Alison Bick of Short Hill, N.J., was named the U.S. winner of the 2011 Stockholm Junior Water Prize (SJWP) during a ceremony this past weekend at the Palmer House Hilton in Chicago, Ill.
Bick’s project, “Development and Evaluation of a Microfluidic Co-Flow Device to Determine Water-Quality,” was selected from more than 40 state SJWP winners at the national competition held in Chicago last week.
Concerned by the threat of contaminated drinking water from events such as natural or man-made disasters, Bick sought a low-cost, portable and publicly accessible method for testing water potability. Her research concluded that a combination of microfluidics, cell-phones and Colilert-18—a chemical that becomes yellow in the presence of coliform bacteria and a water sample in a single channel—is a novel way of determining several water qualities.
Bick received $3,000 and an all-expense paid trip to Stockholm, Sweden, where she will compete against national winners from more than 30 countries for the international honor during World Water Week, August 21-27, 2011. HRH Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden will present the international award—$5,000 and crystal sculpture—during a royal ceremony held in conjunction with the Stockholm Water Symposium.
Bick’s school, Millburn High School, will receive a $1,000 grant toward enhancing water science education and she will have the opportunity to present her research to thousands of water quality professionals at WEFTEC 2011 this October in Los Angeles, Calif.
Source: Water Environment Federation
