Ashutosh Patra

Ashish recently graduated as the class valedictorian from Sunset High School in Portland, Oregon. He is currently a freshman in the Jerome Fisher M&T program at the University of Pennsylvania. His interests span from engineering and math to history and policy. In ninth grade he visited many rural areas in India with his father on a social service trip. There he noticed extensive lack of access to potable water and energy. He has conducted two research projects on appropriate technologies involving water and energy. One was on efficient microbial fuel cells that convert wastewater into clean water and electricity. The other project was cost-effectively harvesting energy from the sun using novel “water lenses.” Some of his recent awards include the First Place Grand Award at the International Science and Engineering Fair 2009, the 2009 International BioGENEious Award, the MIT Think Award, and the Stockholm Junior Water Prize in 2008 and 2009. In the future, he plans to continue research on sustainable water and energy technologies.