16-year-old Annabelle Rayson from Sarnia, Ontario won multiple awards at the 2022 Canada-Wide Science Fair. Through her project, Annabelle explores how to use zooplankton to protect freshwater ecosystems against harmful algae blooms. Annabelle won the Best Project (Discovery) Award, and shortly after the fair, her project was selected to represent Canada at this year’s SJWP.

On August 30, 2022, Annabelle Rayson was recognized for her work during a ceremony at World Water Week in Stockholm, Sweden where she won the 2022 Stockholm Junior Water Prize for her research on algae blooms. Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden presented Annabelle with the award.

The Stockholm Junior Water Prize is an international competition at which students present solutions to major water challenges. Annabelle’s research is seen as a “potential solution for a multi-faceted global problem”.

This is the third time Canada has won the prestigious international competition, which started in 1995. The two previous winners were Alexandre Allard and Danny Luong in 2010 and Hayley Todesco in 2014.