An exciting achievement!!

Happy summer, Sus-Spotters! I had a productive first few weeks of June, and I'm so honored to share a big achievement with you all... From June 8th to June 12th, St. John Fisher's University in Rochester, New York hosted the annual GENIUS Olympiad, an international high school project fair focused on the environment and sustainability. With a wide range of categories, from Science and Robotics to Business and Art, the diversity was truly incredible to see. My project, "Nano-Enabled Defense: Using Sulfur Nanoparticles to Limit Cadmium in Soybeans," competed against 518 other Science projects, and following a three-hour judging, was selected as part of the top 5% of projects -- the Gold Medal honor! Read on for my project abstract.

ABSTRACT  

Cadmium (Cd) contamination in agricultural land threatens crop productivity, food safety, and human health. This project tested whether sulfur nanoparticles (S NPs) can reduce Cd availability in soil and limit Cd accumulation in soybean plants. Soybeans were grown in Cd contaminated soil under six treatments: a healthy control, Cd only, and Cd combined with pure sulfur nanoparticles (NS), stearic-coated sulfur nanoparticles (CS), bulk sulfur, or sulfate. Plant growth was assessed through shoot and pod biomass evaluations, and Cd and sulfur concentrations in plant tissues were measured. Soil Cd bioavailability and oxidative stress were analyzed using available Cd, malondialdehyde (MDA), and antioxidant enzyme activity. Relative to Cd only, NS and CS significantly improved plant growth, increasing shoot biomass by up to 62% and pod biomass by up to 39%, while reducing Cd accumulation in pods by 20–23%. In soil, S NP treatments lowered available Cd by up to 32%. Cd exposure caused severe oxidative stress, more than doubling MDA levels in roots, while S NP treatments reduced MDA and boosted antioxidant enzyme activity. Overall, sulfur nanoparticles reduced Cd mobility in soil, limited Cd accumulation in soybean plant tissues, and improved plant stress tolerance, supporting their potential as a strategy to reduce heavy-metal risks in agriculture and enhance crop performance. I hope I can inspire you all to pursue science conventions/competitions like IGO. It was an incredible, truly unique experience, and I can guarantee you will leave with some valuable, award or not!