UK project to reduce PFAS pollution wins Stockholm Junior Water Prize

Christopher Whitfield and Wenqi (Jonathan) Zhao from the United Kingdom have been awarded the prestigious Stockholm Junior Water Prize 2024 for their work on PFAS pollution in the Thames Basin. HRH Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden presented the winners with their awards at a ceremony during World Water Week in Stockholm.

Pollution by per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) is a growing concern worldwide. Focusing on the Thames Basin in the United Kingdom, where there are no equitable solutions to the problem, Whitfield and Zhao developed a geospatial neural network that predicted PFAS levels to within 10 percent of experimentally validated values.