Meet the Finalists and View the Top 15 Submissions!

Congratulations to our Finalists! We are proud to celebrate the top 15 submissions after two rounds of reviews of over 2000 submissions. We’ve been extremely impressed with the knowledge and ingenuity from students located in countries around the world. Here is a preview of five finalists (Click here to view all finalists).

Finalist: Ritika Bharati, 16, United States

Video: Oncolytic Virotherapy

"Not only is this topic interesting, but additionally, not many people know about it. I think it is important to educate people about revolutions in medicine in a way that they can understand it. A unique topic such as oncolytic virotherapy also paves a path for people to think more about these topics and want to learn more about them."

Finalist: James Dingley, 17, Australia

Video: The Science of Fireworks

"I wanted to show how science is part of our everyday world, and that things as complex and beautiful as fireworks can be understood with science. This is also the global Year of Light and I wanted to contribute to this through a light-based documentary."

Finalist: Maria Portela, 16, Portugal

Video: RNA Interference

"I chose to talk about RNA interference because this concept is very useful, as nowadays it is a common tool for research, being used in a huge variety of studies. Potentially, it can become a revolution in some therapies, such as cancer and other diseases related to protein overexpression, as it silences gene expression."

Finalist: Max Thorniley, 14, Australia

Video: Special and General Relativity

"I have a particular interest in physics since the topics and concepts are mind-blowing and difficult to understand, this is one such topic and it is the challenge of comprehending it that made me want to make it the subject of my video."

Finalist: John Fish, 16, Canada

Video: The EPR Paradox

"I chose this topic because, primarily, I'm a huge fan of science fiction and love to see elements of science fiction come to life. I've been passionate about the quantum world since grade 7, and have since been teaching myself the concepts and mathematics behind it. The EPR paradox was of specific interest to me because of the nature of the problem."

Meet all 15 finalists and watch their videos here. We hope you join us in celebrating the winner of the Breakthrough Junior Challenge at the 2016 Breakthrough Prize ceremony, via live broadcast on National Geographic Channel at 10:00 p.m. ET / 7:00 p.m. PT on Nov. 8th, 2015 followed by a worldwide broadcast on Fox Network and National Geographic Channels.