Elif Gulce Batgi

Growing up in the Kurdish region of Turkey, Elif has seen the effects of political instability, cultural barriers, and limited access to education firsthand. Amid family hardship and regional unrest, she saw the way that water could be used as a political tool. After two major earthquakes occurred in 2023, she was determined to find a solution to the water contamination issues in her hometown, particularly given the acute need for clean water during crises like wars and earthquakes. With that in mind she created Lignopure – a bio-based, cost-effective filtration product using some of the 9 million tons of rice husk that are discarded annually in the region.

What began as experiments in a university lab over nine months became a patented innovation that effectively binds with heavy metals, antibiotics, and industrial dyes in just 60 minutes. Elif has since secured a $20,000 grant from Labixir Pharmaceutical R&D Centre to explore Lignopure’s antimicrobial properties in advanced labs. To spread awareness of the water challenge, she designed and distributed booklets in English, Turkish and Kurdish, as well as reaching out on social media.

But Elif’s impact reaches beyond invention. As Vice Chair of Hevsel Times, southeastern Turkey’s only STEM journal, she has led over 5,200 student readers through articles, YouTube videos, podcasts and interviews. She also organised the YouthMind Summit, the first neuroscience summit in her region, featuring speakers from NYU and Berkeley who presented to over 100 participants. Elif is an award-winning global advocate: a Diana Award recipient, a Crimson Education 18 Under 18 award winner in 2024, and a NASA Space Apps Challenge global nominee for her mobile app Fluvius – which uses satellite imagery to provide real-time water quality data for Turkey’s rivers, lakes, and seas. In co-operation with the Ministry of National Education, she also conducted water-cleaning experiments with over 1,300 students from different age groups in neighbouring cities.

Despite a volatile home life and ongoing family legal battles, Elif has maintained an excellent academic performance, ranked first in her class with a 99.84/100 average, and earning a full scholarship and college credit from University of Notre Dame’s Pre-College programme. Her creative contributions extend to helping develop Celestron – a student-engineered exoskeleton that provides extra stability and strength for astronauts. After securing $2,000 in sponsorship from Kolog 3D – which enabled Elif’s student team to proceed with high-quality 3D printing of their prototype – they were chosen as Alternate Finalists in the Conrad Challenge Innovation Summit.

If awarded the Global Student Prize, Elif intends to expand the testing of Lignopure’s capabilities by analysing its effectiveness against other major contaminants found in rivers near her city. With additional funding, she will be able to access more advanced laboratory facilities, collaborate with environmental experts, and turn her idea into a product that can be used by farmers and townspeople. She also envisions creating a programme that provides high-quality science kits and educational content to students in disadvantaged communities around the world, starting with Turkey.