Krish Pai Wins $50,000 Regeneron Young Scientist Award

Photos: societyforscience.org

India-West News Desk

LOS ANGELES, CA – Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and the Society for Science on May 17 announced that Krish Pai, 17, of Del Mar, California, received the second Regeneron Young Scientist Award at the 2024 Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF). This is the world’s largest pre-college science and engineering competition.

Indian American Krish was awarded a $50,000 prize for his innovative machine-learning research aimed at identifying microbial genetic sequences that can be modified to biodegrade plastic.

Krish has developed a groundbreaking software called Microby, which scans databases of microorganisms to determine which ones can be genetically altered to biodegrade plastics. During testing, he identified two microorganisms that could be modified to degrade plastic at a cost he estimates to be ten times less than traditional recycling methods.

In total, over $9 million was awarded to finalists for their creativity, innovation, and depth of scientific inquiry. The competition featured nearly 2,000 young scientists from 49 U.S. states and nearly 70 countries, regions, and territories worldwide.

Other Indian American winners included Tanishka Balaji Aglave, 15, of Valrico, Florida, and Ria Kamat, 17, of Hackensack, New Jersey.

Tanishka received the H. Robert Horvitz Prize for Fundamental Research of $10,000 for her investigation into a natural alternative treatment against citrus greening, a disease that threatens citrus farming worldwide and is currently only treated with antibiotics. She injected the trunks of infected trees with an extract from the curry leaf tree and found that this method could effectively and sustainably manage citrus greening disease.

Ria, a student at Bergen County Academies, received the Dudley R. Herschbach SIYSS Award, which provides finalists an all-expense-paid trip to attend the Stockholm International Youth Science Seminar during Nobel Week in Stockholm, Sweden. Her project examined the relationship between tumor-induced osteoclastogenesis and osteoprotegerin.

Other Indian Americans among the 450 finalists were also recognized for their innovative research and received $5,000 as prize money:

Biomedical Engineering – Ayush Garg, Dublin, California; Divij Motwani, Palo Alto, California; Akash Ashish Pai, Portland, Oregon.

Chemistry – Akilan Sankaran, Albuquerque, New Mexico; Arjun Suresh Malpani and Siddharth Daniel D’costa, Portland, Oregon.

Earth and Environmental Sciences – Nikhil Vemuri, Durham, North Carolina.

Physics and Astronomy – Harini Thiagarajan and Vishal Ranganath Yalla, Bothell, Washington.

Technology Enhances the Arts = Anant Khandelwal, Sritan Motati, and Siddhant Sood, Alexandria, Virginia.