Show Notes & Links

Naomi Park from USA wins Stockholm Junior Water Prize 2023

Concurrent Removal of Rising, Soluble Ocean Carbon Dioxide and Oil-in-Water Contaminants via Multi-Functional Remediation Framework:  This project addresses the simultaneous removal of ocean carbon removal and soluble oil-in-water contaminants through the creation of a Multi-Functional Remediation Framework (MF-RF), using collected Styrofoam ocean debris to, in turn, remove carbon contaminant.

Episode Transcript

Naomi Park
So what’s interesting is that you’re not actually physically taking out the plastic or the Styrofoam, you’re actually utilizing that Styrofoam to create the material to then remove other pollutants. So this idea of using waste to remove other waste was really interesting to me early on, and therefore why wanted to pursue this project.

Tan Deleon
On behalf of the members of the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering, welcome to this episode of Learning and Living STEMM in Connecticut, the podcast of the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering. My name is Tan Deleon and I’m an elected member of the Academy and serve on its governing council. For more information about the Academy, please visit www.ctcase.org. I’m pleased to have as our guest, Naomi Park, a senior at Greenwich High School. The topic is Conducting Science Research in High School: My experience is competing in local to international science fairs. Welcome, Naomi.

Naomi Park
Hi. It’s great to be here. And thank you for having me.

Tan Deleon
Absolutely. It’s our pleasure to have you. And thank you so much for taking the time out of your busy schedule to be here with us. Can you please share a bit about yourself?

Naomi Park
Yeah, so my name is Naomi. I’m from Greenwich and I go to Greenwich High School. Currently, I’ve been in my school’s science research programs since freshman year and I guess that’s the focus of today’s podcast – my journey in science research from being a freshman, and even stepping away back to middle and elementary school to now about to go off to college, and having competed in many different fairs and competitions.

Tan Deleon
Yes, you are, you’re quite an accomplished, young lady and again, we are certainly honored to have you on this podcast. Let’s let’s kind of, let’s jump into some of the topics a bit. Can you take us through the journey of how you began science research? What initially sparked your interest?

Naomi Park
Yeah, so I think for me, definitely just looking back on how far I’ve come, I think it’s more than just back to freshman year. It’s actually in elementary school. So when I was in third grade, we had this program called Genius Hour. And essentially, every Friday, our teacher would allocate around one or two hours for us to really just do whatever we want and explore any topic that we were interested in. And so at the time, I was really excited about this program and remember thinking to myself of like all these grand problems that I could be able to solve. The one problem being was that I had no idea where to start and had virtually limitless options of you know, what I could potentially pursue, but no clear direction in mind. And for me, this resonates with my with picking a project in high school, too. There are so many different avenues that people can go to, but it’s really hard to narrow that down. And so anyways, I remember waking up one morning when I was like seven or eight years old, to a really bad cramp in my right hand. And I later discovered that this was because of like a really tight grip that I would have when I was writing. And so I think for me, this was a turning point, because it was the first time where I had faced a problem that was really palpable, personal, and above all solvable like I had the means to come up with a way to solve this and mitigate my hand cramps. And so essentially, through all of this, I created a sensor called the Pressure Pen that would emit a red light or just a light based on how someone how tight someone was holding like a pen or a pencil. And so every time I saw this light, it would act as a reminder for me to loosen up my grip. And although many, like real-world impact, was pretty much inconsequential. For me, it acted as a really big turning point as I saw confidence in myself and being able to solve challenges that I see in the world today. And so as I grew older, going into high school, I definitely became more attuned to a multitude of challenges and problems that society faces. And even going into high school I was particularly interested in mitigating the environmental degradation and pollution that has accumulated over the years. And yeah, that’s just a little bit about me.

Tan Deleon
Wow! That’s ah, that’s pretty impressive for, you know, a seven-year-old and you’re, you’re designing a sensor. I mean, that takes a lot of putting a lot of different things together in order to come up with a holistic solution. And I find it actually interesting that because, you know, penmanship is not really a thing these days. And the fact that you’re you are actually writing with a pen is, is quite remarkable. So, so good, good for you. Good for you.

Naomi Park
Thank you.

