Richard Wang skipped school Friday.

But it was OK, he said. The University Laboratory High School student's teachers knew where he was – at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind., competing as one of 15 regional finalists in a science competition with a $100,000 scholarship as its national prize.

Wang, 16, heard about the scholarship – part of the Siemens Competition in Math, Science and Technology – from a friend about a year ago, he said.

Wang, who lives in Champaign but attends the Urbana school, said he has always enjoyed science classes.

"I consider myself a pretty science-y person," he said.

He likes that, in science, he can explore new facets of a research area and, in doing so, "you kind of make your own contribution," he said.

After junior year, Wang took his love of the field a step further, interning in professor Yingxiao "Peter" Wang's bioengineering lab at the University of Illinois. The two are not related.

"I contacted him and asked if I could participate in some sort of research project," Richard Wang said.

In the lab, he spent a lot of time looking in microscopes, studying the "mechanism by which mechanical forces are translated into biochemical activities," he said. For non-"science-y" people, that means he applied forces to the surface of a cell, and then watched as that force caused the activity of a protein called Rac, he said.

Immersing himself in a lab with much older students "was hard work. There's no other way to describe it," he said.

Somewhere far down the road, applications of his study might prove helpful in cancer research. By watching how cells become active, he can better understand how cancer cells metastasize.

Peter Wang said the high school senior – he is planning to study engineering in college next year – demonstrated the intelligence, persistence and concentration needed to be a scientist.

Richard Wang is "extremely dedicated to research and just really excited about scientific journeys," the professor said. He said his summer intern was open to exploring ideas and not intimidated when an idea didn't work.

James Whaley, president of the Siemens Foundation, said encouraging people like Richard Wang is the reason for the competition.

"The whole mission for the Siemens Foundation is to inspire the next generation of scientists, of mathematicians," he said. "What it does is really reward the best and brightest in our country."

Uni science teacher David Bergandine, who taught Wang in two classes, called his former student "brilliant." He said Wang demonstrated a determination to learn scientific concepts, even studying textbooks and journals in his spare time.

At Notre Dame on Friday and Saturday, Wang had a chance to put his work to the test, showing and speaking about his project.

Whaley said the quality of all of the projects was stellar.

"We've had kids here that are looking at ways of assisting in heart disease," he said. Another project involved "looking at a galaxy and understanding how it works."

Whaley said the students' work often rivals that of doctoral students – though all the competitors are in high school. To compete at the regional event, Wang had to beat out nearly 1,200 other applicants. For getting to the regionals, Uni received $2,000, Whaley said.

Whaley said the money seemed to get the parents more excited than the kids. The kids, he said, like all the other gifts finalists get, such as iPods.

"They're very smart," Whaley said, "but they're still kids."

This weekend, Wang learned he did not advance to the national finals, meaning he won't get to collect the up-to-$100,000 in prize money.

But he, like the other finalists, still won the admiration of Whaley.

"Some of these projects are unbelievable," he said, adding that the professors who judged the contest have been "just astounded at the level of proficiency."