WOODBURY, Minn. -- The sun shone brilliantly as the students spread out across the high school football field with protractors in hand.
Wearing shorts and short-sleeved shirts, their task was to estimate the height of the stadium lights as part of a physics class experiment, the type of work that's right up the alley of Woodbury senior Prithwis Mukhopadhyay.
"I'm very much interested in becoming a doctor/cancer researcher," says Prithwis. "It's one of my great passions."
Number 1 in his class of 443, Prithwis carries a 4.353 GPA, has taken almost every AP course offered at Woodbury, has completed the Talented Youth Mathematicians program at the U of M, and is the first ever 4-time Minnesota Scholar of Distinction in math and science, a distinction Prithwis credits to the help he's received from the staff at Woodbury Senior High.
"Any time I just say I need some help I'll not only not be refused, teachers will go out of the way and help me out," says Prithwis.
Something must have rubbed off because Prithwis has gone out of his way when it comes to science research.
"My summer vacations were spent at the University of Illinois doing these research projects," says Prithwis.
These research projects were conducted at the University of Illinois at Chicago where Prithwis studied the potential effect on the body of a certain food additive.
"I saw that this food additive may have carcinogenic potential and I developed a mechanism of how this food additive may lead to these adverse effects."
The chemical in question is called Carrageenan, which is FDA approved. But based on his work, Prithwis says that may be worth re-visiting.
"Especially since cancer is one the highest causes of death in our time I think it's something that we should really reconsider."
As a result of his on-going research, Prithwis has received numerous awards and honors.
The BioGENEius Challenge awards were presented by former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, while the Discovery Channel's Young Scientist Challenge earned him a trip to the White House and an audience with President Obama.
Says Prithwis, "He was like, OK, so by 5 o'clock I expect everyone of you to invent something that will change the world and so, it was great to see that sense of humor with him and it wasn't all serious and everything so it was great."
A Coca-Cola Scholar, Davidson Fellow, and Intel Science and Engineering Fair Finalist, Prithwis even has a minor planet named after him through the MIT Excellence Award.
But, perhaps the most exciting aspect of his work is the possibility of working in the future with the other young scientists he's met along the way.
Says Prithwis, "Knowing that we may be able to do some type of research that the world could benefit from, it's just great."
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