Tan Deleon
So could you briefly explain what your Regeneron Science Talent Search project is about?

Naomi Park
So yeah, so the Regeneron Science Talent Search, I guess I’ll give a little bit of background, is essentially this competition that’s open to all rising seniors in high school, where you’re able to submit a project, and then there are multiple rounds. But the project that I submitted was the one that I conducted in my junior year. So last year, and I guess I can give a little bit of background about the problems that I was really trying, that I was focusing on. So today, there are three pollutants that are detrimentally harming our planet, but with really limited ways of how to solve them. So first is CO2 and carbon dioxide. And it’s clear that the atmospheric concentration of CO2 is increasing really, really rapidly. And I think when people generally think about CO2, we think of its effects on the atmosphere. However, what I also think many people fail to realize is its effects on the ocean. So as the oceans absorb more and more CO2, it leads to ocean acidification. And by that name, the oceans are decreasing in pH, which is extremely harmful to coral reefs, and entire ecosystems, as coral reefs are keystone species. And so secondly, our oil spills. Every year, around 1 million gallons of toxic crude oil are spilled into oceans every year. And what I found was that there are a lot of current methods to remediate this oil that have already been discovered and are used as the status quo, every time that there’s a spill. However, what I also realized was that a lot of these efforts in remediation are only really effective in containing the visible surface contamination that sits on top the most standard being oil booms, which act as a physical flotation barrier around this oil to capture it. However, although the oil that sits on top is very, very harmful, what’s lesser known is actually the soluble oil that continues to leach out and spread and contaminate even more water. And so this was something that I was also interested in. And the third is plastic pollution. Plastic has definitely gained a lot of notoriety because of how harmful it is. But I was particularly focused on Styrofoam waste. And Polystyrene, the primary component of styrofoam is one of the hardest materials to recycle, which makes Styrofoam especially harmful. And so in search of a solution, kind of piecing together these three pollutants, I’ve come across this material called hyper-crossing polymers, or HCPs, for short. And HCPs are essentially these nonpolar materials. It’s like a powder that has a really high porosity and surface area. And therefore it has been used a lot in the past, and it has gained a lot of attention in literature to capture and remove some of the harmful pollutants that I just mentioned. However, there are a couple of shortcomings with HCPs. One is the synthesis of them. So traditional HCP synthesis requires the use of a lot of costly reagents and methods. But recent literature has actually looked at using Styrofoam waste to synthesize these HCPs. And so after finding this out, I thought that was really interesting, to be able to use a waste product, Styrofoam waste, to create something that would also be able to mitigate other harmful pollutants. And so that was definitely a point of interest to me. But I also realized very early on, that the main shortcoming with HCPs is implementation. So right now, they currently resemble those powders, but it’s not feasible, nor practical to, like throw this powder into the ocean, or any body of water and hope for the best. And so to me, after finding this out, I thought to myself, if I could create a stable system, utilizing these HCPs, like a system that could simply remain indefinitely in water, it would potentially be able to remediate some of the most detrimental nonpolar pollutants but in a more meaningful and easily implementable way. And so kind of piecing everything together. Now, my research basically focused on creating what I call a multifunctional remediation framework, or MFRF for short, that was able to effectively remove both soluble oil and CO2 pollutants from water, while concurrently lowering the ecological footprint of styrofoam waste.

Tan Deleon
Wow! Okay. That’s that is definitely a mouthful.

Naomi Park
Yes.

Tan Deleon
That is Yeah. Wow. So you focused on three different key aspects that were actually, you know, causing a lot of issues for the planet, then you, you found a chemical material that allowed you to potentially remove these agents from the environment. And then you created a topology or framework to implement that solution so that you can effectively perform the – or excuse me – I should say so you can effectively remove all three items holistically as opposed to just individually.

Naomi Park
Yeah.

Tan Deleon
Did I get that right?

Naomi Park
Yes, exactly and so what was really interesting to me was this idea of kind of like a regenerative cycle that I would be creating by utilizing this device. So what’s interesting is that you’re not actually physically taking out the plastic or Styrofoam, you’re actually utilizing that Styrofoam to create the material to then remove other pollutants. So this idea of using waste to remove other waste was really interesting to me early on, and therefore why I wanted to pursue this project.

