PLATTEVILLE, Wis. -- A Platteville 17-year-old, one of 20 young people named as 2008 Davidson Fellows, is being awarded $50,000 for making a scientific breakthrough.

Philip Streich, who is home-schooled, proved for the first time that carbon nanotubes, among the strongest and most conductive materials in the world, are thermodynamically soluble.

In recognition of his accomplishment, Streich will be honored as a 2008 Davidson Fellow Laureate.

Davidson Fellows -- who are all under the age of 18 -- will receive $50,000, $25,000 and $10,000 scholarships from the Davidson Institute for Talent Development, a national nonprofit organization headquartered in Reno, Nev., that supports profoundly gifted youth.

Streich contradicted the generally held assumption that carbon nanotubes are thermodynamically insoluble, by designing and building a photon counting light scattering spectrometer -- out of spare parts in the lab -- to measure the light scattered by a nanotube solution and quantify nanotube solubility.

The instrument, more sensitive than any commercially available, has a patent pending. The institute said that Streich's scientific discovery has broad applications in the field of nanotechnology, and could lead to advanced supermaterials which could improve, for example, the efficiencies and environmental qualities of cars, planes and photocells.