The Center for Excellence in Education, a non-profit organization founded by the father of the US nuclear Navy, Admiral Hyman Rickover, plans to begin training Shanghai's best and brightest in 2006.
   
The local program aims to help outstanding science students advance their careers through interdisciplinary research and exposure to world-class theoretical knowledge. Its design follows a model used by the US-based Research Science Institute.
   
Some 75 top high school students will be given a chance to take part in cutting-edge research projects carried out by local university professors.
   
Outstanding performers in the city's program will be sent to the United States to participate in the international RSI program.
   
The organization will also award a US$100,000 scholarship to the top performer and help students apply for admission to US universities, CEE officials said.
   
"Our mission is to nurture young scholars to careers of excellence, leadership in science and technology, as well as promote international exchange," CEE President Joann DiGennaro, said in Bejing yesterday.
   
For the local program, students with top grades in math, physics, chemistry or biology will be picked to attend weeklong theoretical lectures by renowned professors from Fudan University, Jiao Tong University and Tongji University.
   
Students will then work in the laboratory with noted researchers for four weeks, followed by another week of outdoor activities such as baseball, hiking and dancing. There will be no charge for the training.
   
"What we want is to get students to think out of the box so that they can broaden their minds and develop their creativity," DiGennaro said.
   
(Shanghai Daily November 16, 2004))