Alex Wissner/Gross, of New Hyde Park, has been named a finalist in the 1999 Intel Science Talent Search, formerly known as the Westinghouse Award.

Wissner/Gross, a 17 year old senior who attends the Great Neck South High School, was among 40 students to win the prestigious award, which is commonly referred to as the "Nobel Prize for American high school students."

Wissner/Gross competed against 1,470 entrants, all high school seniors, who came from 184 high schools in 39 states. On Jan. 11 semifinalists were announced and from that group of 300, 40 finalists were named on January 25.

The competition requires that participants perform an original science research project and then write a paper based on their work. Wissner/Gross performed the bulk of his research last summer while working as an intern at MITRE Corp., a think tank based in Virginia. The field of research he pursued was nanotechnology, a combination of physics, chemistry, computer science and engineering. His paper was titled, "Rapid Granular Fabrication of Nanocircuitry: Modeling a Novel Process for the Macroscopic Control of Extended Nanoscopic Fullerene Structures."

In his paper, Wissner/Gross describes an original invention for mass-producing circuits the size of molecules. Such circuits have many applications in the fields of medicine; to fight many diseases and in computer science; to improve the speed and efficiency of computers. While scientists have theorized about the multiple uses of such circuitry for many years, nobody has been able to efficiently fabricate such circuits. Scientists have only been able to create "nanocircuits" by nudging individual atoms, a process that is extremely costly and timely.

As a finalist, Wissner/Gross is now eligible to compete for the top 10 Intel Science Talent Search scholarship awards. The 10 awards total $330,000 and the final determination will be announced when he, with the other finalists, travel to Washington at the beginning of March.

However, Wissner/Gross is used to winning prestigious awards. Last year he was one of four students selected to represent the United States in an international computer Olympics held in Portugal. He was on the U.SA Computer Olympic Team that was ranked 2nd in America. He was also a grand prize winner in the USA Math Talent Search, placing lst.nationally with a perfect score. The list of other awards won by Wissner/Gross is far too long, but he was also on the Fencing Team at Great Neck South and is a member of the U. S. Fencing Association.

Further, he performed professionally as a boy soprano for two seasons with the New York City Opera at Lincoln Center appearing in Carmen and La Boheme. He also toured with the company to Wolftrap, VA and the Saratoga Arts Festival and in 1998 received the Great Neck South Music Department Vocal Music Award.

He is also a volunteer at North Shore University Hospital where he has entertained and visited with terminally-ill children.

Wissner/Gross has received early acceptance to Massachusetts Institute of Technology and will fulfill a lifelong dream when he attends MIT in the fall.

He lives with his mom Elizabeth and dad Sigmund and brother Zachary in New Hyde Park.