Turkish student wins Stockholm Junior Water Prize with innovative method of generating energy from rain
18-year-old Ceren Burçak Dag competed with a record breaking field of more than 8600 projects from around the world
The Stockholm Water Foundation and the Stockholm International Water Institute tonight announced that 18-year-old Ceren Burçak Dag of Nisantasi, Turkey has won the 2009 Stockholm Junior Water Prize. The young woman won the coveted honour by developing an innovative method for generating energy through piezoelectric pulses from falling rain drops.
The announcement came tonight during an award ceremony at the 2009 World Water Week in Stockholm, where high-school age students from 29 countries have gathered after winning their national competitions, providing them with the opportunity to compete for the international prize.
"Many young people are concerned about climate change, but few will take action to identify a solution," noted the Stockholm Junior Water Prize Jury in its citation. "Reducing CO2 emissions by developing alternative environment-friendly, renewable energy sources is a specific response to this global problem. This year’s winner had a spark of genius in developing a high tech solution that used PVDF, a smart material with piezoelectric properties, to transfer the kinetic energy of raindrops into electrical energy."
After the award ceremony, Ceren Bucak Dag explained her hopes for her award-winning project. "We have a new energy source from rain with a piezoelectric effect with this project," she said. "I hope that my work will contribute to the development of the next generation of energy panels where rain, sun, and wind are combined."
The jury also awarded to Diplomas of Excellence to Emily Elhacham of Israel for her project, Detecting water contamination chemical sensors using metal nanoparticle networks, and Mary Zhao of Canada, for her project, Grasping water: A novel method of inducing precipitation using the Ice Nucleating Protein.
"I am so proud of Ceren Burçak Dag and the thousands of students from across the world who participated in this competition," said Gretchen McClain, president of the commercial business unit of ITT Corporation, the global sponsor of the Stockholm Junior Water Prize. "These projects underscore the importance of involving the next generation in researching and taking action towards finding solutions to today’s water and energy challenges. At ITT, water is more than just our business, it is our passion. We are proud to be a continued global supporter of such an important competition."
