Contact: Tammy Lane • First Posted: Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Several Fayette County teenagers brought home prestigious awards from the 2009 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. 

Ben Nosarzewski earned 2^nd place in physics and astronomy ($1,500 prize) and will have an asteroid named after him by the MIT Lincoln (Near Earth) Observatory. Shelly Xu placed 3^rd in animal sciences ($1,000), and Ilya Vinogradov finished 4^th in chemistry ($500). In the special awards, Ilya was awarded 1^st place in chemistry ($3,000) by the U.S. Air Force. All three are students at Paul Laurence Dunbar High School. 

Also competing during the week of May 10 in Reno, Nev., were Dunbar’s Aaron Davidson and Brian Fei, and Curtis Northcutt of Lafayette High School. 

The Intel international fair hosted students from 54 countries and all 50 United States.  Only three cities worldwide (Portland, Ore., with five; Roslyn Heights, N.Y., with four; and San Jose, Calif., with four) had more Grand Award individual winners than Lexington. Albuquerque, N.M.; New York, N.Y.; and Louisville also had three individual winners. 

The six Fayette County students had qualified for the international event by finishing as either one of the top two individuals or as the top team at either the Central Kentucky Regional Science and Engineering Fair or the State Science and Engineering Fair.