With 13 semifinalists, Montgomery Blair High School tied with a New York school for first place in the nation in number of students. Quince Orchard, Walt Whitman and Thomas S. Wootton high schools each had one semifinalist.

The 16 local students are among 18 finalists in Maryland, making the state second only to New York in the number of semifinalists.

Each of the 300 semifinalists will receive $1,000 in recognition of their achievements. In addition, each of the 178 schools that placed a semifinalist in the competition will receive $1,000 per semifinalist to be used for the school's science and math education programs.

The semifinalists, all high school seniors, were selected from 1,517 applications submitted from 530 high schools in 48 states, the District of Columbia, the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. The students were chosen for their creative independent research projects in all disciplines of science including chemical, physical, mathematics, engineering, social and biological. Top scientists from a variety of disciplines judge the projects for the students' research ability, scientific originality and creative thinking.

In addition to the scholarships, all semifinalists and their teachers receive certificates of merit. Science Service, which administers the program for Intel, recommends these students to select colleges and universities for admission and financial assistance.

From the semifinalists, 40 finalists to be announced on January 24 will attend the Science Talent Institute in Washington, D.C. in March for final judging for the top awards, which carry scholarships ranging from $5,000 to $100,000.

The local semifinalists are:

Montgomery Blair High School: Elizabeth Epstein, Michael Fan, Charitha Gowda, Steven Helfand, Susan Huang, Alex Khripin, Jennifer Lin, Stacey Roshan, Ashutosh Sahu, Eric Schewe, Jonathan Simon, Karoly A. Viragh and Jia Xu

Quince Orchard High School: Joshua Levy

Walt Whitman High School: Perri G. Pleeter

Thomas S. Wootton High School: Jonah D. Blasiak.