Robert Kao, a twelfth grade student at Thomas S. Wootton High School, received the Best in Category award in the botany category at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair last week in San Jose, Calif. In addition, two Montgomery Blair High School students took honors at the international competition.

Kao won first place in the botany competition, earning a $3,000 prize, plus an additional $5,000 as the Best in Category winner and a mobile computer for his project, "Soybean Leachate: Potential Cancer Therapeutic Agent." The project was previously a grand award winner in the senior division life sciences category at the annual Montgomery Area Science Fairs, which qualified him for participation in the international competition.

Two other local grand award winners from Montgomery County took honors in the international fair.

Rachel Maire, a junior at Montgomery Blair High School, received scholarships of at least $8,000 per year for four years to San Jose State University, College of Science and College of Engineering, for her physical sciences project, "Oxidation Improvement of Tantalum Diboride."

Blair High School senior Lora Armstrong won a $500 first award and awards of $150 and a one-year AWG membership from the American Geological Institute for her physical sciences project, "Distribution of K, Al and Si Between Aqueous Fluids and Silicate Melts in the Earth's Upper Mantle."

The awards were presented by Science Service in partnership with Intel. Winners were students in ninth through twelfth grade who had previously won top prize at a local, regional, state or national science fair.