Washington: Saudi Arabia, represented by King Abdulaziz and His Companions Foundation for Giftedness and Creativity, or Mawhiba, and the ministry of education, has won 27 prizes — including 23 major and four special prizes — at the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair.
More than 1,800 gifted individuals from more than 70 countries participated in the ISEF event, which was held from May 13-19 in the US.
In the major awards, the Saudi team won two first-place prizes, seven second-place prizes, seven third-place prizes and seven fourth-place prizes.
Student Faisal Al-Muhaish won first-place in chemistry for his project titled “Metal-organic framework-based electrocatalyst for a highly efficient and low-cost seawater hydrogen production,” while student Mohammed Al-Arfaj won first prize in environmental engineering for his project titled “Using a contact liquid to capture CO2 found in fuel and air through a highly efficient and low-cost freezing method.”
Second-place prizes went to Taif Al-Hamdi in the field of energy, Latifa Al-Ghannam in energy, Lynn Al-Melhem in energy, Zahra Al-Shabr in biomedicine and health sciences, Fatima Al-Arfaj in chemistry, Wissam Al-Qurshi in biomedical engineering and Dima Marwahi in earth and environmental sciences.
Third-place prizes went to Ritaj Al-Sulami in energy, Fajr Al-Khulaifi in energy, Fares Al-Yami in transitional medicine, Lian Norolli in environmental engineering, Abeer Al-Youssef in materials science, as well as Lian Al-Maliki and Nour Al-Hamad in plant sciences.
Fourth-place prizes went to Maria Al-Qumsani in engineering technologies, Bandar Al-Barahim in robots and smart devices, Hanadi Arif in social and behavioral sciences, Maria Al-Ghamdi in environmental sciences, Tahani Ahmad in materials sciences, Dee Shujaa in earth and environmental sciences and Yazan Al-Fulaih in plant sciences.
This year’s achievements have increased the total number of prizes won by the Kingdom at ISEF to 133 — 92 major and 41 special prizes — since it began participating in 2007.
Amal bint Abdullah Al-Hazaa, secretary general of Mawhiba, congratulated King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for this new national achievement, which was supported by the leadership. She also congratulated the ministry of education and the students, along with their families, schools and teachers.
Al-Hazaa commended the joint efforts by Mawhiba and the ministry of education, as well as their strategic partners, to continue achieving the objectives and initiatives of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 by improving students’ capabilities in accordance with the latest scientific methods used for gifted individuals.
Al-Hazaa said that “the complementary partnership between Mawhiba and the ministry of education has contributed to the development of a creative environment, space and system for talented individuals and produced Saudi human capital models that are competent and able to innovate solutions to sustainable development-related problems, contributing to the prosperity of all of humanity.”
The Kingdom, represented by Mawhiba, also took part in ISEF 2023 as an official sponsor and presented 18 special prizes to the best projects participating in the energy category.
ISEF is considered the largest pre-university scientific research and innovation competition fair.