Tan Deleon
Using waste to remove other waste. That’s yeah, okay. So doing recycling, or reusing items, could that fall into like the circular economy type of thing where you’re, you’re taking something that would…

Naomi Park
Yes, exactly.

Tan Deleon
Okay, so it’s still the same thing? Okay. All right. Interesting. You obviously did really well, with the Regeneron Science Talent Search. Is there a potential opportunity to move this even further? Or like, are you considering taking this another step further?

Naomi Park
Yeah. So for me, I guess, the next steps for me are, I just finished applying to colleges. So that chunk of my time was definitely allocated to that. And so a lot of the work that I was doing, or the research that I’ve conducted, was within my high school’s lab, so it, nothing was really scaled up. So if I were to pursue this in the future, I would want to scale it up and also use, I had used artificial seawater, and many things, many factors that I could control for. There’s just so many other factors that you have to consider when thinking about implementing it, like within, like the Long Island Sound, or any bigger body of water. So I’m looking into logistics of that is something I really want to do. But yeah, I guess right now, a lot of my time has been taken from college apps, and just getting that in order. But thinking of the next steps, I think real-world implementation is something I’m looking towards.

Tan Deleon
Okay, so when you saw what you were talking about, you did artificial seawater, so it doesn’t have some of the microbes and other bacteria and stuff. So you’re not sure basically, if this if this solution would affect those smaller microbiomes? Is that Is that Is that correct?

Naomi Park
So I wanted to use seawater because the interactions between the HCPs and the pollutants are really happening at a molecular level. So I wanted to see by using seawater, if the ions that are present in seawater would affect these molecular interactions. So yeah, other obviously next steps would be looking at more tangible interferences between the HCPs and the pollutants. So that would be like physical obstacles.

Tan Deleon
So we did a podcast – our last podcast – we were talking about the Arctic. Right? And some of the some of the things that are going on up there. And, you know, from a sustainability perspective, it kind of plays into, I mean, it’s one planet, right? So, you know, what affects one place is going to affect other places. Do you? Do you know how well – your solution – I mean, again, I understand that you know – you haven’t scaled it and everything – but just from some of your background experience, how would it work the same way in cold water is it doesn’t like, I’m assuming you had you kept the temperature kind of close to what standard seawater would be. But does it change when it gets into like a colder body of water or is it still performed the same or are you not sure?

Naomi Park
So yeah, once I had actually identified that the HCPs were successful in remediating the pollutants. I had then delved deeper into the real mechanism behind how this technology works. And I actually found out that – I mentioned this earlier – but the HCPs are very nonpolar. And the pollutants that I was targeting are also nonpolar. So this interaction between the pollutants and the HCP is just like a London Dispersion Force adhesion. So it’s a pretty weak interaction. And so what I had later hypothesized was that the only way for the device to work is if the HCP gets in contact with the pollute, that I was targeting. So ultimately, I ended up to the conclusion that it really wouldn’t matter what the temperature of water is, if there isn’t a negligible concentration of the fluid, then as long as the HCP comes in contact with it, it would be able to attach and remediate.

Tan Deleon
Yeah, okay, so yeah, that, that certainly, that certainly makes sense. That certainly makes sense. So you mentioned something, you said London Dispersion Force, can you kind of expound upon that just a bit, for for some of our viewers, that may not be too familiar? I know I’m not familiar. So you definitely be enlightening me.

Naomi Park
Yes. So between molecules, we have like intermolecular forces. So obviously, you like with like the bonds between atoms, those are within a molecule. But we also have forces that are between molecules not actually within the molecule, if that makes sense. So when we’re looking at the pollutants that we’re targeting, let’s say, oil, for example, one of the main components of oil is benzene. So that’s a separate molecule. And then, when we’re looking at our HCPs, those are nonpolar, and I found through analysis that it’s just a really complex carbon. It’s just a complex CH molecule. So what I’m saying is that the interactions between these two molecules of the CH and the oil or the benzene are pretty weak, but they’re still able to attach. So there isn’t an external force or external agent that’s attaching these two things together. It’s simply the interactions between the two. They’re able to symbiotically work to attach and then you’re able to remove those pollutants. Does that make sense?

