May 23, 2024 16:00:00

17-year-old's research results that won first place in world's biggest science contest turn out to be fake

The International Student Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) is the world's largest science competition, held every May in the United States. 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.

Exclusive: Scandal at America's Top Science Fair
https://www.karlstack.com/p/exclusive-scandal-at-americas-top

The winner of the Environmental Engineering category and the $55,000 prize was Krish Pai, an intern at the University of Southern California in Del Mar, California, for his work on 'machine learning research to identify 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 types of microbes that can decompose plastic at one-tenth the cost of conventional recycling.

However, people on the Internet 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 actually a photoshopped version of the image below, which was used in

a study by Ulysses University on plastic-biodegrading bacteria .

It was also discovered that a graph shown in the presentation materials had been reused from

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 was discovered that these illustrations and photos were also directly reused from those of a plastic scanner released in 2021.

Introducing the 'Plastic Scanner' that can scan plastic waste and instantly determine whether it can be separated - GIGAZINE

Journalist Christopher Brunette, 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 to grow and make amends. I sincerely hope that Mr. Pai will repent and strive to become a more ethical person. In my opinion, he should still have the opportunity to attend a good college and have a long and fulfilling career.' However, he also said, '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 given to the runner-up.'