Credit: Fondation Jeunes Scientifiques Luxembourg - FJSL
On Saturday 15 March 2025, the 54th edition of the national "Jonk Fuerscher" competition took place at the Forum Geesseknäppchen in Luxembourg-Merl.
The annual competition, for young scientists, had a record number of 83 research and development projects, submitted by 141 students (72 girls, 69 boys) from 30 secondary schools or universities. 20 prizes were awarded, including trips abroad to represent Luxembourg at international events, both competitive and non-competitive.
On Friday 14 March 2025, interviews between the candidates and the seventeen members of the jury took place with the results announced on Saturday 15 March 2025.
Dirk Daenen presented the prize-giving ceremony, which included a keynote presentation by Prof. Michel Goedert, a Luxembourgish neuroscientist based in Cambridge, as well as rhythmic performances by the rockabilly band “Little John & the Cadillacs” and a world-record attempt at stacking soap bubbles by scientific artist Pierre-Yves Fusier.
Special prizes or Flagship prizes awarded included:
- the RTL Public’s Choice Award to Tsipora Dana and Francisca Goettsch for “If a river is in a rural area, an urban area or beside a road, does it affect the amount of microplastics in it?”;
- the “Unge Forskere” prize (Denmark) with special mention “Jury's Pick” to nineteen-year-old Krzesimir Hyżyk (Competition record holder) for “Adaptive camouflage generation using sequential wavelet observations of Virtual Quantum Particles, optimised for arbitrary environment replication”;
- Olha Kiriakova (Competition female cadet, aged twelve) for “Beyond the double helix: exploring CRISPR with technology and creativity”;
- Alexandre Buck (aged thirteen) for “D.C.I.R Détecteur de Changement d'Intensité des Rayons” (Ray Intensity Change Detector);
- the Flagship prize “China Adolescents Science and Technology Innovation Contest (CASTIC)” supported by the Lanners Foundation to Maxime Buck for “A modular self-assembling robotic system”;
- the Flagship prize “Taiwan International Science Fair (TISF)” supported by Paul Wurth - SMS group to Rodion Zaichikov for “Building a Low-Cost Hypersonic Wind Tunnel for visualising hypersonic airflow using Schlieren Imaging for scramjet engines”;
- the Flagship Award “European Union Contest for Young Scientists (EUCYS)” (Latvia) to Fréderik Mortier and Noah Lindenlaub for “PLA production using Chlorella Vulgaris”;
- Shaheen Aljourdi, Rodrigo Von Mayer Goulart and Yigit Günes for AURA, a wearable UV monitoring bracelet for protection against the sun;
- Ella Fanxi Jiang and Eva Lenan Du for “Decarbonising Bitcoin mining: A multi-dimensional analysis of global carbon emissions, energy transition, and policy optimisation".
HOM
