Hillary Diane Andales, the grand-prize winner in the third Breakthrough Junior Challenge, pays a courtesy call on Science Secretary Fortunato T. de la Peña.
The Grade 12 student of the Philippine Science High School-Eastern Visayas Campus in Palo, Leyte, bagged the award on December 3 at the National Aeronautics and Apace Administration Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, California. She received a $250,000 (P12,670,000) college scholarship, as well as a $50,000 (P2,530,000) prize for her science teacher, and a $100,000 (P5,069,000) new science laboratory from the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory for her school.
She won for her entry that explained the concept of relativity and the equivalence of reference frame.
A finalist for two consecutive years, Andales this time bested more than 10,000 students from 178 countries.