Ann Cooper, a junior at Lafayette High School, won a second-place award and $1,500 prize at the 2008 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in Atlanta.

    Her animal sciences project was on circadian patterns of behavior in fruit flies and their modification by drugs. In layman’s terms, she looked at how drugs known to modify brain signaling pathways affect the fruit fly’s sleep and feeding behavior.

   Intel ISEF is the premier science fair in the world; each spring, more than 1,500 high school students from some 40 countries showcase their research. Participants must have won at the regional or state level to compete in the ISEF.

    Cooper’s project had won a first-place award and she won the high school division’s overall award in the Central Kentucky Regional Science Fair, held at the University of Kentucky. Her project also had won first place in animal sciences at the Kentucky Science and Engineering Fair, held at Eastern Kentucky University.