May 23, 2024 16:00:00

17-year-old's research results that won first place in the world's biggest science competition have been found to be fabricated

The International Student Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) is the world's largest science competition, held annually in the United States in May. It has been reported that the research of a 17-year-old student who won first place in the Environmental Engineering category at ISEF 2024, held from May 11 to 17, 2024, was fabricated.

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The winner of the Environmental Engineering category, along with a $55,000 prize, was Krish Pai, an intern at the University of Southern California in Del Mar, California, for his machine learning research into identifying genetic sequences for biodegradable plastics.

Meet Krish Pai, winner of the Regeneron Young Scientist Award (Regeneron ISEF 2024) - YouTube


Pai developed software called 'Microby' to investigate how microbes can be genetically modified to make them biodegradable. Through these experiments, he identified two microbes that can decompose plastic at one-tenth the cost of conventional recycling.

However, online sources have pointed out that the research contains sloppy fabrication and plagiarism.

For example, below is a part of the material presented by Mr. Pai in his presentation. The part surrounded by a red frame shows a photo of plastic that has actually been decomposed by microorganisms.

However, this photo was a modified version of the following image used in

a study by Ulysses University on plastic-biodegrading bacteria .

It was also discovered that the graphs shown in the presentation materials were reused from those used in

a research paper published in 2019 .

Furthermore, Pai claims to have created a near-infrared spectrometer during his experiments, and he included the following diagram and photo in his documents:

However, it turns out that these illustrations and photos were also directly reused from those of a plastic scanner released in 2021.

Introducing 'Plastic Scanner' that can instantly determine whether plastic waste can be sorted by scanning it - GIGAZINE

Christopher Brunette, the journalist who made the accusation, said, 'Everyone makes mistakes. God knows I did a lot of stupid and immoral things when I was 17. And there is always an opportunity for growth and atonement. I sincerely hope that Mr. Pai will repent and strive to become a more ethical person. In my opinion, he still deserves the opportunity to attend a good university and have a long and fulfilling career.' However, he added, 'Mr. Pai's award should be revoked. This situation is unfair to the other contestants. The fraud is clear, and the $55,000 prize should be awarded to the runner-up.'