A 12-year-old from northern Westchester is being hailed a scientific superstar after taking home the top prize in the nation's most prestigious STEM contest for middle school students.

lshana Kumar, of Chappaqua, won the Broadcom Masters 2020 award, held virtually for the first time this year due to COVID-19.

The judges say the 12-year-old's research on color perception could help scientists better understand eye disease one day.

The Bell Middle School student was awarded a $25,000 prize.

"I wanted to see if I could change the way we perceive imaginary colors by using something called retinal fatigue, so it basically temporarily sort of turns off or saturates our ability to see a certain color," says Kumar.

Kumar competed against nearly 3,500 other middle schoolers across the nation.

She hopes to become a surgeon one day.