Philip Vidal Streich

Philip Vidal Streich, a 17-year-old student and young scientist from Platteville, Wisconsin, won the Intel Foundation Young Scientist 2007 Award for his research contradicting a general assumption that carbon nanotubes were insoluble. For his scientific achievements, Philip was also named a 2008 Davidson Fellow Laureate and a 2008 WiSys Innovative Scholar of the Year.

cientific Research¹

Philip proved that carbon nanotubes, among the strongest and most conductive materials in the world, are thermodynamically soluble,contradicting the generally held assumption that they were universally insoluble. Using the Debye light scattering theory, Philip determined the Flory-Huggins parameter to calculate solubility. To accurately detect the light scattered, he designed and custom built, out of spare parts in the lab, a unique photon-counting spectrometer, more sensitive and precise than any commercially available.

His research has been published in Advanced Materials and written about in the “Editor’s Choice” section of Science. Recently, Philip co-founded Graphene Solutions to sell the instrument and solvents he discovered which have patents pending; his company won the 2008 Wisconsin Governor’s Business Plan top award.

Philip continues to conduct research at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville chemistry laboratories, under the direction of Dr. James P. Hamilton.

Streich’s work has broad applications in the field of nanoscience.

Biography¹

Born in Princeton, New Jersey, Philip currently lives on a farm in rural southwest Wisconsin where he is homeschooled, and his family grows corn and soybeans while raising sheep, chickens and heifers. When he was 14, Philip began taking courses at the University of Wisconsin in Platteville where he was introduced to scientific research. Since then, he has taken undergraduate and graduate courses in science, math, history and German.

Philip has also been active in politics since he was 13. For the past two years, Philip has served as the elected Treasurer of the Democratic Party of Grant County. He was elected President of the Platteville Youth Commission three years in a row and interned at the State Capitol.

Additional Awards

Philip has so far won scholarships and monetary awards totaling over $150,000. He was one of three students to win the top prize of a $50,000 Scholarship at the 2007 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF). The competition involves three to five million students participating at local levels and over 1,500 projects from 52 nations proceeding to the International Fair. Streich also won special awards from government organizations and private companies, including a trip to China, adding up to a record number of 11 awards. At the 2008 International Science and Engineering Fair Philip won 7 awards for his continued research on solubility.

A member of the U.S. Physics Olympiad team in 2007, Philip also won the National Physics Bowl two years in a row and was a 2006 U.S. Chemistry Olympiad finalist.

References

* [http://presskit.ditd.org/2008_Davidson_Fellows_Press_Kit/2008_DFL_%20Philip_Streich.pdf 1. Davidson Fellows Biography]
* [http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=756845 2. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Article - Graphene Solutions]
* [http://www.intel.com/education/ISEF/2007winners.htm 3. Intel Site]
* [http://www.cogito.org/Interviews/InterviewsDetail.aspx?ContentID=16697 4. An Interview with Philip Streich at Cogito.org]
* [http://www.sciserv.org/isef/results/gao07.pdf 5. ISEF 07 Awards]
* [http://www.google.com/search?q=philip+streich&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a 6. "Philip Streich" Google Search Results]
* [http://www.aapt.org/olympiad2007/bio.cfm?StudentID=718 7. Streich's US Physics Team Biography]