Bacteria beware: MIT student invents knock-out punch for antibiotic resistance

“Tim demonstrates the type of ambitious and inventive thinking the $30,000 Lemelson-MIT Student Prize was established to recognize,” said Josh Schuler, executive director of the Lemelson-MIT Program, which provides the annual award. “What is truly impressive about Tim’s approaches is the breadth of his applications. Not only does his work have potential in healthcare, but also in protecting the general public through safer food processing and prevention of industrial biofouling. Harmful bacteria everywhere should be afraid.”

Second Year of National Student Prize Expansion

On February 28, the winners of the second annual $30,000 Lemelson-Illinois Student Prize and Lemelson-Rensselaer Student Prize will be announced at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, respectively. Details about each winner will be posted on www.30kprize.uiuc.edu and www.rpi.edu/lemelson/.

ABOUT THE $30,000 LEMELSON-MIT STUDENT PRIZE

The $30,000 Lemelson-MIT Student Prize is awarded annually to an MIT senior or graduate student who has created or improved a product or process, applied a technology in a new way, redesigned a system, or demonstrated remarkable inventiveness in other ways. A distinguished panel of MIT alumni and associates including scientists, technologists, engineers and entrepreneurs chooses the winner.

ABOUT THE LEMELSON-MIT PROGRAM

The Lemelson-MIT Program recognizes outstanding inventors, encourages sustainable new solutions to real-world problems, and enables and inspires young people to pursue creative lives and careers through invention.

Jerome H. Lemelson, one of U.S. history’s most prolific inventors, and his wife Dorothy founded the Lemelson-MIT Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1994. It is funded by the Lemelson Foundation, a philanthropy that celebrates and supports inventors and entrepreneurs in order to strengthen social and economic life in the U.S. and developing countries. More information on the Lemelson-MIT Program is online at http://web.mit.edu/invent/.

Editor's Note: The correct name of Timothy Lu's award is the $30,000 Lemelson-MIT Student Prize.