Waiakea High School freshman Nolan Kamitaki was happy just to have made it through an initial field of thousands to be competing in this year's Discovery Channel Young Scientist Challenge in Washington, D.C. He certainly never expected to win the grand prize — a $20,000 scholarship.

"Right now, I'm more or less in shock," Kamitaki said by phone from D.C. "I was just happy to be in the national competition. I didn't expect this at all."

Kamitaki was named America's Top Young Scientist of the Year after competing against a group of 40 of the brightest science students from across the country at this year's Discovery Channel Young Scientist Challenge finals. Kamitaki entered his science project on arsenic in Big Island schools, which he has worked on for the past two years while he was a student at Waiakea Intermediate School. He also competed in a series of challenges this week at the National Institutes of Health.

The competition, created by Discovery Communications and Science Service, tests competitors' knowledge of science and also encourages them to be effective science communicators. Kamitaki, an articulate 14-year-old, was hailed by judges for his ability to communicate his complex experiment.

"I tested for arsenic levels first in the soils of the Kea'au and Hilo area, and I tested hair samples of students who attend nearby schools," Kamitaki said. "After reading newspaper articles, I realized there is a big problem with arsenic in the Kea'au area where a hotel is about to be built. I decided if it is a problem for tourists, it is definitely a problem for kids who go to the schools there."

Wayne Kamitaki, Nolan's dad, said he still can't believe his son won.

"He felt he had a chance, but we didn't want him to get too excited. The odds were difficult," he said. "We're so proud of him."

To get to the national competition, Kamitaki first had to enter his school science fair, make it to the district science fair and get to the state fair. After winning the state science fair, he was given the opportunity to enter the national competition. He was chosen as one of 400 national semifinalists out of 1,900 entries. He was later chosen as one of the 40 national finalists who competed this week in Washington.

He also participated in a series of intense challenges at the National Institutes of Health, where he helped his team conduct mock investigations of avian flu and its possible impact.

"I was actually the epidemiologist for my group and I got to predict how many people would survive, how many people would be infected. They told us we needed a math person to do that job, so everyone kind of looked at me," he said.

The judges praised Kamitaki's leadership and teamwork skills during the challenges, as well as his ability to solve problems scientifically.

"Coming from a small town, like Hilo, it's very overwhelming," Kamitaki said.

The elder Kamitaki said he hopes that his son's success will encourage more students to become interested in science fairs.

"He's from the public school system from Hawai'i. Hawai'i is such a small state and sometimes it is overlooked. Hopefully this shows people that Hawai'i's kids can compete," he said.

As a ninth-grader, Kamitaki said he has not yet decided what he'd like to study in college, but he is leaning toward medicine or physics.

Reach Loren Moreno at lmoreno@honoluluadvertiser.com.