我希望儿子有清晰而简单的认同，所以带他回国。

 

这不是说，我认为留在美国华人生活不好。人各有志，或者各有侧重而已。

 

最近，几个留美朋友的孩子们捷报频传。

 

鼓励美国青少年参与科学的“西屋天才奖”近年成了“Intel科学才能奖”和”“西门子科学奖”。 1968年，16岁的钱永健曾获西屋天才奖第一名。

 

2008年12月8日，西门子奖第四名是梅熊杰忞；此前2008年春，从全美一千六百人中进入Intel奖四十位决赛者之一是鲁杰明。

 

他们姓不同，英文名字也不同，但是他们中文名字的发音有意都一样，也和我儿子的名字发音一样，因为他们的父母都是科学家，他们的父亲梅林、鲁白是我二十多年的朋友。

 

我不仅为他们和他们的父母高兴，也很高兴他们的父母鼓励孩子对科学感兴趣。我比较不能赞同的是一些做科学的父母，说他们的孩子看到父母多苦，所以不做科学，转其他行业。如果孩子们对其他感兴趣而有追求，我很容易理解。说科学苦而不做，我不能理解。

 

不知道鲁杰明、梅熊杰忞最后会做哪一行，是不是真像钱永健和朱棣文一样做科学，或由科学转而领导国家能源。但他们接触过科学，也比五十年前的华人在美国有更多的发展空间。

 

我曾写文章列值得获诺贝尔奖的科学家，有些人以为我是预计。现在写朋友的孩子们，是预计、还是祝愿？我也不清楚。

 

祝福所有在海外的华人孩子们！

 

我仍认为儿子在国内成长对他更好，因为…

 

2008年12月11日

 

鲁杰明：

 

http://www.societyforscience.org/sts/67sts/finalists.asp

 

http://www.nidcr.nih.gov/Research/ResearchResults/InterviewsOHR/BenLu.htm

 

梅熊杰忞：

 

http://www.siemens-foundation.org/en/competition/390_2008_winners.htm

 

http://www.siemens-foundation.org/pool/documents/gatfinaljs.pdf

 

http://www.sinovision.net/index.php?module=news&act=details&col_id=3&news_id=62980

 

征得同意，附上欢快的父亲群发的email：

 

It was a very first step of a long march as we all know. It may help Jimmy to get in a college that he likes. Maybe you have heard this before. At most companies, "A" students work for "C" students who own the company. Anyway, here is my blog, which you may find interesting or useful.

 

Siemens Competition in Math, Science, and Technology is one of the two prestigious competitions for high school students in the US. You may have heard of Westinghouse Competition. Siemens bought Westinghouse ten years ago and started Siemens-Westinghouse Competition. At the same time, however, Intel bought Talent Search, a non-profit organization who ran the Westinghouse Competition. There was a legal battle between Siemens and Intel about which one to keep "Westinghouse" in the name. It ended up both do not use it. The two competitions are different in some aspects.

 

Siemens Competition focuses on the originality of research. Students are evaluated by his or her project report and mentor's letter of recommendation. The report and letter, however, cannot reveal any name, sex, age, geographic location of the student or highschool, institution where the project is conducted, the mentor's name, etc. Otherwise, the application is disqualified. Intel Competition, however, asks for all other information including SAT, GPA, letters from school, mentor, and teachers. Students are asked to submit essays, as well. It is more like a college application in this case. It seems fair to say that Siemens looks at creativity of science, math, or technology whereas Intel looks for well-rounded students. Siemens Competition occurs early and the results are announced in time for college application. Intel results, however, are not available until mid January, which could be too late for some colleges. Most students who participate in Siemens would submit their applications to Intel. Last, students could compete as teams (2-3 students) at Siemens, but Intel only allows individual competition.

 

This year, Siemens had 1900 applications and 1200 project entries. They were reviewed by 57 judges recruited by the College Board that also runs SAT and AP courses. More than 300 were selected as regional semi-finalists, and 90 as finalists who would six regions. The names of the winners are published in an entire-page ad in USA Today in October. Regional competitions were hosted by MIT, Carnegie Mellon, Caltech, Georgia Tech, University of Notre Dame, and University of Texas at Austin. Each region had about five individuals and five teams (that have about two or three members) to compete for one slot each to advance to the National Competition to be held next week at New York University.

