Making waves: 6 Society Alumni protecting and preserving the world鈥檚 water
Clean, reliable water is essential to every community and ecosystem in the world, and protecting this vital resource is one of the defining challenges of our time. That is why, every year, the Stockholm International Water Institute brings together researchers, policymakers and innovators for 聽 as a time to reflect on the vital importance of global water and mobilize efforts to protect it for future generations.
As World Water Week (August 23鈥�27) continues under this year鈥檚 theme, 鈥淲ater for People and Progress,鈥� we鈥檙e highlighting six recent Society alumni whose research is helping us better understand our waterways and pursue new solutions to some of the most pressing water challenges facing people and the planet.
Prisha Bhat (STS 2025, ISEF 2022鈥�25)
After learning that her grandmother in India had become ill from arsenic poisoning linked to rice, Prisha set out to find a way to make the staple crop safer and more resilient. For her Regeneron STS project, Prisha analyzed how increasing gene activity affected drought and arsenic resistance in rice. Rice is a staple crop worldwide, but it is susceptible to drought, which can reduce crop yield and may raise arsenic levels in grain. She modified rice plants to boost the activity of three genes: the drought-related gene聽OsPIP2;2聽and the arsenic-related genes聽OsNIP2;1听补苍诲听OsNIP3;2. Testing showed that her modified plants trapped arsenic in their roots, reducing the levels found in the soil and rice grains. She sees this as a sustainable way to make rice more resistant to drought and arsenic, potentially improving health and possibly crop yield.
(ISEF 2026)
Microplastics are a growing threat to marine ecosystems, but monitoring their presence across large bodies of water can be difficult and expensive. Evan designed and built an underwater 3D holographic camera mounted on a self-propelled robot that swims through the water like a sea turtle. He trained AI models to find pieces of plastic smaller than a red blood cell in the underwater images, achieving 94% accuracy in distinguishing microplastics from other particles. He tested the system in 10 bodies of water, scanning more than 80,000 3D images for plastic particles and microorganisms. His work, which earned him the $50,000 Gordon E. Moore Award for Positive Outcomes for Future Generations at Regeneron ISEF this year, could make it easier and faster to monitor water sources for microplastics.
(STS 2022)
While the impacts of global warming on people are an increasingly hot topic, Elijah鈥檚 research sprang from the realization that climate change鈥檚 effects on animals were not widely studied. After reading several articles about ocean acidification but finding none about freshwater acidification, he was inspired to investigate the gap. In his Regeneron STS research project, Elijah simulated changing carbon dioxide conditions, then measured the growth rate and respiration of freshwater clams. He found that as the water became more acidic, the clams had greater difficulty building their shells, reducing their body mass and increasing their respiration. Elijah hopes his findings will highlight the urgent need for more studies of climate change鈥檚 effects on freshwater ecosystems.
(ISEF 2026)
Toxic algal blooms can threaten aquatic ecosystems and public health, making it critical to detect them before they become dangerous. For her Regeneron ISEF 2026 project, Prayrona developed an early warning system that takes a new approach to predicting harmful algal blooms. Rather than relying on a single water-quality measurement, the system analyzes how multiple biochemical reactions interact and identifies when they collectively shift toward conditions that favor rapid algal growth. Tested using NOAA buoy data from Western Lake Erie and the Columbia River, her approach proved more accurate than raw-sensor baselines. Her findings suggest that monitoring these interconnected chemical changes could provide communities with earlier warnings of harmful blooms, helping them better prepare and protect public health and local waterways.
Caden Pohlkamp (JIC 2025)
Living near the Gulf of Mexico, Caden became interested in how communities manage flooding caused by extreme weather. After learning that man-made ponds collect and control water during storms, he wanted to find an optimal way to design them to provide suitable habitats for the local marine life. Caden built a small remotely operated vehicle to collect samples from pond bottoms, then analyzed their pH, dissolved oxygen, turbidity, phosphate levels, temperature and more. He used the data to determine how well the ponds could support aquatic life and shared his findings with local officials, helping them identify and address unhealthy ponds.
Christine Wang (JIC 2025)
When Christine learned in science class that heavy metals in water can damage the nervous system and that many communities struggle to meet safety standards, she was inspired to act. Also interested in addressing food waste, Christine wondered whether discarded fruit peels could be repurposed to make sustainable water filters. She tested different combinations of fruit peels and found that not only did her filter reduce lead, cadmium and nickel to untraceable levels, but it also reduced other contaminants, including E. coli, by 83%.
