Math Whiz Wins $100,000 Grand prize in 2005-06 Siemens Westinghouse Competition

Sixteen year old Michael Viscardi of San Diego, California, has won the $100,000 individual first place scholarship award in the prestigious Siemens Westinghouse Competition in Math, Science and Technology.

Viscardi received the award for his project "On the Solution of the Dirichlet Problem with Rational Boundary Data." Dirichlet problems are defined as a class of partial differential equation problems first proposed by the German mathematician Lejeune Dirichlet (1805-1859). Viscardi's solution has potential applications in engineering and physics.

Student scientists are certainly amateur scientists, and Viscardi's credentials as an amateur scientist are enhanced by the fact he has been home schooled since the fifth grade. Since the age of 13, his home schooling has been supplemented by math classes at the University of California at San Diego. According to reporter Diane Bell, Viscardi get a perfect score on the SAT at age 15, and he serves as concertmaster of the San Diego Youth Symphony.

Viscardi's father is a professional software engineer. His mother has a Ph.D. in neuroscience.

Each year the Siemens Foundation provides more than $1 million in college scholarships and awards to high school students in the United States. Information about other winners in the latest competition can be found at the Siemens website or by a news search.

My daughter Sarah Anna Mims was a Siemens regional finalist in 2004. Sarah entered many science competitions while in high school, and the Siemens Westinghouse competition was the most prestigious. The report Sarah prepared for the Siemens competition formed the basis for her first scientific paper.

Forrest M. Mims III