February 26, 2007

National Organization of Top High School Students to Convene at UCSB and Meet Nobel Laureate

Carla Maxwell Ray

A total of 500 of the nation's brightest high school students and their parents are expected to gather at UC Santa Barbara on Saturday, March 3 at 2 p.m. in Corwin Pavillion to attend a "celebration of academic achievement" sponsored by the National Society of High School Scholars (NSHSS).

Claes Nobel, a senior member of the Nobel family and chair of the NSHSS, will be the keynote speaker for the event.

The program will introduce top students to the campus, include inspirational presentations by UCSB Chancellor Henry T. Yang and UCSB Professor Herbert Kroemer, winner of the 2000 Nobel Prize in physics, and recognize NSHSS scholarship recipients and educators of distinction.

Kroemer, who holds the Donald W. Whittier Chair in Electrical Engineering, is widely known for developing semiconductor heterostructures used in high-speed and opto-electronics -- the pioneering research for which he shared the Nobel Prize.

Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) will receive the Claes Nobel Award for Excellence in recognition of its generous scholarship support for outstanding members of NSHSS.

Gus Siekierka, CSC corporate vice president for human resources, will accept the award.

Claes Nobel, a native of Sweden, has continued his family's legacy of recognizing and rewarding outstanding achievement as the founder of the National Society of High School Scholars.

The NSHSS is a member-based student organization.

Its mission is to recognize academic excellence among high school students and to encourage members to apply their unique talents, vision, and potential for the betterment of themselves and the world.

The organization is designed to connect young scholars with each other and to resources that will help them succeed.

About UC Santa Barbara

The University of California, Santa Barbara is a leading research institution that also provides a comprehensive liberal arts learning experience. Our academic community of faculty, students, and staff is characterized by a culture of interdisciplinary collaboration that is responsive to the needs of our multicultural and global society. All of this takes place within a living and learning environment like no other, as we draw inspiration from the beauty and resources of our extraordinary location at the edge of the Pacific Ocean.