Tan Deleon
Yeah, yeah. No, I think it does. I think I was thinking when you were saying dispersion, I was thinking, like, actually something dispersing but yeah, no, that’s…

Naomi Park
Yes, so LDF is just the type of interaction then.

Tan Deleon
Yeah, I see. Okay. All right. That’s yeah, that’s quite the creative innovation that you came up with. And you certainly did a lot of back work to ensure that it actually is effective. So kudos, kudos.

Naomi Park
Yeah.

Tan Deleon
So just switching gears a bit. Can you describe the experience of representing the United States in Sweden, at the Stockholm Junior Water Prize? Additionally, how does the international competition differ from local fairs like the Connecticut Science and Engineering Fair, and the Connecticut Junior Science and Humanities Symposium?

Naomi Park
Yeah, it was definitely such a surreal experience. I guess I could talk a little bit about how I actually ended up in Sweden, in the first place. So the Stockholm Junior Water Prize is different from CSEF and JCHS, in that it’s purely water-related research. So you need to have a project that is water-related in some way to even be considered. So what happened for me was at CSEF, at the Connecticut Science and Engineering Fair, I got a state nomination to apply to the Stockholm Junior Water Prize. And so I had submitted my paper and then a few months later, I got the call that I was chosen to represent Connecticut. And so I was really excited about that. And so then what happens is that all of the state representatives are flown out to – it was Colorado at the time – to compete, where they all choose, like a US delegate to represent the United States. And I genuinely had no idea that I would, that I would be chosen. So just being the US representative was extremely surreal and a transformative experience.

Tan Deleon
It’s a big deal!

Naomi Park
Yeah. So that was definitely amazing. And then from there, that was around June of 2023. In August, I went to Sweden with my mom, she came with me and I was able to compete. At the International Fair, and there, there were about 30 countries who had all won their country fairs and then competed. It was, it was a crazy experience, especially there. Not only was the Stockholm Junior Water Prize happening, but the Stockholm, the actual Stockholm Water Prize was also taking place at World Water Week, which is, I think it’s a week where all water professionals in different fields come together. And so it was just so we got to participate in that as well. And I got to meet the Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden, which was definitely crazy. And it was, it was definitely a great experience. And then yeah, so I guess now talking about more about local fairs, like CSEF, and JCHS, I was also able to go to ISEF, which is, it’s a different from the Stockholm Junior Water Prize in that anyone who has done research is able to apply to their state fair. And then hopefully advance to ISEF. So for any, like, prospective students that might be listening, I could talk a little bit about how that works. So for CSEF, our state fair, anyone can apply if you’re in if you’re in high school with a project. And from then there are two rounds of competition where there’s preliminary judging, and then finalist judging. So to qualify for ISEF, you need to either be first or second place in physical sciences, first or second place in life sciences, first in engineering, first in biotechnology, or first in an Urban School Challenge. And so for me, I had qualified for ISEF my sophomore year by winning first in physical sciences. Then junior year, I qualified by winning first engineering. And so for me, ISEF was also just a crazy experience. It’s a week-long, and I think it’s probably the biggest science fair in the world today. It’s like 1600 kids. So seeing so many like-minded peers from all around the world was such a great experience and my sophomore year, I had only competed in local or regional fairs, so seeing something of that magnitude and being able to participate was also very, very transformative.

Tan Deleon
So not only are the local fairs very important because they are the kind of stepping stone to some of these larger international fairs. But you can, you technically are, you know, you could be like a hometown hero and you know, have like your entourage, you know, that, that shows up to route you on and everything. That’s, that’s really fantastic. So is the Water Prize always in Stockholm? Or is it there’s a move-around?

Naomi Park
Yes, so the international one is always in Sweden, because it is adjacent to the Stockholm Water Prize, which is always held in Sweden, and also World Water Week. It’s also I think it’s sponsored by the royal family in Sweden. So it’s, yeah, it’s always there.

