Athens, Ga. (April 4, 2007) — Joseph Stunzi, an eleventh grade student from Clarke Central high school in Athens, Ga., received the Pinnacle Award — a top honor — at the 2007 Georgia Science and Engineering Fair (GSEF) for his project titled “Enzymatic Hydrogen Production: Expression of the Hydrogenases from the Hyperthermophile Pyrococcus furiosus.” The fair was held at the Athens Classic Center March 28-31.

Since August 2006, Stunzi has spent more than four hundred hours researching the use of extremely stable proteins from a bacterium (Pyrococcus furiosus) to enzymatically produce hydrogen as an alternative, environmentally-sound fuel. Stunzi said that currently hydrogen is too expensive to be considered competitive with fossil fuels because it must be produced by electrolysis – a process that splits water with electricity. His research approach and experimentation has helped further knowledge on proteins that have the potential to produce hydrogen without electrolysis and brings to light a new method for production of hydrogen. He is continuing his work the lab of University of Georgia biochemist Michael Adams.

This year, 821 middle and high school students from throughout Georgia exhibited projects, making GSEF one of the largest fairs of its type in the United States. Exhibits included projects and experiments in seventeen categories and all participants earned the opportunity to compete in the state fair by winning honors in one of the 24 GSEF-affiliated regional fairs.

The University of Georgia has coordinated the GSEF program since 1949 and this year Jackson EMC sponsored the Pinnacle Award. The Intel ISEF is best described as the World Cup, The World Series and the Olympics of science competitions.

This article was posted on Wednesday, April 4th, 2007 at 11:14 am and is filed under Awards, News, Students.