Senior wins national competition in science
At age 4, Mason Hedberg took his first scientific foray, overturning rocks and examining bugs. His first science fair project, in the sixth grade, tested the best hand positions to use when swimming (answer: hands flat, fingers together).
The North Attleboro High School senior's scientific prowess gave him a national coup Tuesday. He won first place and a $100,000 scholarship in the
The news prompted cheers from classmates at his school yesterday when Principal Robert J. Gay announced the award. The school is considering a "Mason Hedberg Day" or an assembly honoring the teen's scientific feat, Gay said. He learned of the award through an e-mail from Hedberg's father, Herbert.
"I had goose bumps, and everyone that walked by the office, I was calling them in to tell them," Gay said.
The 17-year-old's winning project has a title that would boggle the minds of many adults: "An Efficient, Functional Telomerase Activity Assay." Hedberg developed a faster way of detecting potential tumor suppressors. His research was inspired by his grandmother, Mary Lou Hjerpe, who had an operation to remove a cancerous tumor from the base of her spine. She was in the audience in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday night when Intel announced that Hedberg had won first place.
In between interviews with national media yesterday at the Hilton Times Square Hotel, the teen-ager, operating on just a few hours of sleep, still could not believe it.
"It still hasn't sunk in," Hedberg said. "With the lack of sleep, I'm still in a daze."
But he was sharp in explaining his research, which concerns the enzyme telomerase, found in cancer cells. His work found a quick way to scan for telomerase inhibitors, which could kill the cancerous cells.
"It's a very new enzyme in science, and its applications and potential are still not fully understood," Hedberg said. "I thought, `What if you can get a small molecule of telomerase inhibitors that could be put into a pill that would orally administer cancer therapy?' It was pretty exciting."
Hedberg, also a swimmer and president of his school's National Honor Society, has filed paperwork to patent his find, and hopes to pursue his research next year at Brown University. He has been accepted into an eight-year program that guarantees his acceptance into Brown Medical School.
He comes from a school with a passion for science. The 1,140-student school annually sends students to the Massachusetts State Science Fair and several students attend an international fair.
"I'm not really surprised he's gotten this far," said David Vito, Hedberg's ninth-grade biology teacher who has advised him on his science projects. "Right away, I knew he was a rising star."
The science competition, formerly the Westinghouse Science Talent Search, annually draws the country's top high school minds in science. Second place went to Boris Alexeev of Athens, Ga., and third prize went to Ryna Karnik of Portland, Ore.
Five past winners of the science competition went on to win the Nobel Prize -- although, as Hedberg learned, none of the first-place winners have done so. He hopes to break that cycle.
"It would be nice," Hedberg said. "It's kind of the ultimate goal for scientists."