Tan Deleon
And since Sweden is a bunch of islands, it kind of makes sense, that they would embrace the ocean the way they do. Interesting. So how did you enjoy being in Sweden? You said you went with your mom… So did you guys get a chance to sightsee and do other things besides good science work, or…

Naomi Park
Yeah, so that was just before school started, actually. So it was nice to go to Sweden, or just like go anywhere before school starts. We’d also gone to Denmark afterward, just for vacation.

Tan Deleon
Anywhere, specifically in Demark?

Naomi Park
We went to Copenhagen.

Tan Deleon
Ah, good for you. Good for you. Copenhagen’s probably one of the, at least I find it to be, one of the best foodie cities like in the world. They have such a diverse population and just the food experience there is just absolutely amazing. Right? I don’t know if you two thought that as well or not.

Naomi Park
Yeah, definitely.

Tan Deleon
But yeah, that was kind of my experience. Yeah. Good. Good for you. So you mentioned earlier that you were, you know, working on applications for college. So besides your college plans, what are their career goals do you have for the future?

Naomi Park
So I’m definitely interested in civil and environmental engineering currently. I’ve always been interested in environmental science, even before research. So I definitely want to look into pursuing a career in that field – environmental engineering. But I’m also actually really interested in nuclear engineering. So over the summer, actually, these past two summers, I worked with professors in nuclear engineering, on other projects, and before, it was a field completely foreign to me, but I actually realized the number of environmental implications that nuclear energy has, the field has gone a lot of stigma, I think over the past couple of years. It’s definitely something that’s become politicized and is a field that has great promise. But there are a lot of drawbacks, like safety concerns, and overall, just kind of garnering public support. But yeah, anyway, I was able to work on a couple of projects there that were very, very interesting, and things like aspects of science that I had never, ever realized that I might be interested in. So yeah, also very interested there. And I think college for me is definitely a time to explore what I’m interested in. But those two fields so far, are what I’m looking towards.

Tan Deleon
Have you made any decisions for college yet?

Naomi Park
Um, so I have gotten into MIT in the early action round. I’m still waiting on a couple of decisions. I think that’ll come out in March or April.

Tan Deleon
Okay. What other schools did you apply? Or are you waiting to hear back from?

Naomi Park
I’ve applied to Harvard and Stanford.

Tan Deleon
Oh, very good. Very good. So, you get, you can be on either side of the country, basically, depending on where you go. Very nice. Very nice. We talked a little bit about some of your travels. So I’m going to assume that maybe travel is part of the things you do for fun, any other things you like to do for fun?

Naomi Park
Um, so I don’t get a lot of time to travel. Because I think all the traveling I’ve done is for science fairs in some way, but definitely want to do more in the future, I think of going I think I’m going to Korea to visit my grandparents this summer, which is definitely exciting. And yet in my free time, I actually really like walking, just walking around my neighborhood, walking with friends. I love listening to music. And, yeah, I think actually, a lot of my time, or a lot of my high school was spent doing research. So I don’t have many very interesting hobbies, but I like doing those things.

Tan Deleon
No, I mean, hey, you know, walking, listening to music, and spending time with friends, or I think good hobbies for most, if not a lot of people, right? So, but yeah, I mean, you were you’re a very busy young lady, and you’ve had a lot of things that you’ve had on your plate. And obviously, you’re you’re bearing, you know, the fruits of your labor right now, and more to come in the future. I would imagine. and I would also expect just based on all the things that you’ve currently done, right? So, fantastic. Absolutely fantastic. So I would just like to thank our guest, Naomi Park. Thank you, Naomi, it’s been an absolute pleasure speaking to you today.

Naomi Park
Thank you for having me as well. This was such a great experience.

Tan Deleon
For those living in Connecticut, and others tuning in from outside our state, thank you for sharing what you are learning from your research, for helping encourage other students to engage in research in middle and high school, and for inspiring all of us with your achievements. Thank you again, Naomi. I encourage you to subscribe to this podcast on Apple podcasts, Google podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or YouTube, and visit the Academy website at www.ctcase.org to learn more about our guest, read the episode transcript, and access additional resources as well as to sign up for the CASE bulletin. Once again, thank you again, Naomi. This has just been absolutely fantastic.