Over the years, students' innovations have transformed communities and launched careers, with finalists crediting the competition for igniting their passion for science and shaping their professional paths.
2025
Stockholm Junior Water Prize Niklas Ruf & Jana Spinner from Germany for developing scalable flood warning system for small streams.
Diploma of Excellence Kagan Mehmet Ozkok from Türkiye for ioneering work that combines AI and water efficiency.
People’s Choice Award Divyasri Kothapalli from United Kingdom, for a sun-based water distillation system.
2024
Stockholm Junior Water Prize Christopher Whitfeld and Wenqi (Jonathan) Zhao, United Kingdom for PFASolv, for developing an integrated framework for the detection and filtration of perfluoroalkyl substances from surface water in the Thames Basin
Diploma of Excellence Shanni Valeria Mora Fajardo and Rosa Mendoza Sosa, Mexico Reuse of Inked Water with Homemade Filtration to Produce Veggie Gardens
People’s Choice Award Manoel José Nunes Neto, Brazil Aquatic Rover: An autonomous vehicle for water quality, a low-cost portable tool.
Stockholm Junior Water Prize winner Naomi Park from USA for developing simultaneous removal of ocean carbon removal and soluble oil-in-water contaminants through the creation of a Multi-Functional Remediation Framework (MF-RF).”
Diploma of Excellence Kavin Kumar Kandasamy from Canada for Developed a novel approach for detecting water contamination through advanced sensing methods.
People’s Choice Award Fernando de Silva Hernández & Carlos Iván Erquizio Salazar from Mexico for Creating a project addressing water quality using a source-to-sea environmental approach.
Stockholm Junior Water Prize Annabelle M. Rayson from Canada received the prestigious 2022 Stockholm Junior Water Prize for her research on how to treat and prevent harmful algae blooms.
Diploma of Excellence Laura Nedel Drebes and Camily Pereira dos Santos from Brazil, for developing sustainable and affordable sanitary pads from industrial by-products.
People’s Choice Award Mishal Faraz from United Arab Emirates for developing a platform designed to discourage the use of single-use plastic water bottles and strengthen water security.
Stockholm Junior Water Prize Eshani Jha from the USA for her research on how to remove contaminants from water by replacing active carbon with biochar for use in efficient and cheap water filters.
Diploma of Excellence Thanawit Namjaidee & Future Kongchu from Thailand, for developing a way to use organic waste material for moisture retention, thereby accelerating plant growth.
People’s Choice Award Gabriel Fernandes Mello Ferreira from Brazil for developing a microplastic retention mechanism for water treatment.
Stockholm Junior Water Prize Hiroki Matsuhashi and Takuma Miyaki from Japan for developing method to control soil runoff and increase food production, using the traditional Japanese soil solidification technology Tataki.
Diploma of Excellence Zoe Gotthold from USA, for developing a creative approach to limiting the impact of oil pollution in marine ecosystem.
People’s Choice Award Adittya Kumar Chowdhury & Khaled Iftekhar from Bangladesh for developing a low-cost method to purify water with naturally derived poly glutamic acid and Moringa oleifera seeds.
Stockholm Junior Water Prize Macinley Butson from Australia for developing a new, novel and innovative ultraviolet sticker to accurately measure large UV exposures for solar disinfection of water.
Diploma of Excellence Diana Virgovicova from United Kingdom for her discovery of a New Photocatalyst to Solve Water Pollution.
Stockholm Junior Water Prize Caleb Liow Jia Le & Johnny Xiao Hong Yu from Singapore for producing reduced graphene oxide from agricultural waste products, a material that can be used to purify water.
Diploma of Excellence Tatsuyoshi Odai & Narumi Sakamoto from Japan for developing a system that produces food while purifying eutrophicated ponds with a combination of plants, nitrifying bacteria and fungi.
Stockholm Junior Water Prize Rachel Chang & Ryan Thorpe from United States for creating a novel approach to rapidly and sensitively detect and purify water contaminated with E. coli, Shigella, Cholera, and Salmonella.
Diploma of Excellence Aniruddah Chowdhury, Arnab Chakraborty, and Rituraj Das Gupta from Bangladesh for researching more efficient ways to remove dyes from textile industry discharges, using a composite of titanium dioxide and cheap, locally sourced chemicals.
Stockholm Junior Water Prize Sureeporn Triphetprapa, Thidarat Phianchat, and Kanjana Komkla from Thailand for developing a water retention device that mimics the water retention of the Bromeliad plant.
Diploma of Excellence Gabriel David Alejandro Trujillo, Eunice Yaneli Masegosa Gaona and Carlos Castellanos Dominguez from Mexico for developing a purification system to promote the use of reclaim water for small agricultural activities and school uses, such as bathroom discharges and cleansing.
Stockholm Junior Water Prize Perry Alagappan from United States for inventing a method that uses nanotechnology to remove electronic waste from water.
