Edmonton student wins international science contest with cancer-treatment project

Elizabeth Chen, a Grade 12 student at Old Scona Academic School, was awarded a first prize at the European Union Contest for Young Scientists in Brussels.

A 17-year-old Edmonton high school student has won top honours at an international science competition for her project that examines CAR T-cell therapy, an alternative cancer treatment.

Elizabeth Chen, a Grade 12 student at Old Scona Academic School, was awarded a first prize at the European Union Contest for Young Scientists (EUCYS) in Brussels Sept. 12-17.

To qualify for the competition in Belgium, Chen first had to win at regional and national levels.

“It was completely life changing,” said Chen of her first trip to Europe.

She said meeting all the people involved was the best part of the week.

“Meeting everyone, meeting the youth, meeting the judges, meeting the national organizers, meeting everyone who is able to make youth science work both in Europe and all across the world really, because there were a lot of different countries that were not part of the EU there.”

Chen said she was amazed by all the different ideas her peers presented.

“There were people who made things out of spiderwebs. There were people who made parts of rockets. It’s just ridiculous, the amount of things people can come up. And these are people ages 14to 20, which is ridiculous to me.”