13 of the 50 Plant Sciences projects at ISEF 2026 won a Grand Award. Here's every one, with its abstract.
ISEF · 2026
Plant Sciences First Award
Citrus greening (Huanglongbing, HLB) is the most devastating citrus disease, causing a 75% production decline and billions in losses. Oxytetracycline (OTC), the only approved antibiotic, is…
ISEF · 2026
Plant Sciences Second Award
Yaupon Holly and Yerba Mate are two economically important, caffeine-producing holly (i.e., Ilex) species in America. Yaupon Holly is native to North America and Yerba Mate is native to Sout…
ISEF · 2026
Plant Sciences Second Award
Whether plants—which lack a nervous system—can exhibit "intelligent" behaviors such as learning and stimulus discrimination remains a fundamental question in biology. I addressed this questi…
ISEF · 2026
Plant Sciences Second Award
The fall armyworm is a destructive pest affecting more than 80 plant species, most notably maize, resulting in an estimated $9.4 billion in annual agricultural losses. As the global populati…
ISEF · 2026
Plant Sciences Third Award
Increasing concentrations of metals in groundwater and waterways that are leached from coal ash ponds threaten aquatic life and drinking water quality. Phytoremediation poses a potential sol…
ISEF · 2026
Plant Sciences Third Award
Harmful agricultural practices have degraded topsoil and reduced organic matter, leaving farmers reliant on costly and damaging soil amendments. This threatens the ability to produce food fo…
ISEF · 2026
Plant Sciences Third Award
Orchids are plants with challenging propagation; therefore, in vitro cultivation is a viable alternative for seedling production, despite its high cost. Additionally, growth is slow, and the…
ISEF · 2026
Plant Sciences Third Award
Due to population growth, demand for crop yields is rising, leading to greater use of environmentally harmful chemical fertilizers. Stressors (e.g., water, salinity stress) complicate this i…
ISEF · 2026
Plant Sciences Fourth Award
Weed infestations are considered as the most prominent biotic stressors threatening crop yields globally, contributing to 25-40% of annual crop losses. Currently, synthetic herbicides are mo…
ISEF · 2026
Plant Sciences Fourth Award
Up to 17% of cropland worldwide is contaminated with at least one toxic heavy metal, with lead and copper among the most prevalent contaminants. While some remediation methods exist today, t…
ISEF · 2026
Plant Sciences Fourth Award
The AnisGuard project was born from the urgent need to combat the contamination crisis caused by filamentous fungi in coffee beans from Brazil, a threat that compromises food safety through…
ISEF · 2026
Plant Sciences Fourth Award
Global agricultural sustainability is currently threatened by the inefficient use of chemical fertilizers, which often leach into ecosystems as pollutants rather than being absorbed by crops…
ISEF · 2026
Plant Sciences Fourth Award
Global warming has led to a significant escalation of the rate of coral bleaching, with 90% of reefs projected to experience bleaching annually by 2050. Coral bleaching often occurs when mar…