Goleta student Elizabeth Louise Olvera receives national science award for her research
GOLETA, Calif.– Elizabeth Louise Olvera, a 13-year-old from Goleta, is the recipient of a $10,000 award from the Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge (Thermo Fisher Scientific JIC) for her experiments identifying an eco-friendly fabric for reusable and affordable menstrual pads.
Olvera won the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Award for Health Advancement for the promise her research provides in health-related fields as well as her understanding of the social factors that impact the health of communities.
Olvera's project was inspired by the book and documentary Period. End of Sentence that details the efforts of women in rural India making their own menstrual pads while fighting social stigma.
As a result of her experimentation, Olvera determined that a cotton and hemp blend was the most absorbent and that aged fabric outperformed their newer counterparts.
The seventh grader hopes her findings, “will empower menstruators to pave their own path towards equity while reducing waste, spending and health risks.”
"Congratulations to our inaugural class of Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge winners!” said Dr. Karen Nelson, Chief Scientific Officer at Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. “These exceptional students are future changemakers in their chosen fields, and they are also role models for all young learners who aspire to improve society through STEM. We are honored to celebrate their extraordinary talent and passion and look forward to seeing how their projects positively impact our world.”
The Thermo Fisher Scientific JIC, a program of the non-profit Society for Science, is a middle school-based STEM competition that selects just 30 finalists from over 2,000 applicants.
Finalists are selected by a panel of distinguished scientists, engineers, and educators and receive their awards at The Kennedy Center in Washington D.C.
“The top winners of the Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge have exhibited boundless curiosity,” said Maya Ajmera, President and CEO of Society for Science and Executive Publisher of Science News Media Group. “Their remarkable research not only reflects their talent but also paves the way for an exciting new future.”
Those 30 finalists participated in a series of team challenges in addition to their provided projects including a team challenge to develop a device to study the Chesapeake Bay's oyster reef ecosystem and investigate a mysterious pathogen.
Below is Olvera working alongside her team during the challenge.
As for Olvera's future plans? She wants to become an environmental engineer explaining, “A career in environmental engineering offers a variety of occupations that use science to bridge human needs and wants with the stewardship of nature.”
