Saskatchewan Science Prodigy, 14, Astonishes Canada’s Scientific Elite with Research on Crop-Killing Disease, Wins National Biotech Competition

Canadian Science ProdigyBiotalent Canada / Bioscience Education Canada
Ottawa / Toronto

27-Apr-2010

Research by a 14-year-old science prodigy from Saskatoon into the molecular fingerprint of a disease that has devastated lentil crops in Canada, Asia and Africa has earned the top national prize of the 2010 Sanofi-Aventis BioTalent Challenge (SABC).

Grade 9 student Rui Song, the youngest-ever national finalist in the event’s 17-year history, “astonished” nine judges at Canada’s National Research Council with her search for an early way to tell apart two strains of a crop-killing fungus, one strain of which can wipe out half a farmer’s lentil harvest if left unrecognized and untreated.

Full news release text, click here

Coverage summary, click here

Canadian Press newswire story: click here