A report, released Monday by the nonpartisan National Foundation for American Policy, found that about two-thirds of the finalists at the Intel Science Talent Search -- the Nobel Prize of high school science -- were born to parents who hailed from either China or India.

Only 12 of 40 finalists at this year's competition -- a national contest based on solutions to scientific problems -- had parents who were born in America.

"The benefit America derives from the children of immigrants in science and math is an additional advantage the country reaps from being open to talent from around the world," said author Stuart Anderson, director of the organization and a former head of policy at the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

The results are evident in Silicon Valley classrooms: Children of immigrant parents, particularly those with skills-based H-1B visas, are abundant in the top tiers of academia.