Mathew Continues to Astound with Achievements

Every time the faculty and staff of the Madison Public Schools think they've seen it all from Akhil Mathew, he finds a way to impress them even more.

Mathew, a senior at Madison High School, recently received third-place recognition in the 2010 Intel Talent Search. The search touts itself as "America's oldest and most prestigious pre-college science competition." The competition judges finalists' work in tackling challenging scientific questions with the hope of solving the problems of tomorrow.

Mathew will receive a $50,000 scholarship for his achievement. He previously was the recipient of another $50,000 when he was selected for a Davidson Fellow Scholarship for his project, "Translation - Invariant Binary Representations." Mathew has also worked on a textbook with Drew University professors, and was a semifinalist for the Siemens Math, Science and Technology Competition.

"He is an extraordinary student," Madison Superintendent Dr. Richard Noonan said while recognizing Mathew at the most recent Board of Education meeting. "He is not a stranger to recognition at the board level throughout his senior year. It's not even April, so I have feeling he'll be back again."

Mathew has become such a celebrity at the school and brought so much recognition, that he Board of Education named March 25 Akhil Mathew Day in the Madison schools.

"But aside from all of the accolades that he is achieving, because he is obviously brilliant, he is just a tremendous human being," Madison High School Principal  Greg Robertson said. "He is very respectful, very conscientious, very devoted to helping others. I am convinced this is only the beginning of the notoriety this young man will achieve. I guarantee you he will continue to give back to society."

Others who have witnessed Mathew's work spoke of his achievements and how proud they were of him including Marcia Prill, head of the math department.

"He is a star in the hallway," Prill said of how the other students view Mathew.

Akhil spoke briefly about his latest award and his trip to Washington, D.C., for the competition.

"It was a lot of fun and I certainly enjoyed meeting a lot of interesting people," Mathew said.