WATER WORLD WONDER: Let's hear it for Wash U. freshman Rebecca Ye, whose expertise in biological research led her to win state and national competitions and vaulted her into competition in Stockholm for an international prize.
Ye, a native of Bangor, Maine, won't even take a biology course at the university until next semester, according to an article in the school's student newspaper, "Student Life." But scientists say her discovery of the Quartz Crystal Microarray system has the potential to revolutionize management of the world's most important resource: water.
Before Ye developed the system, it took up to four days to detect small concentrations of e. coli in water. Her method reduces the time to 24 hours and is also affordable. E. coli often infiltrates the water supplies of undeveloped countries and can destroy the intestines if it is consumed.
Wash U. says Ye's rapid detection method has the potential to curb the disease.
She will be in Stockholm Sunday through September 11 for the 2010 Stockholm Junior Water Prize (SJWP) competition, which is being held during World Water Week.
Ye's high school chemistry teacher and the person who introduced her to research, Cary James, said of Ye: "She's amazing. To be honest, she's one in a million ... I don't know where she has the time in the day to do all the work she has done. She's part of the debate team. She does it all. What she's done is beyond amazing.... Becky has walked where other people have never been and may never get, even at the graduate level."
The Stockholm Junior Water Prize is sponsored nationally and internationally by the ITT Corporation, which is the world's largest supplier of pumps and systems to transport, treat and control water. The company provides funding and supplies judges to nine national competitions and the international event.
Ye said the recognition she has gotten has "all been kind of surreal, and I feel really fortunate to be selected. I couldn't have done it without any of my supporters. I feel like it's been a huge group effort."
As a winner of the national competition, Ye received $3,000 and an all-expense-paid trip to Sweden. She is competing for a $5,000 prize and a crystal sculpture in the international
