Laurenciu Palii and Ruslan Gaitur, 12th graders of the Lyceum of the capital, took the 3rd place at Regeneron ISEF-2025 in the Environmental Engineering category. Their project was recognized as one of the best. Photo: mec.gov.md
The third place was awarded to the Moldovan team for their participation in the main categories of the Regeneron ISEF International Science and Engineering Competition, which took place in Columbus, Ohio, USA, from May 10 to 16, 2025. In addition, the young people received two special awards.
The winners of the Olympiad received a cash prize of $1,200 in the Environmental Engineering category and a special prize of $500 from the Qatar Research, Development and Innovation Council (QRDI).
The winners were Laurenciu Palii and Ruslan Gaitur, students of the Republican Theoretical Lyceum “Aristotle” in Chisinau. The guys came out with the project ENEV035T – “Water surface purification using liquid beads formed by self-organizing ZnO micronanostructures”, presented in the category “Environmental Engineering”.
In addition to cash prizes, the contestants were given the opportunity to continue their education free of charge. Anton Bulancia, a student of the theoretical lyceum “Horizon” in Durlesti, received one of the four scholarships offered by the university from China for the summer pre-university program, which covers tuition, accommodation and international flight this summer. He participated with project EBED020 – “Echo-Feather: a controlled acoustic levitation platform for electronics manufacturing,” submitted in the Embedded Systems category.
The Regeneron ISEF International Science and Engineering Essay Competition brings together middle and high school students, national and regional finalists from the qualifying rounds. This year, more than 1800 young researchers from 67 countries and regions of the world participated in the competition. Moldova was represented by three students and a member of the Coordinating Council of the National Science and Technology Competition “Mold SEF”.
