Sam Barros’ Science Awards!

I have been on television, in magazines and newspapers numerous times. Some of the shows I’ve worked for / been featured in include NBC’s Fear Factor, TLC’s Junkyard Wars, MTV’s Big Urban Myth Show, Discovery Channel’s Daily Planet and more. Check out my Media Page for some of the publicity I’ve earned over the past..

While most kids in middle school / high school join chess clubs / swim clubs / play sports, I spent my spare time doing my own thing, mostly doing experiments in a makeshift lab at my parents’ house. For me, Science Fairs were a chance to show my colleagues what I had been up to. Sadly we moved a lot so I missed out on a few fairs that I really wish I could have attended, but I still managed to participate in an win quite a few. One this page you can see posted the most recent and significant ones:

Here you see me on the International JSHS awards ceremony, receiving my prize. The person handing me the award is an astronaut, who prior to the ceremony gave us all (400+ participants) an incredible presentation about life in space (did you know food has virtually no taste in the absence of gravity?)
As part of the prize I also got a security pass to visit the Sandia National Research Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico. I believe it was there, in the world’s second largest research laboratory, that I became sure that one day I, too, would become a research and development engineer. The ground breaking research in materials science, solar panels, fusion research, and medicine that was shown to me there opened my eyes to just how quickly progress can be achieved in science with the right equipment and enough funding.

 Below you can see: 1- The cover of my JSHS (Junior Science and Humanities Symposium) certificate. Than, right next to it the certificate I received by coming 1st (Laureate) in the European JSHS, held in Munich ’97, and next to it the “Certificate of Honor” I received when I came 3rd overall in the International JSHS held in Albuquerque, New Mexico ’98. 

This is my “Honor Of Laureate” diploma received as the first place award at the 1998 European JSHS (Junior Science and Humanities Symposium) held in Munich, Germany. Along with this most prestigious award, I won a College Scholarship by the United States’ Department of Defense, and was invited to participate in the National JSHS (where I won 3rd overall place and yet another scholarship, as well as the other 2 diplomas you see above), the European Union Contest For Young Scientists (certificate below), and the Intel TMR International Science fair, the largest event of its kind anywhere in the world, where over 4000 participants compete for over 1million dollars in prizes. Sadly, shortly after receiving the invitation I had to move and change school, and hence could no longer compete in it.

To the left you see my United States Of America Department Of Defense “National Junior Science and Symposium” medal. This was given to all finalists. Next to it is my Student Delegate tag, which reads “Sam Barros, Europe”. Everyone at the science fair had to wear tags with their name and the state they were representing (there was at least one project from every state). Being the person representing Europe, as opposed to just a state, I became a sort of celebrity there… People would greet me at the elevator and say “Oh, so you are the European guy”… It was quite neat! 🙂

The first Certificate I got from the EU Contest for Young Scientists, held in Porto, Portugal ’98. The second one was from the league of European Schools, for winning the European JSHS. Next to them are two newspaper extracts (I was mentioned in 3 other papers but I could not find them for scanning). Clicking on any of the pictures will show you the enlarged version.

<imghttps://power-labs.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/newspaperbr_small1.jpg” alt=”Front page of a Brazilian newspaper talking about me” width=”187″ height=”300″ align=”left” border=”2″ />

  The three pink diplomas above are from the Petten Science Prize, in which I competed twice. I came first in two of them, and second in the other, because I published two projects (yes, I came first AND second on the same science fair:). I also competed in all my  school’s science fairs, and always came first, but for some reason I can not find the diplomas… I’ll put them here when I find them.