Annabelle M. Rayson from Canada received the prestigious 2022 Stockholm Junior Water Prize for her research on how to treat and prevent harmful algae blooms. HRH Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden announced the winner during a ceremony at World Water Week in Stockholm.
Harmful algae blooms plague aquatic ecosystems around the world. They impact water quality and ecosystem diversity, cause dead zones, and cost the fishing and tourism industries millions of dollars.
Rayson’s father, a commercial fisherman, could no longer fish in certain areas due to harmful algae blooms, so her research to find a method to treat and prevent harmful algae blooms.
Rayson learned the concept of biomanipulation, and which species of zooplankton was best to treat and prevent algae blooms. For this, she was announced as winner of Stockholm Junior Water Prize, an international competition where students between the ages of 15 and 20 present solutions to major water challenges.
Speaking on winning the prize, Rayson said: “It’s an absolute honour to be here with so many other brilliant young people, representing all the small-town little girls out there, dreaming of her on microscope and lab coat. Hey girls, we can still make it.”
The Jury noted that “the winning entry has a potential solution for a multi-faceted global problem. It is not just an issue for human health, but it also affects water courses and the species that live within them. Of the challenges we face in terms of public health, many are intimately intertwined with water quality, and the winner - dedicated, passionate and creative - has conducted extensive, bio-inspired research to address this pervasive issue.”
The Diploma of Excellence was awarded to Laura Nedel Drebes and Camily Pereira dos Santos from Brazil, for their development of addressing the issue with period poverty – the inaccessibility to sanitary pads, with their development of sustainable and affordable sanitary pads from industrial by-products.
The People’s Choice Award went to Mishal Faraz from United Arab Emirates, completing the all-female line-up of winners.
The Stockholm Junior Water Prize has been organized every year since 1997 by the Stockholm International Water Institute, SIWI, with Xylem as Founding Partner.