Photo courtesy of Kettner Griswold.

Senior Kettner Griswold won a semifinalist award from the Intel Science Talent Search Jan. 13. Out of over 1,700 students who entered the contest, only 300 were named semifinalists, 15 of which attend MCPS schools.

Griswold will receive a $1,000 scholarship and Whitman will receive $1,000 from Intel. Finalists compete for a full-ride scholarship.

“I designed my own experiment,” Griswold said. “It was my idea. I spent some time during lunch reading science journal articles. I came up with some crazy ideas and this one stuck.”

Griswold applied to the J. Craig Venter Institute last year for an internship to conduct research for the project, entitled “ATP Production by Electromagnetic Induction in Bacterial Nanowires, A Novel Method of Photosynthesis?” He spent time in their laboratories in Rockville last school year. Later, he accepted a job at their laboratories in La Jolla, California, where he paid rent and biked to work over the summer.

“I think [the project] makes school easier to deal with,” he said. “Having a creative outlet helps me pay attention in class. Additionally, it looks great to colleges. If you’re interested in science and technology this is a great thing to do.”

After 18 months of primary research, Griswold submitted a 20-page report to Intel in November.

“I found that ATP production directly correlated to the amount of light applied on bacterial colonies,” he said. “This might constitute a new form of photosynthesis.”