At this year's Jugend forscht state competition, organised by the Technologie- und Gründerzentrum Halle GmbH (TGZ) and the Elektrochemie Halle GmbH (ECH), 34 young researchers presented a total of 22 research projects. At the awards ceremony in the great hall of IAMO, participants, supervising teachers and parents were welcomed by Saxony-Anhalt's Minister of Education, Eva Feußner, and Halle's mayor, Alexander Vogt, as well as IAMO director Thomas Herzfeld. Thomas Herzfeld praised the focus on natural sciences in the competition and emphasised the importance of science as a whole – including the humanities and social sciences – for society.
During the event the state winners were honoured and special prizes as well as school prizes were awarded. In the subject area of biology, for example, Lucia Liebe (15) and Isabela Stoica (17) from Wernigerode won for their research on fungal infections in soft wheat. For this purpose, they infected wheat plants they had grown themselves with the brown rust fungus, which is widespread in Central Europe, in order to find a way to treat it without chemical agents. In addition to them, the winners in the fields of chemistry, physics, technology, mathematics and computer science, as well as earth and space science qualified for the national final.
Jugend forscht is a competition for young people interested in the natural sciences. Pupils between the ages of 15 and 21 develop their own research projects and present them to a jury of experts at regional, state and federal level. For young talents up to 14 years of age, there is the Jugend forscht junior competition format, which takes place at the regional and state level. Supported by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and numerous partners from science, industry and the media, the Jugend forscht e.V. foundation has been pursuing the goal of encouraging curiosity and creativity at an early stage and creating practical access to science since 1965.