 

Jimmy went to the regional final at Georgia Tech three weeks ago. Students were from duPond Manual High, Louisville, KY; Oak Ridge High, Oak Ridge, TN; Thomas Jefferson High for Science and Technology, Alexandria, VA; American Heritage School, Plantation, FL; Oak Hall School, Gainesville, FL; and North Carolina High for Science and Mathematics, Durham, NC. As many of you know, Thomas Jefferson High; Oak Ridge High, and North Carolina High are among the best high schools in the US. Kai-fu Lee (ex-CEO of Microsoft China and current CEO of Google China) graduated from Oak Ridge High. Students were asked to have a poster presentation, and a 12-minute oral presentation, both open to public. The most "grilling" event was a private 12-minute "question and answer" session that followed immediately after the oral presentation. This session was attended only by the student and judges who were Georgia Tech faculty (eleven of them!). Most students came out depressed.

 

I would not be surprised if any of the competing students was named as the winner. They were truly impressive, making me wonder what I did when I was in high school. I told Jimmy that a student from Thomas Jefferson High studying shrimp evolution would win the individual, not him. I was right on the pick of the team winner; but I was gladly wrong on the pick of the individual winner. The announcement came to my surprise and much to Jimmy's as well. He was shocked to hear his name mentioned at the award ceremony dinner. He and I had spent that afternoon in a bookstore, mentally preparing that the other kid would win. It was kind of cruel and disappointing to the rest of the kids, because only one individual and one team were selected.

 

The National Finals were held in New York this past weekend (December 5-8, 2008). Siemens treated the students well. On Friday, they had media training, being coached how to talk to reporters. They went bowling, gaming and a Broadway show. While Jimmy was having fun, I, together with his mother and Gerry (Jimmy's brother), went to visit a museum of natural history, and a number of classmates and enjoyed Chinese dinner in Flushing. The night ended for parents to join the students at the Time Square where a giant screen showed their pictures and welcome messages.

 

Saturday was for poster presentation and a lottery to decide on the sequence of presentations to compete. Sunday was dead serious. Teams presented in the morning. At lunch, the team kids were all relaxed and playing cards at the lunch table. I was more nervous than Jimmy was, apparently. He was the only individual student playing cards there. I had to tell him to get out and be ready for the first presentation in the afternoon. There were 13 judges from all across the US, each to review one project and be responsible to convince other judges how good/bad the project was. The chief judge was Dr. Joseph Taylor of Princeton, a Nobel winner. Jimmy's judge was Dr. Hermann Steller of Rockefeller University, a HHMI investigator. He has studied cell death all his life. It must be tough for Jimmy to answer Steller's questions. As with the regional, it must be extremely difficult to pick the winner. Among the six individuals, two studied math; one about optical vortices; one about machine translation of languages; and two biologists like Jimmy. It was embarrassing to say that I, a veteran scientist, was clueless in the four non-biology talks. I knew the words they sounded out and appreciated the enthusiasm of the students, but I did not know what they were saying. Sunday’s evening was for National Gala Recognition Dinner at the Liberty Science Center, Jersey City. After one day’s serious business, the students were rediscovering their childish, playing games in the science museum.

 

Monday, December 8 was the award announcement. My only hope was that Jimmy was not number 6. Being from the Southeastern Region, there was a possibility that he may be unable to win the regional at a different region such as New York where talents are enriched. Being number 6 would leave this question unsettled, I thought. There was the announcement..., beginning from the sixth place, then fifth. I heard Gerry saying, it should be "Ge-Ge (elder brother in Chinese)" now; and it was Jimmy, the 4th place winner in individuals. Gerry has this rivalry. When Jimmy was in Georgia Tech, he predicted he was not going to win. When Jimmy got into the national, Gerry predicted that he would be the last. He was wrong both times. It turned out that my concern was groundless, too. The team winner this year was also from the Southeastern Region - from North Carolina School of Math and Science.

 

A numbers of things we did not know before. To qualify for individual competition, the student needs to be a rising senior. Junior students could join a team, but one of the members needs to be a senior. So, if your kid wants to start early, s/he could team up with a senior. Second, the quality of science of teams appeared to be a bit less than that of individuals. Thus, teaming up is a good idea. Third, Siemens does not care if the mentors or coaches are the parents of the students. In fact, two teams and one individual winner were coached by their parents. So, do not be shy to coaching your kids if they are interested in science.

 

http://www.siemens-foundation.org/en/