California high school student wins Intel Science Talent Search

Eric Chen, a 17-year old from California, took away $100,000 after winning the Intel Science Talent Search for his research on influenza treatment drugs.

The teenager had last year bagged the grand prize at the 2013 Google Science Fair for his work on medication to fight against all influenza viruses, including pandemic strains.

Kevin Lee, another 17-year-old took the second place for his mathematical model that would help devise treatments for arrhythmia and other heart conditions.

"We at Intel celebrate the work of these brilliant young scientists as a way to inspire the next generation to follow them with even greater energy and excitement into a life of invention and discovery," executive director of the Intel Foundation Wendy Hawkins said in a press release.

"Imagine the new technologies, solutions and devices they will bring to bear on the challenges we face. The Intel Science Talent Search finalists should inspire all of us with hope for the future."

Another 17-year-old took the third place for his research in solving a wide variety of problems in computer science, bioinformatics and computational biology.

A sum total of $630,000 was awarded to competitors from all across the US, for their research efforts across a wide range of areas from new breast cancer treatments to studies on the effects technology had on the teenage brain.

Chen, a senior at Canyon Crest Academy in San Diego, combined chemistry, biology and computer modelling to find compounds that could block an enzyme called endonuclease, which the flu virus needed to spread.

Even as he took home the grand prize at the 2013 Google Science Fair and the top individual honour at the 2013 Siemens Competition in Maths, Science and Technology, Chen said he did not to expect to come in first at the Intel competition.

''I had no idea I was going to win,'' Chen told his hometown newspaper, the San Diego Union-Tribune, after the awards were announced in Washington, D.C. ''If I had placed between fifth and 10th, I would have been incredibly happy.''

According to Chen, his interest in influenza was sparked by the 2009 outbreak of a deadly, never-before-seen virus that came to be known as ''swine flu.'' The H1N1 strain – a combination of viruses that had come from pigs, birds and humans, took a toll of 18,000 people worldwide. The first US cases were seen in San Diego and Imperial counties.