Tallapragada Among Intel Science Talent Search Winners

March 2009

MITRE Technical Aide, Naren Tallapragada (center), with MITRE President and CEO, Alfred Grasso (left), and Nanosystems Group Principal Scientist, James Ellenbogen, at the 2008-09 Intel Science Talent Search awards dinner. The awards ceremony took place in the Mellon Auditorium, a few blocks from the White House, and featured remarks by retired Gen. Colin Powell and Energy Secretary Steven Chu.

Naren Tallapragada believes his research into predicting the properties of bulk materials from their nanoscale building blocks could lead to better medicines, computers, and radar-evading aircraft. His top-ten finish in the 2008-09 Intel Science Talent Search (ISTS) competition suggests that Tallapragada, a technical aide in MITRE's Nanosystems Group, will have a chance to continue his work.

A 17-year-old senior at the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Annandale, Va., Tallapragada finished fourth in the nation's oldest science research competition for high school seniors. Tallapragada also received a $25,000 scholarship for his project, which is based largely on two summers of research as part of the Nanosystems Group. He accepted his honor before an audience that included his MITRE mentor, James Ellenbogen, and MITRE President and CEO, Alfred Grasso.

"This distinguished honor reflects well upon Naren's dedicated commitment to pursue a better understanding of the sciences," says Grasso. "It was truly an honor to participate, along with Dr. Ellenbogen, in the ceremonies and to see Naren receive this award. I am confident that this is one of many honors that he will receive in his career."

Tallapragada's nanotechnology research, which was sponsored by the MITRE Innovation Program (the company's internal research and development program) and a MITRE customer, involved figuring out a method to predict the electrical properties of some bulk materials from the "bottom up"-- i.e., based on the electrical properties of their atomic and molecular-scale constituents. Tallapragada's findings formed the basis of the paper he submitted to the ISTS, entitled "Determining the Dielectric Function for Crystalline Solids from the 'Bottom Up,' Using Atomic, Ionic, and Molecular Properties." This summer at MITRE, he plans to follow up on his research and prepare an article for publication in a scientific journal.

"Naren is a superbly talented young scientist and he worked very hard for two years on his project, as well as on the impressive paper about it that he entered in the contest," says Ellenbogen, senior principal scientist of MITRE's Nanosystems Group, which is based within the company's Command and Control Center. "He's very deserving of being recognized as a winner in the Intel Science Talent Search. His achievement also brought great credit to the summer student mentorship program that all the members of the MITRE community have supported so strongly for the past two decades."

The ISTS, administered by the Society for Science & the Public, began in 1942. In partnership with Westinghouse and, since 1998, with Intel, the competition gives qualified high school students a chance to present original research to nationally recognized professional scientists. Seven former ISTS finalists went on to win the Nobel Prize.

—by Russ Woolard

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