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Pranav Sivakumar is an American speller and amateur researcher. In 2013, he finished second in the 86th Scripps National Spelling Bee, finished second in the Illinois State Geography Bee, and was named a Siemens Competition National Semifinalist. [1] [2] [3] His National Spelling Bee achievements earned him recognition by Pat Quinn, who declared June 8, 2014 "Pranav Sivakumar Day." [4] In 2014 he was admitted as a student at the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy, where he graduated in 2017. He currently attends UC Berkeley. He was the first person to be a Google Science Fair Global Finalist twice and won the Virgin Galactic Pioneer Award in 2015. [5] [6] Pranav was mentioned in President Barack Obama's speech at the White House Astronomy Night. [7] Sivakumar was named the $20,000 individual winner of the 2016 Siemens Competition National Finals. [8]
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Sivakumar's aspirations to learn more about astronomy started when he found an encyclopedia on famous scientists lying around the house when he was six years old. Since then, his parents made an hour commute every weekend to drive him to an astrophysics lab where he could attend the 'Ask-A-Scientist' class. Many years later, he teamed up with scientists he met there to study the gravitational lensing of quasars. [9]
A spelling bee is a competition in which contestants are asked to spell a broad selection of words, usually with a varying degree of difficulty. To compete, contestants must memorize the spellings of words as written in dictionaries, and recite them accordingly.
The Scripps National Spelling Bee is an annual spelling bee held in the United States. The bee is run on a not-for-profit basis by The E. W. Scripps Company and is held at a hotel or convention center in Washington, D.C. during the week following Memorial Day weekend. Since 2011, it has been held at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center hotel in National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Maryland, just outside Washington D.C. It was previously held at the Grand Hyatt Washington in Washington D.C. from 1996 to 2010. Current and past Executive Directors of the Spelling Bee, Paige Kimble and Reta Rose have helped to widely popularize the Spelling Bee during their respective and lengthy tenures at the bee.
The Weiss School is a private school for gifted children in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, United States, founded in 1989 by Elizabeth and Martin Weiss. It is one of three schools in Southeast Florida exclusively dedicated to educating gifted students.
The 84th Scripps National Spelling Bee was held from May 31 – June 2, 2011 at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in Oxon Hill, Maryland near Washington, D.C.. The champion was 14-year-old Sukanya Roy, who was the ninth Indian-American champion in the past thirteen competitions.
The Google Science Fair was a worldwide online science competition sponsored by Google, Lego, Virgin Galactic, National Geographic and Scientific American. It was an annual event spanning the years 2011 through 2018.
The South Asian Spelling Bee is an annual spelling bee platform in the United States for children of South Asian descent. It is an annual contest that tours the country each June and July in pursuit of the top two spellers from formerly as many as 12, but currently 5 cities nationwide. Since 2018, it also features a program similar to the Scripps National Spelling Bee's RSVBee, in which wild-card spellers can apply to compete at nationals. The competition is open to any student at or below the age of 14, who has at least one parent or grandparent who is of South Asian descent, or whose lineage can be traced to Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and/or Sri Lanka. Since its launch in 2008, the South Asian Spelling Bee has been aired in over 120 countries on Sony Entertainment Television Asia as a multi-part series.
The 85th Scripps National Spelling Bee was held at the Gaylord National, in Oxon Hill, Maryland from May 27 to May 31, 2012, and was broadcast live on ESPN3. The championship finals occurred on May 31, 2012.
The 86th Scripps National Spelling Bee was held from May 28 to May 30, 2013 at the Gaylord National in Oxon Hill, Maryland and was broadcast live on ESPN3, ESPN2, and ESPN. For the first time, the competition included a vocabulary quiz in addition to the usual spelling challenge. Arvind Mahankali of Bayside, New York won the competition and received the $30,000 grand prize. Including local feeder tournaments, an estimated 11 million children participated.
The 87th Scripps National Spelling Bee was held from May 27 to May 29, 2014 at the Gaylord National in Oxon Hill, Maryland and was broadcast live on ESPN3, the semi-finals on ESPN2, with the final rounds live on ESPN. Ansun Sujoe of Fort Worth, Texas and Sriram Hathwar of Painted Post, New York won the competition, making the 87th Bee the twelfth in the past sixteen competitions to have an Indian-American champion.
The 38th Scripps National Spelling Bee was held in Washington, D.C. on June 9–10, 1965, sponsored by the E.W. Scripps Company.
The 71st Scripps National Spelling Bee was held in Washington, D.C. on May 27–28, 1998, sponsored by the E.W. Scripps Company.
The 88th Scripps National Spelling Bee was held at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland from May 24–28, 2015. Students competed for a prize valued at $38,600 coming from various companies.
White House Astronomy Night is an event first organized by the White House in conjunction with the Office of Science and Technology Policy to motivate interest in astronomy and science education. The original White House Astronomy Night was held in 2009 on the South Lawn. In 2010 the White House and the Office of Science and Technology Policy organized a similar event with help from Hofstra University, this time held on the National Mall. Between 2010 and 2014 annual events took place at the National Mall with coordination between Hofstra University and federal agencies including: the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, NASA, and the National Science Foundation. In 2015 an event took place in June at the National Mall, and then back at the White House again on October 19.
The New York City Science and Engineering Fair (NYCSEF) is an annual science fair contested by around 700 high school students from Queens, Manhattan, Bronx, Brooklyn and Staten Island, making it the largest high school research competition in New York City. About 150 participants advance to the finals round. Awards include scholarships to study at CUNY's City College of New York and Hunter College, while the finalists win a trip to represent New York City at the International Science and Engineering Fair. Winners represent Team NYC at ISEF and compete for $4,000,000 in awards. The event is sponsored by the New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE) and the City University of New York (CUNY) Office of Academic Affairs. Other science fairs include the Google Science Fair, Siemens Science Fair, Intel STS and Junior Science and Humanities Symposium.
The 89th Scripps National Spelling Bee was held at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland on May 24–26, 2016.
The 90th Scripps National Spelling Bee was held at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland from May 30 to June 1, 2017, with "Bee Week" events running for spellers between May 28 and June 3, and televised coverage on May 31 and June 1. Ananya Vinay, 12, won the competition by successfully spelling "marocain" in the final round. In fact, she made history as he had placed 172nd place in the 2016 Scripps National Spelling Bee, and then she won the 2017 edition. There is a remarkable moment when Shourav Dasari correctly spelled "Mogollon" in five seconds.
Angela Zhang is an Asian American scientist who in 2009, at the age of 14, began to research at Stanford University. By 2011, Zhang's research won the $100,000 Siemens Competition in Math, Science & Technology, and earned her widespread notability for her research on cancer treatments with iron oxide gold nanoparticles. She graduated from Harvard in 2016, and is now at Stanford University.
The 92nd Scripps National Spelling Bee was held at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland, from May 27 to 30, 2019. The finals were held on May 30, 2019, and televised on ESPN2 and ESPN. It featured 562 total contestants and was won by eight co-champions who had lasted through twenty rounds.
The 93rd Scripps National Spelling Bee was held at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Bay Lake, Florida. The finals were held on July 8, 2021, and televised on ESPN2 and ESPN. It was won by Zaila Avant-garde, the first African American to win the Scripps National Spelling Bee, and the second black person to do so.