Ron Neumann, an 18-year-old high school student from Ramat Gan, developed engineered bacteria capable of detecting water poisoning, and won a commendation from the Swedish Crown Princess in an international competition held in Sweden. Neuman to Ynet: "It's a great honor. With my development it will be possible to fight biological terrorism. My teacher is already waiting for me to win
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An 18-year-old Israeli youth, who developed a bacteria that detects toxins, won a commendation from the Swedish Crown Princess in a young scientists competition.
The young man, Ron Neumann, developed a genetically engineered bacterium that detects toxins in water, without the need for an expensive and complex laboratory test. This week, Neumann participated in the finals of the young scientists competition in Stockholm, the capital of Sweden, and received a commendation from the heir to the Swedish throne, who shook his hand warmly.
Neumann began his research at the age of 15 and was supported by the Medical Corps, which accompanied the research. The young scientist has already won several awards, including from the president of the country, Moshe Katsav, and the American space agency NASA.
In his spare time between one international competition and another, Neuman is also able to help with Israeli advocacy abroad. During his visit to Sweden, he held informative talks with the other participants, who came from 26 countries to the finals of the competition. Neumann even visited the Israeli Embassy in Stockholm, and took propaganda materials that would help him improve the image of the State of Israel.
(Mariv)
Even before the medal in Athens - an achievement in Stockholm: Ron Neumann, 18 years old, a student of the Ohel Shem school in Ramat Gan, won a commendation from the Swedish Crown Princess on Wednesday, at the International Youth Water Prize competition held at the weekend.
In the competition, held under the auspices of the Crown Princess, representatives from 26 countries competed. The first prize was won by Japanese students, after the judges debated between them
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Neumann. Finally, the judges decided to award him a special commendation for a special development in the field of identifying water poisoning. The Japanese, by the way, produced a fertilizer that does not pollute groundwater.
Neumann developed engineered bacteria that are able to detect water poisoning using a protein cloned from jellyfish. The idea is, explains Neumann, that when the bacteria detect a change in their environment, a command is given to produce the luminous protein cloned from the jellyfish and thus, through a measurement carried out by a special camera, the poisoning can be detected.
Neumann told Ynet from Stockholm: "I'm really happy, it's a great honor. I was able to represent Israel in this competition and the fact that I received the award is the closing of a circle for me. This is recognition of the hard work I did when I started the research at the age of 15.5. This is research that can also help third world countries without money to build an infrastructure of laboratories in amazing and groundbreaking directions. In three-four years it could also become a commercial tool that would also be relevant to biological terrorism, such as poisoning water using nerve gas, for example."
Lt. Col. Patrick Beitan, who is responsible in the Medical Corps for preparing for the case of terrorist water poisoning, accompanied Neuman in the research, and even traveled with him to the competition. Neuman also joined the research of Prof. Samson Belkind, head of the Department of Environmental Sciences at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, who "will certainly continue to develop the subject", said Neuman.
Will you continue scientific activity?
"I am enlisting in five weeks, so I will only have time for research when I am released and after the army I am interested in studying medicine, microbiology or bioinformatics. The biology teacher who sent me to this competition, Carmela Ben Zvi, said that she expects to be invited to the Nobel Prize ceremony in the future as well. It's too early to say if it will happen and there is still time, but I certainly hope so."
The embassy official, Ran Yacovi, called Ron's mother in Eretz, and congratulated her on winning on behalf of the embassy. At the embassy and among Neuman's companions, they expressed surprise that in the press release issued yesterday on behalf of the jury, only the Japanese winners were mentioned and photographed, while Neuman did not receive any mention.
