She is all of 16, writes poetry, plays the synthesizer, composes her own music, is a tenacious debater and wants to work towards a more just society. Meet Maithili Dalvi, teenager extraordinaire. There’s more. Maithili has already made her mark in the fields of medicine, biotechnology and biochemistry by presenting seminal research at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair held in Cleveland, USA in May this year and winning two international awards. In August 2002 Maithili presented her project synopsis to Intel and was one of the students invited to participate at the National Fair held in January 2003 in IIT Bombay.

“About 2,000 students presented their synopses of whom 175 were selected to participate in the national fair,” she says. At the Intel National Science Fair, Maithili received the ‘Best Research Paper’ award and was invited to participate at the International Fair in Cleveland which was unlike anything she had ever experienced. “There were more than 1,340 participants from 40 countries. Each one of us was assigned a booth to display our project and submit a research file. Our project work was adjudicated by 12 judges from all over the world,” she says.

A winner of two prizes the second prize of the AVASC Foundation and a Honourable Mention Prize of the American Endocrine Society, Maithili credits her parents, teachers and friends with encouraging her to pursue her research. “My parents are both doctors” my father Dr. Prafulla is a general surgeon and my mother, Manik is a gynaecologist. They took a lot of pains, accompanying me to all the labs when I was doing my research,” she reveals. Not one to rest on her laurels, Maithili is presently concentrating on her class XII studies and will also write the IIT-JEE. “Though it’s a bit early to make a career choice, my inclination is to qualify as a scientist in biochemistry, biotechnology or chemical engineering so that I can work on research projects which would benefit society”, she says. Looks like there’s no stopping this talented teen.

Mona Barbhaya (Mumbai)