AFCEA Educational Foundation Announces The 2007 National High School

FAIRFAX, Va./EWORLDWIRE/June 12, 2007 --- The AFCEA Educational
Foundation is pleased to announce that Franz Sauer is this year's
grand prize winner for the 2007 AFCEA National High School Science
Fair Award for the best high school science project related to
communications, intelligence or information systems. The winning
project was selected from science fairs nationwide and will be
displayed at AFCEA and the U.S. Naval Institute's Transformation
Warfare conference and exposition, June 19-21, 2007, at the Virginia
Beach Convention Center. The award includes a cash prize and a trip to
Virginia Beach for the winner and his family.

Sauer is a junior at High Technology High School in Lincroft, New
Jersey. His project, entitled, "Towards Making the Smallest Tool
Machine for Nanotechnology: Engineering an Aberration Corrector for
Focused Ion Beam (FIB) Microscopes," aims to use advances in
nanotechnology to create better equipment to protect soldiers in the
field.

A corrector was designed to reduce spherical aberration in focused ion
beam (FIB) microscopes by condensing the ion beam with a positively
charged funnel-shaped cylinder before entering the final objective
lens. This corrector can significantly reduce the size of the ion
beam's "tool tip" and greatly improve microscope imaging capabilities
for nanotechnology. Reducing spherical aberration is necessary for
better resolution for FIB microscopes and can help scientists break
the resolution barrier and image materials that have never before been
seen.

Through the Liberty Science Partners in Science program, Sauer was
introduced to his mentor, Dr. Nan Yao from the Princeton Institute for
the Science and Technology of Materials at Princeton University. He
introduced the student to the field of ion optics and Sauer was
hooked. Sauer plans to continue his research this summer with Dr. Yao
and design correctors for other aberrations in focused ion beam
microscopes.

Other awards that Franz and his science project have won this year
include first place in Engineering at the New Jersey Academy of
Science and an invitation to attend the American Junior Academy of
Science Conference in 2008 first place award in Engineering and Top
Project award in Engineering from the Institute of Electronics and
Electrical Engineers (IEEE) at the Jersey Shore Science Fair first
place at the Monmouth Junior Science Symposium (MJSS) winning a four
year scholarship to Monmouth University and an invitation to compete
at the National Junior Science & Humanities Symposium and bronze
medalist of the Marie Curie Fair at the Delaware Valley Science Fair
winning a four year scholarship to Drexel University, the Yale
University Science and Engineering Award and an invitation to attend
the ISEF in Albuquerque, New Mexico and compete at the NANODAY@Penn
Fair at the University of Pennsylvania.

Sauer's passions are physics and engineering, and he was selected as
the 2006 U.S. Physics Young Ambassador to the International Physics
Young Ambassador Symposium in Taiwan. He was featured as a student
scientist with Bill Nye, the Science Guy in his new video series
"Greatest Inventions: Transportation." Through his high school he is
involved in the National Honor Society, Model United Nations, and
Robotics Club, and volunteers with the Stars Challenge program at
Monmouth University which promotes sciences to middle school students
and encourages them to pursue scientific research. In his spare time
he fences foil for the local fencing club and organizes fencing
tournaments. He enjoys funny movies, computer games, and spending time
with his friends.