Perry Alagappan, of Clear Lake High School in Houston, Texas, was named the winner of this year’s Stockholm Junior Water Prize (SJWP) at the national competition held in Herndon, Va. June 19-20, 2015. The SJWP, established in 1997 to mirror the adult Stockholm Water Prize, rewards outstanding research conducted by students grades 9-12. In his winning project, Alagappan combined both research and experimentation to demonstrate how Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotubes form effective, renewable filters that can be utilized to remove heavy metals such as Cadmium, Nickel, and Mercury — waste products from electronic components – from the water environment.
Alagappan received $10,000 and an all-expenses-paid trip to Stockholm, Sweden, where he will compete against national winners from more than 30 countries for the International Stockholm Junior Water Prize during World Water Week, August 22-28, 2015. HRH Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden will present the international award—$5,000 and crystal sculpture—during a royal ceremony held in conjunction with the Stockholm Water Symposium.
Two U.S. runners up, Jack Andraka of Maryland and Bluye DeMessie of Ohio, each received a $1000 award.
New England was represented by seven students, all of whom won their respective state SJWP awards.
- Nick Knudsen (Burlington, VT; South Burlington High School)- “The Levels and Sources of Escherichia coli in Lake Champlain and the Surrounding Watershed”
- Nihar and Harshal Sheth (Westford, MA; Westford Academy)- “Developing a Water Efficient Irrigation Controller Using a Multivariate Logistic Regression Algorithm”
- Paige Brown (Bangor, ME; Bangor High School)- “Identifying and Remediating the Sources of Pollution in Impaired Bangor Streams”
- Erica Doucet (Allenstown, NH; Pembroke Academy)- “The Effect of Coastal Restoration Techniques on Erosion”
- Morgan Kane (Bristol, RI; Mount Hope High School)- “Can the Design of Natural Aquifers be Used to Filter Run-off on Roads and Communities in Wetlands?”
- Julia Ennis (Fairfield, CT; Bridgeport Regional Aquaculture School)- “The Analysis of Clay Flocculation’s Effect on the Benthic Zone Used as a Mitigation Technique for Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs)”
While none of our students from New England placed at the national competition this year, we recognize and congratulate them for winning the SJWP at the state level, and are proud of their research and talent. We hope that they all had a great time at the national conference, learned a lot, made friends, and increased their interest in pursuing a career in water!
For more information about the SJWP and to download the winning paper, visit www.wef.org.
Vermont state SJWP winner Nick Knudsen
Massachusetts state SJWP winner Harshal Sheth
Maine state SJWP winner Paige Brown
Massachusetts state SJWP winner Nihar Sheth
New Hampshire state SJWP winner Erica Doucet
Rhode Island state SJWP winner Morgan Kane
Connecticut state SJWP winner Julia Ennis
No comments yet.