Revisiting Some of the Regional Winners From Yuri Milner’s Global Breakthrough Junior Challenge
The Breakthrough Junior Challenge presents an annual opportunity for young people aged 13 to 18 to create and submit original videos of up to 1:30 minutes on a big scientific idea, making this concept easy to understand for their peers. Entrants can select any scientific concept or theory in the life sciences, physics, or mathematics.
Yuri Milner’s Breakthrough Prize Foundation organises this global competition, which makes science more accessible for young people all over the world. Yuri Milner and his wife Julia founded the Breakthrough Prize Foundation as part of their Giving Pledge, which has seen them contribute funding to the future of scientific research and discovery.
The Breakthrough Prize Foundation
The Breakthrough Prize Foundation raises key questions in science, encouraging the general public to ponder these; raises the profile and prestige of scientists; and inspires the next generation of scientific thought leaders with fascinating concepts. The Breakthrough Junior Challenge upholds all three of these aims with a particular focus on the third.
The Breakthrough Junior Challenge
Yuri Milner recognises that young people are typically good at sharing their ideas with their peers, and the Breakthrough Junior Challenge allows them to do this on a global scale. The judges assess each video submission for the applicant’s ability to communicate complex scientific concepts in appealing, helpful, and creative ways. The 2022 competition deadline has now passed, and the judging process has begun.
Recent Breakthrough Junior Challenge Champions
Every year, young people from the following countries become regional champions: Asia, North America, Central/South America, Australia/New Zealand, Europe, the Middle East/Africa, and India.
Regional champions from recent years include:
- Gornekk Suwattanapong, age 17, from Thailand, whose video from the 2021 competition examines why black holes are often used to explain time travel. He bases his discussion on Einstein’s theory of relativity.
- Amogh Thakkar, age 18, from the U.S., whose video from the 2021 competition focuses on human endogenous retroviruses. During his video, Thakkar explains that viruses can’t replicate unless they find cells that allow them to do so. Retroviruses store genetic information in the form of RNA and replicate it by running a DNA copy of their RNA. He explains that they then integrate their newly formed DNA into their host cell’s DNA. The cell reads the viral DNA and makes more copies of the virus.
- Michael Nixon, age 18, from Australia, whose video from the 2021 competition discusses cosmic microwave background (CMB), an invisible microwave signal that comes from all directions in space. During his video, Nixon explains the origins of CMB by explaining how atoms formed in the universe immediately after the Big Bang. He moves on to explain decoupling and how light has evolved since the beginning of time.
- Weber Lin, age 15, from the U.S., whose video from the 2020 competition explains how Covid-19 spread rapidly on a worldwide scale, how the human immune system responds to the virus, and the treatments scientists have developed to protect against the virus.
- Sigil Wen, age 17, from Canada, whose video from the 2020 competition explores supercomputer algorithms and how these can decode the biological language of life, leading to medical breakthroughs. Wen explains that, with supercomputer algorithms, humanity has created a universal flu vaccine and a host of treatments to cure diseases like cancer, HIV, and, more recently, Covid-19.
Winners of the Breakthrough Junior Challenge receive exciting prizes, such as a $250,000 college scholarship (first prize), $50,000 for a teacher who inspired them (second prize), and a $100,000 science lab for their school (third prize).
