There are three major awards ceremonies at each Intel ISEF: Special Awards, Government Awards, and Grand Awards. The Special Awards were announced yesterday night, and the Government Awards results were released this morning. In these ceremonies, more than seventy corporations, government agencies, colleges, and scientific societies contribute awards based on their own selection criteria.
All that remains is the climax of each Fair, the Grand Awards, where the best of the best are recognized and presented with Intel ISEF's most prestigious prizes.
This awards ceremony is broken into two main sections. The "Category" prizes are first up, with recognition for the top-placing projects, culminating with "Best in Category" awards for each of the 18 Fair research categories. Though these are all major awards on their own, the real excitement is reserved for the latter half of the ceremony when special prizes like the Seaborg SIYSS Award (an all-expense-paid trip to the Nobels in Stockholm) and the Intel Young Scientist Award (a $50,000 scholarship) are given out. These last awards are the pinnacle of research recognition for pre-college scientists and represent major milestones in their burgeoning careers.
