NASA NAMES EXOPLANET AFTER STAR SAUDI STUDENT
Riyadh, 3 Rabiul Akhir 1437/13 Januari 2016 (MINA) – Abdul Jabbar Al-Hamoud, a champion at the Intel ISEF 2015 global science competition, was honored when the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) named a newly discovered exoplanet “Hamoud” after him.
The Intel ISEF program, by the Society for Science and the Public, is the world’s largest international pre-university science competition, where more than 1,700 students are shortlisted from about 70 countries participating to showcase their independent research and compete for more than $5 million in prizes.
“Abdul Jabbar Al-Hamoud received a unique honor in that NASA decided to name a new planet discovered by its research team at the Lincoln Labs in New Mexico as ‘Hamoud’ to acknowledge his rare success in scientific research by winning first place in the global Intel ISEF program on the new scientific revolution in the field of bio-botany,” according to a tweet by the Ministry of Education (MoE).
Al-Hamoud, 17, last year won the rare accolade for the best scientific research in the world at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF-2015) in Pittsburgh, and he is the first Saudi student to achieve this position in the global competition.
Besides being judged the best among the winners in botany, Al-Hamoud was also given a special award qualifying him to attend the Nobel Prize ceremony in Sweden, Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) quoted Arab News as reporting.
Al-Hamoud did an experiment using the TRV virus in genetic engineering, and his project was applied to 450 typical plants and more than 50 tomato plants.
Currently pursuing his bachelor’s degree at Boston University, he is from the Eastern Province and attended a private school in Dhahran.
Millions of students worldwide compete each year in local and school-sponsored science fairs and the winners of these events go on to participate in SSP-affiliated regional-level fairs from where the best among them win the chance to attend Intel ISEF. (T/R07/R03 )
Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)
