Fishers Student Wins National Science Award

A Fishers high school student is among the winners of a national science award  inspired by the PBS documentary Cancer: The Emperor of All Maladies.

Khunsha Ahmed entered the Emperor Science Award competition last year when she was a sophomore, submitting an essay about breast cancer.   That one didn’t garner any awards.  This year she says she worked with her science teacher crafting an essay on renal cell carcinoma, a type of kidney cancer. 

“Checkpoint inhibitors are something used for  immunotherapy to cure renal cell carcinoma and they are very expensive and not well researched.  So I was hoping if I got the opportunity I could look into that," Ahmed said. "And then think about it from the family’s perspective, they are already going through so much and now we are going to put this financial burden on them, so why do that.”

Part of Ahmed's winnings include a summer mentorship at the IU Simon Cancer Center.

The program is open to 10th and 11th graders who submit an essay on the importance of research for finding cures for cancers. A panel of scientists judged the 800 entries selecting 100 winners.