Diploma of Excellence Katherine Araya & Katya Urqueta from Chile for improving water use efficiency in agriculture.
Stockholm Junior Water Prize Hayley Todesco from Canada, for inventing a method that uses sand filters to treat oil contaminated water and recover water for reuse.
Diploma of Excellence Orawan Thasanabenjakul, Pannawat Peanjad and Natthanicha Jairungsr from Thailand, for transforming wastewater generated during the production of raw natural rubber sheets to a valuable bio-plastic.
Stockholm Junior Water Prize Naomi Estay and Omayra Toro from Chile for their work on how living organisms can help clean oil spills in extremely low temperatures.
Diploma of Excellence Yeari Vigder & Noam Arye Nassi from Israel, for a project that proposes a cheap and easy way to use remote sensing system for farmers in developing countries.
Stockholm Junior Water Prize Luigi Marshall Cham, Jun Yong Nicholas Lim and Tian Ting Carrie-Anne Ng from Singapore for their research on how clay can be used in a low-cost method to remove and recover pollutants from wastewater.
Diploma of Excellence Alonso Alvarez & Daniel Barrientos from Chile for their project which outlined how salmon waste from the fishing industry can be used for biofuel production.
Stockholm Junior Water Prize Alison Bick from United States for developing a low-cost portable method to test water quality using a mobile phone.
Alexandre Allard and Danny Luong, Canada, won the Stockholm Junior Water Prize for their research on readily available bacteria able to degrade polystyrene and decontaminate polystyrene-contaminated water.
Ceren Burçak Dag, Turkey, won the Stockholm Junior Water Prize for having developed a high tech solution that used PVDF, a smart material with piezoelectric properties, to transfer the kinetic energy of raindrops into electrical energy.
Stockholm Junior Water Prize Joyce Chai fromUnited States for developing a novel technique to quantifying the potential toxicity of silver nanoparticles to the world’s water sources and the environment.
Stockholm Junior Water Prize Adriana Alcántara Ruiz, Dalia Graciela Díaz Gómez and Carlos Hernández Mejía from Mexico for their project on the elimination of Pb(II) from water via bio-adsorption using eggshell.
Stockholm Junior Water Prize Wang Hao, Xiao Yi and Weng Jie from China, for their originality, ingenuity and tenacity in their use of low-cost, ecologically friendly technology to restore a polluted urban river channel.
Stockholm Junior Water Prize Pontso Moletsane, Motebele Moshodi and Sechaba Ramabenyane from South Africa, for their revolutionary solution to minimize the need for water in small-scale irrigation. They developed a low-current electric soil humidity sensor which uses light detection to control water pipe valves and improve irrigation efficiency.
Stockholm Junior Water Prize Tsutomu Kawahira, Daisuke Sunakawa and Kaori Yamaguti from Japan, for developing and application of an environmentally friendly organic fertiliser for the Miyako Island. The method is applicable to many places around the world.
Stockholm Junior Water Prize Claire Reid from South Africa, for an innovative, practical, easily applicable technique for planting and successfully germinating seeds in water-scarce areas to improve rural and peri-urban livelihoods.
Stockholm Junior Water Prize Katherine Holt from United States, for developing research that looked at how foreign species could be introduced to benefit the Chesapeake while preserving the Bay’s native oyster species and meeting national environmental goals.
Stockholm Junior Water Prize Magnus Isacson, Johan Nilvebrant and Rasmus Öman from Sweden, for creating an innovative and relevant research on the use of natural materials to remove metals in leachate from landfills.
Stockholm Junior Water Prize Ashley Mulroy from United States, for a contemporary project that investigated how inefficient waste water treatment processes can lead not only to antibiotic contamination in American waterways.
Stockholm Junior Water Prize Rosa Lozano, Elisabeth Pozo and Rocío Ruiz from Spain, for designing an innovative project that used sea urchins, starfish and sea cucumbers to measure the effectiveness of an EU beach protection program on Spain’s western Mediterranean coast.
Stockholm Junior Water Prize Robert Franke from Germany, for designing of the Aquakat, a solar-powered, flow-through reactor for the treatment of industrial wastewaters.
Stockholm Junior Water PrizeStephen Tinnin, United States, won the first international Stockholm Junior Water Prize for having investigated the correlation between the reproductive rate of sea urchins and water pollution.
Stockholm Junior Water Prize Maria Bergström, Katarina Evans, Anette Gustafsson & Elin Sieurin from Sweden, for proposing the establishment of a wetland area to reduce the outflow of nutrients into the Baltic Sea, and thereby also creating a recreational park for the enjoyment of the citizens in Nyköping municipality.
Stockholm Junior Water Prize Mattias Wiggberg from Sweden,for his research of overfertilization and its effect on Lake Kvarnsjön in Södertälje municipality, as well as his proposed actions to mitigate the problems he found. The local government acted on his research.
