Israel's representative won second place yesterday in the Stockholm Water Prize competition for youth

Emily Al-Hachem, a student at Ehel Shem High School in Ramat Gan, won second place yesterday and received a commendation and a cash prize in a prestigious international competition for youth (14-19) from all over the world who write a research paper in the field of water sources and their conservation

Emily Al-Hachem, a student at Ahel Shem High School in Ramat Gan, won second place yesterday and received a certificate of commendation and a cash prize at the prestigious Stockholm Water Prize competition in which talented youth from 29 countries around the world presented their research work, said Oded Distel, director of the Israel Program NewTech.

Emily's work was on the subject of "Networks of metallic nanocrystals as chemical sensors for pollutants in water" under the direction of Prof. Gil Markovich from Tel Aviv University.

This is a prestigious international competition intended for teenagers (14-19) from all over the world who write a research paper in the field of water sources and their conservation. In Israel, a pre-national competition is held under the auspices of the Faculty of Engineering at Tel Aviv University and under the direction of Prof. Gideon Dagan, in which the representatives of the research work that won first place in the Israeli competition fly to compete in the international competition in Stockholm.

It should be noted that this is the second time that Israel has been awarded the Commendation Letter in the ten years that Israel has participated in a prestigious competition of the International Water Institute. In 2004, Ron Neuman also from Ohel Shem School in Ramat Gan won this important award.

"The winning for the second time of an Israeli participant in the competition is a source of satisfaction and pride. Representing Israel in an honorable manner in the international competition on such an important subject, the issue of water, is one of the goals of the national competition that we organize every year. Equally important goals are increasing interest and awareness of the water problem among the youth and preparing a pool of professionals in the future. We hope that we will be able to continue and expand this educational enterprise despite the financial difficulties the competition is facing." - responded Prof. Gideon Dagan, academic director of the competition, winner of the Stockholm Water Prize and a member of the Israeli Academy of Science.

29 countries participated in this year's competition. The winner of the competition, the Turkish representative, developed a mechanism to transform the kinetic energy of the raindrops into an electric current, thus adding an innovative dimension to the field of clean renewable energy.

Oded Distel explains that the "Israel New Tech" program sees the Stockholm competition as an integral part of the program's activities for the development and promotion of human capital in Israel in the areas of water and the environment. The youth's activity in water research raises their awareness of the various water problems in Israel and the world, gives a broad perspective on the global water problem and even prepares the pool of professionals for the future.

In light of this, Distel says, "New Tech has been taking an active part in the last two years in promoting the national competition. The director of the Dead program sits in the competition judges' panel and awarded the second prize in the last competition."