The contest is one of America's oldest and most prestigious pre-college science competitions, often considered the "junior Nobel Prize." Created in 1942, the competition is intended to provide an incentive for students to develop their scientific interests at an early age and offer them a forum to share their ideas with other talented young scientists around the country.

More than 1,500 students applied, and Intel Corp. awarded more than $600,000 to the top 300 young scientists and their respective high schools for reaching the semifinals. Even though they recently found out they were not finalists, Hsu and Lin took home $1,000 apiece, with another $1,000 for each for Saratoga High School.

Hsu's project is entitled, "Simulated global changes after decomposition rates through species dynamics in a California grassland ecosystem." Her 20-page research paper demonstrates how temperature variations affect the rate of plant decomposition on grassland ecosystems. Hsu said she did her research at Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve in Woodside, Calif., an affiliate of Stanford.

"I've been conducting science-fair projects ever since sixth grade in Redwood Middle School, and it's grown to become a hobby," Hsu said. "I really enjoy working through the scientific method and challenging myself to understand new material."

Hsu and Lin have been longtime friendly rivals, competing against each other in many science-related activities over the years. Lin said the Intel award is his biggest win.

Lin's research was conducted at the lab of Dr. Dean Felsher, a professor at the Stanford School of Medicine, where Lin was formerly an intern and continues to volunteer. His project is titled, "Context-dependent regulation of MYC targets: the cellular basis for sustainable tumor regression."

Lin learned that MYC—a gene that causes cancer—can be turned off so that a cell stops its cancerous behavior and returns to being a normal cell. When MYC is turned back on, it still doesn't return to its cancerous behavior; instead, the cell kills itself.

"Basically, if you can inactivate the cancer gene even for a brief period of time, the gene permanently loses its effectiveness, and the cell won't become cancerous again, hence sustainable tumor regression," Lin said.

Lin's challenge was to determine why turning off the gene causes sustainable tumor regression; he was working on tumor cells harvested from sacrificed mice. Lin added that one of the most frustrating parts—in addition to the countless hours of research—was writing the 20-page research paper, since he had never composed anything that long.

"It was a good learning experience," Lin said. "I plan to keep working in the lab after school throughout my senior year. When I work in the lab, I can actually put the stuff I learn to use in a constructive way."

Hsu and Lin both entered in the Synopsys Science and Engineering Championship last year, where Hsu took grand prize. Hsu, Lin and his partner, Megan Li, also took home several awards from the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, which is not related to the talent search.

Saratoga High School Assistant Principal Karen Hyde said Hsu is amazing, managing her recent win along with serving as the school's student body president and garnering first place at the Central Coast Section golf tournament.

Academic adviser and California Scholarship Federation adviser Christy Cali said Lin has done a fantastic job as co-president of CSF, leading his peers by example.

"He is just a remarkable young man, not only in academics," Cali said. "He works hard and is diligent at his studies, and he loves to learn."