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June 11, 2004/Sivan 22 5764, Vol. 56, No. 38
Israeli teen wins science contest
AMY KAUFMAN
Portland Jewish Review
In a sea of competitors, 17-year-old Ilya Gurevich of Israel is alone in the field of theoretical physics.
All the other teenagers who competed in the physics division at this year's Intel International Science and Engineering Fair have entered projects in practical physics, Ilya says, but he stuck with the theoretical.
"The world's largest science fair," formerly known as the Westinghouse Competition, took place at multiple locations May 9-15.
Ilya recently won first prize in the Intel Israel-Bloomfield Science Museum Young Scientists Competition.
He says he was "very surprised" when he won the award for his research on the behavior and influence of small disruptions in the uniformity of the universe.
"I know it was on a very high level, but it was not practical," Ilya says.
Practical or not, Israeli scientists have chosen Ilya and Igor Kreimerman of the Israel Arts and Science Academy in Jerusalem, winner of second prize in the Israel competition, to represent Israel in the 2004 Intel competition.
Upon entering the vast hall at the Oregon Convention Center, crowded with exhibits from end to end, Ilya, on his first visit to the United States, said he hadn't expected the grand scale of the event.
About 1,300 teenagers from 40 countries competed in 15 categories for a total of $3 million in scholarships, internships and travel and equipment grants from the Intel Foundation, public and private universities and about 70 corporate, profes-sional and government sponsors. The 1,200 judges include scientists, engineers and Nobel Prize laureates.
The three winners of the grand prize, the Intel Young Scientist Award, each will receive a $50,000 scholarship and an invitation to attend the Nobel Prize ceremonies in Stockholm, Sweden.
Ilya says his project, called "Deviations from an Isotropic and Homogeneous Expansion of the Universe," defies simple explanation.
Essentially, he says, the project tries to preserve Einstein's theories with regard to the expanding universe and its impact on cosmology.
Ilya, whose father was a physicist, was 4 years old when his family moved from Leningrad to Israel. At age 5, he became interested in zoology; at age 7, his interest was astronomy. He read about Einstein's theory of relativity and cosmology at age 14 and has been fascinated by it ever since.
Science is not about reading books, Ilya says, "At some point you have to start working and thinking yourself."
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