Education: Two for the Money

When the judges were through rechecking the entries, there was no question about their choices. Out of 25,039 high school contestants, the two top prizes in the annual Westinghouse Science Talent Search went last week to a pair of precocious seniors from Newton (Mass.) High School. For his $121 cyclotron that can smash atoms, Reinier Beeuwkes III, 17, won the first prize, a $7,500 scholarship. For his prop-driven flying platform, Yugoslav-born Dushan Mitrovich, 18, won the second prize, a $6,000 scholarship.

Reinier, the son of the director of materiel research at the Watertown Arsenal, and Dushan, the son of an aeronautical engineer with Avco Research Laboratories, are the latest products of the top-notch program of Dr. Albert E. Navez, head of the science department at Newton High School since 1949. Belgian-born Navez, 59, who is also Belgian consul in Boston, starts grooming likely science prospects in junior high school. Says Teacher Navez of Reinier and Dushan: "To them, science is an adventure."