes excellence for all students. We wish Alissa congratulations and continued success!" she said.
Alissa is now headed to Washington, D.C. March 8-13 to compete for more than $630,000 in awards provided by the Intel Foundation. The top winner receives a scholarship valued at $100,000, said Mark Pettinger, a spokesman for the Intel competition.
Alissa is among three Bay Area high school students who have also been named as finalists. She will be honored at Saratoga High School, 20300 Herriman Ave., in Saratoga at 10 a.m.
Saurabh Sharan will be honored at Bellarmine College Prep at 960 W. Hedding St. in San Jose at 12:15 p.m. Media are advised to meet in the school amphiteater at noon.
The third student, Jin Pan, will be recognized at Gunn High School at 780 Arastradero Ave. in Palo Alto at 2 p.m. Media should head to the main office by 1:45 p.m.
The semifinalists received $1,000 checks from Intel.
—Bay City News Service contributed to this report
