BOSTON — The White House Council on Environmental Quality and the EPA awarded a President’s Environmental Youth Award (PEYA) to Deepika Kurup, a 15-year-old student from Nashua, N.H., according to a press release.
Kurup developed a green and sustainable method to purify water, helping to increase the awareness of children and the general public in her community of how clean and safe water is an indispensable natural resource, stated the release.
The project was a lightweight photocatalytic composite harnessing solar energy for water purification, and Kurup developed a cost-effective, easy and quick methodology where a composite degrades organics in water and rapidly inactivates bacteria in sunlight, visible light or in the dark, reported the release.
Her method also established numerous varying prototypes for real world applications, and Kurup has filed a patent with plans to implement her invention in places around the world affected by water pollution, noted the release.
“I have been passionate about solving the global water crisis since I was in elementary school, as I was exposed to the water problem at a very early age,” said Kurup. “I believe that environmental education is very important, and I am very honored to be the EPA Region 1 recipient of the 2014 President's Environmental Youth Award."
You can find the entire release here.
