A 14-year-old from Amersham has finished runner-up in The Big Bang UK Young Scientists & Engineers Competition following innovative research across two continents on the future of antibiotics.
Divit Kelmani from Dr Challoner's Grammar School, grabbed second place in the intermediate science section (Key stage 3) in the national competition last Wednesday.
The Bucks student initially had to submit a project outline, before undertaking laboratory tests in India, and finally presenting his findings to the judges last week.
Summarising the motivation for his project choice, i.e., tackling the threat of bacteria resistant to our current antibiotics, Divit told Bucks Radio: “It’s estimated that by 2050, deaths caused by this issue are set to surpass those due to cancer, so it’s a global issue that needs to be solved pretty fast. It’s something that’s quite under-discussed.”
Divit’s hypothesis for the project was based on the concept of synergy, where two modules combined can have a sum larger than their parts – or as he explained, “where one plus one no longer equals two, it could be four or five.”
“Instead of spending money on developing new medications, we should focus on making the ones we already have more effective,” he added.
The teenager was assisted in his research by his Uncle Dr Chandrakanth Kelmani, who teaches Microbiology at Gulbarga University in India.
In December 2021, Divit visited India to undertake laboratory testing under his Uncle's expert supervision. He was also keen to credit friend and mentor Dr Kantaraja Chindera.
[PICTURE: Divit doing lab testing in India]
The good news is that Divit concludes answers can be discovered before it’s too late, telling us, “There’s definitely a solution that can be found with the right amount of time and resources."
And Divit also intends to continue his work in this area, saying, “I’m not finished with this project. There’s still plenty of places I could take this.”
[WATCH: Divit Kelmani explain his science project]
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