Exclusive: Scandal at America's Top Science Fair
''Honestly ISEF is probably going to sweep this under the rug unless it comes in the news. Someone needs to send it to CNN or something.''
The Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) is the world’s largest and most prestigious science fair. ISEF 2024 took place last week (May 11-17) at the Los Angeles Convention Center.
Krish Pai won first place in the environmental engineering division, which came with a prize of $55,000 and the Regeneron Young Scientist Award.
Pai cheated.
Krish Pai, 17, of Del Mar, California, received the second Regeneron Young Scientist Award of $50,000 for his machine-learning research to identify microbial genetic sequences that can be modified to biodegrade plastic. His new software, called Microby, scans databases of microorganisms and determines which ones can be changed genetically to biodegrade plastics. In tests, he identified two microorganisms that can be genetically modified to degrade plastic at a cost he believes would be ten times less than traditional recycling.
Pai is an intern at the University of Southern California.
I had reservations about writing on a 17-year-old, so I consulted with a few more senior journalists to discuss the ethical considerations.
Of course it's worth covering, major media outlets, like CNN cover science fairs all the time. 17 is old enough to get charged as an adult in every jurisdiction. Egregious conduct by 17 year olds is not excusable. Important to bust this for several reasons, one of which is that he's clearly on the fast track to a high level gig in neuroscience. Can we investigate this? If you won't, we will.
— Anonymous journalist
It's completely fine to publish on this. It's a big award, a prestigious organization—but you might angle it against the org, which allowed this to pass its process.
— Anonymous journalist
Think of all the other kids who got fucked over.
— Anonymous journalist
Plus, he is already outed extensively on Reddit, Twitter, and via a Google Doc currently circulating that thousands of people have seen. This anonymous Google Docs dossier is the source of my article and is signed by, ‘‘ISEF 2024 and future competitors, ISEF & Society for Science alums, Concerned researchers.’’
You can download the dossier here:
As per the dossier:
The ISEF winner student uses the following image as a key claim of the 100% plastic degraded in their presentation and more:
However, the image boxed in red above is a falsified image taken from online, and has had mirroring performed in the hopes that no one would notice.
The original image can be found here: https://www.mci.edu/en/news-filter-en/228-researchnews/4728-microorganisms-can-degrade-plastics and is from a European University Ulysseus lab testing Ideonella sakaiensis, a completely different organism than the one the Regeneron ISEF finalist used.
The ISEF finalist very clearly labels the figure as: ‘‘Plastic degraded by discovered microbes’’, which is clearly false - a clear cut case of fraud. The ISEF Finalist is taking other people’s data for completely different research projects, and claiming it as their own.
Original image from European University Ulysseus lab:
The ISEF finalist flipped the image to generate the below image shown on their poster, presentation, etc:
If you compare the shapes of the plastics as seen above, you will quickly notice the Regeneron ISEF Finalist’s figure is a mirror image of the past published image! This is blatant data fabrication and research fraud.
The image was not only altered by mirroring it, but was combined with another image by the finalist. This goes to show this is not an accident — the Regeneron ISEF finalist intentionally manipulated the image to play it off as their own creation and result. They also placed an image of themself right next to this result, making it seem like it was their own data.
In the spotting-academic-fraud business, we call this a slam dunk.
But there’s more.
The researcher also steals the wavelength vs reflectivity plot as shown (top right), making it seem like it came from their data:
This figure is right next to a picture of themself to make it seem like it was their own collection and creation.
Original source by Zhu et al., 2019:
And much more.
The dossier thoroughly documents numerous additional instances of theft of figures, exaggerated claims of novelty, misappropriation of a previous researcher's device, plagiarism, citation fraud, similarities to past winning ISEF projects, and potential scientific inaccuracies. It’s a brutal takedown. I find this evidence highly compelling; however, I am not including it all in my article to save space.
I strongly encourage you to read the dossier yourself:
Here's another example of a stolen image. This appeared in Pai’s slide and research paper; he claimed to have built a near infrared spectrometer:
This image was taken from a Rasberry Pi article from 2021:
[Pai] does not give any credit to the original creator of the device, or its images and acts like they “built a custom sensor” and “developed [the] tool.” This is very clearly an attempt to conceal the original creator … it is clear that the finalist did not actually build the device, and faked this part completely.
Conclusion
These actions, while serious, should not define Pai’s entire life. Everyone makes mistakes — Lord knows I did plenty of stupid, immoral things when I was 17 — and there is always the opportunity for growth and redemption. I sincerely hope that Pai repents and strives to become a more ethical person. In my view, he should still have the opportunity to attend a good university and build a long, accomplished career.
However, his award should be revoked. The current situation is unfair to the other participants. The fraud is clear. The $55,000 prize should be given to the runner-up.
This case highlights a significant oversight failure by the world's most prestigious science fair. The responsibility now lies with The International Science and Engineering Fair to take action and issue a statement.
I anticipate that the mainstream media will cover this story later this week.
Expect to see this story on CNN soon.
Future Harvard Presidents have to start somewhere...
This reminds me of a student I had in Precalc (dark time in life, reduced to HS teaching, albeit outstanding district, for a while, wondering how my life had gone so wrong - long story I would not share with NYT reporter but everyone would know some of the names involved).
Anyway, this child's father (single parent) was insanely set on him being a genius, a prodigy, and pushed him to take Precalc as a 6th grader. The kid had the performance down. He would confidently draw out diagrams and spout physics formulas, act like a "genius." The problem was that my B.S. was in physics and he did not know what he was talking about, was just aping vocabulary. I complained to admin that he should under no circumstances be admitted to Precalc but I was overridden.
He could not understand the material; no one wanted to work with him because he brought their scores down (Common Core forced group work and teacher evaluations depended on it, insane). The child had a nervous breakdown at age 11 and had to leave school.
Now I wonder if I should have reported the father to CPS, yet the government seems like such a dystopian last case option. That poor kid is going to have to find his way. (My own mom was schizophrenic. We found our way.)