New York sources have stated that rebellion began Indian-American teen Indrani Das on her way to the brain research that got her the quarter million dollar Regeneron Science Talent Search award for high school students. Most Indian parents want their children to become doctors, but not her parents.
Das, who calls herself a “rebel”, recalled that her parents had told her: “Whatever you do, don’t be a doctor. Don’t become a doctor, it’s long and expensive.” She said so I decided I wanted to be a doctor and that rebellious ambition led her to her medical-oriented science project. Her parents Bidyut and Tanima Das, who are from Kolkata and now live in Oradell, New Jersey, are bankers by profession. The 17 year old, who is in the final year of high school at the Academy for Medical Science Technology in Hackensack, said she wants to become a doctor who simultaneously does scientific research.
Her project on finding ways to treat damage to the brain from
injuries or disease won her the top prize earlier this month in the nation’s
foremost science contest sponsored by Regeneron and conducted by Society for
Science and the Public (SSP). Nicknamed the “Junior Nobel Prize”, the Science
Talent Search competition was originally sponsored by Westinghouse in 1942 and
Intel took it up from 1998 till last year.
Twelve of the contest alumni have won Nobel Prizes. The Indian American teens took five of the top ten awards in this year’s competition in which 1,700 high school students participated. SSP President Maya Ajmera said Das’s “dedication to making the world a better place through science whether through her research on treating brain damage or volunteer work in her community is truly inspiring”.
