This year, 17-year-old Viviana Risco beat out 39 other finalists in the prestigious high school competition, sometimes called the junior Nobel Prize.

CNN: Romanian teenager wins 'junior Nobel Prize' competition

The young Romanian immigrant hid the message "June 6 Invasion: Normandy" inside a strand of DNA. "It creates a new branch that the field can expand into, " Risco said.

CNN: Romanian teenager wins 'junior Nobel Prize' competition

Risco endeavored to inject molecular biology into computer sciences, having been inspired by a magazine article about a data encryption technique called steganography, the science of communicating in a manner that hides the existence of the communication.

CNN: Romanian teenager wins 'junior Nobel Prize' competition