Congratulations to Local Essay Winner

Nancy Dougherty, third from right received recognition for her essay enabling her to attend the 5th Annual Nobel Laureate Dinner.

"Congratulations! On the basis of your essay, you have been selected to attend the Nobel Laureate Dinner on December 6, 2003."

That’s how the letter began to Nancy Dougherty, a junior at Ramona High School.

Encouraged by her science teacher, Beth Miller, Dougherty entered the essay contest. Her essay, "Confessions of a Hopeless Science Lover," was one of only 10 selected from schools around San Diego County by Biocom, the second largest life-sciences association in the United States.

Dougherty and Miller were treated to the pageantry of the fifth annual Nobel Laureate Dinner, hosted by Biocom and the Consulate of Sweden, held at the Hotel Del Coronado.

In addition to receiving recognition during the dinner from Carolyn Fritz of Dow Chemical Corporation, essay winners met Nobel Prize winners and other scientific professionals during the formal Nobel Banquet.

Highlights for Dougherty included meeting Nobel Prize winners Dr. Harry Markowitz and Dr. Kary Mullis. Markowitz shared the Alfred Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1990 and Mullis received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1993 for his contributions to the developments of methods within DNA-based chemistry.