The colorful closing ceremonies—with many of the participants in native dress and draped in or waving the flags of their countries—featured the announcement of 18 gold-medal projects in science and six in art. Each winner—many projects had two authors—took home an Acer netbook and a certificate, along with his or her medal.

Raghav Mishra of Shrewsbury, MA, represented the USA at the International Olympiad on Environment (GENIUS Olympiad, i.e. Global Environmental Issues and Us). He secured the 1st place and was awarded the Gold Medal (along with an ACER Net Book). Raghav also won the 'Most Knowledgeable' award.

Raghav participated in the week-long event held at SUNY, Oswego that brought 170 finalists (from 34 countries and 31 states) to the campus.

SUNY Oswego faculty member Fehmi Damkaci declared all 223 young scientists and artists winners at the closing awards ceremony June 30 of the first GENIUS Olympiad.  “I am happy to have welcomed so many participants from so many countries and states in our first year,” said Damkaci, assistant professor of chemistry and lead organizer of the 2011 Global Environmental Issues and Us international high school science and art competition. “It is really joyful to hear from every participant that they enjoyed it very much and found it very professional and academic. They all thanked SUNY Oswego for hosting such an event.”

Raghav, representing United States\Massachusetts, was First Place Gold Science Award winner in the Resources and Energy category. The title of his research project was, "Improving the power output and efficiency of microbial fuel cell - a novel bio-electro-chemical system for energy generation."

Twenty-four science and five art projects earned silver medals, and their authors won Kindle e-book readers, while thirty-four science and three art projects received bronze medals, and their authors took home iPods. All awards and other expenses were courtesy of sponsors such as Terra Science and Education Foundation, Syracuse Center of Excellence, SRC, Airgas, Barton & Loguidice, TECHNOtime and Web designer Pccolog Sakbas, as well as the host college.

The centerpiece of the June 27-30 competition was the exhibition and judging in Hewitt Union ballroom of science and art projects in ecology and biodiversity, resources and energy, environmental quality, human ecology and in a special category, removing oil from water.

All the science entries—more than 620 began the competition, with 170 entries named finalists—featured scholarly posters summarizing their authors’ research; some entrants exhibited models or working demonstrations. Student artists submitted cartoons, short films and animations, graphic posters or installation art. Primary judges for oral presentations of the finalists’ exhibits were SUNY Oswego faculty members Kestas Bendinskas, associate professor of chemistry, and Venera Jouraeva, visiting assistant professor of chemistry. For a list of all award-winning projects, students and their countries or states, visit:

http://www.geniusolympiad.org/.

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