WASHINGTON — In the White House’s State Dining Room, high school senior Taylor Wilson chatted Tuesday about nuclear physics with the president.

The Texarkana native and physics virtuoso - one of 100 science students invited to the White House Science Fair - showed President Barack Obama two devices he conceived, designed and built in his Reno, Nev., laboratory.

The two devices could be put to work in the future toguard against a nuclear attack at U.S. ports or to help cancer patients in remote areas.

One device could be used to detect small quantities of weapons-grade nuclear material, using water rather than the current method that uses Helium-3, a very expensive and scarce material. The other device could be used to cheaply develop the medical isotopes used in radiation treatment to fight certain types of cancer.

Students received the White House invitations on the basis their performance in other science competitions.

“You guys inspire me,”Obama told Wilson and the other young science students at the event. “It’s young people like you who make me so confident that America’s best days are to come.”

Wilson, 17, a senior at the Davidson Academy, a school at the University of Nevada, Reno, was invited to the White House science fair after he won the Intel Foundation Young Scientist Award.

Three years ago, Wilson’s family moved from Texarkana to Reno, so he could attend Davidson. The family still has a house in Arkansas, where Wilson spends his vacations.

Front Section, Pages 2 on 02/08/2012