Deepika Kurup of Nashua, New Hampshire was recently named the national winner of the 2014 U.S. Stockholm Junior Water Prize, the most prestigious international competition for water-related research. The prize taps into the unlimited potential of today’s high school students as they seek to address current and future water challenges.
On June 13–14, Kurup and the SJWP state winners from 48 other states met in Herndon, Virginia to compete for the national title, which includes $10,000 and an all-expense paid trip to Stockholm, Sweden to compete at an international level. The Nashua High School South sophomore competed against 54 other students with her project, “A Novel Photocatalytic Pervious Composite for Degrading Organics and Inactivating Bacteria in Wastewater.”
The goal of her research was “to develop a safe, cost-effective, and eco-friendly technique for wastewater purification,” and her project entry is available here. In it, Kurup metions that her passion for solving the global water crisis began in elementary school, when she was first exposed to water problems.
Kurup is a recipient U.S. President’s Environmental Youth Award from the EPA, and received first place in the Environmental Science division at the 2013 and 2014 New Hampshire Science and Engineering Exposition. She will represent the U.S. in the SJWP International Final during World Water Week in Stockholm, Aug. 31 – Sept. 5, 2014. The international winner receives $15,000 (USD). For more about the international competition, click here.
Also recognized at the SJWP competition were runners-up Bluyé DeMessie (OH) and Zachary Loeb (FL), and Bjorn von Euler Innovation in Water Award recipients Jack Andraka and Chloe Diggs (MD). In the United States, WEF organizes regional, national, and state SJWP competitions in conjunction with its Member Associations and with support from Xylem, Inc. Click here to learn more about U.S. competition and its history.
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