Senior İdil Doğa Türkmen was part of a student team that presented its proposal for a climate change solution at COP29, the United Nations climate change conference, in Baku, Azerbaijan, in November. 

Out of more than 1,000 entries from 58 countries, Idil Doğa’s team and four other student teams were selected to travel to the conference to compete in the finals of the Oxford Saïd Burjeel Holdings Climate Change Challenge. Idil Doğa’s team earned third place in the finals.  

She and her four teammates, whom she met at an astrophysics program, HydroCure Solutions, last summer in North Carolina, presented on using biodegradable gel in agriculture. The summary of their climate change challenge solution, according to the University of Oxford Saïd Business School, stated: “HydroCure's approach minimizes water scarcity by producing a biodegradable gelatin that releases water and nutrients as soil dries. This slow-release mechanism helps maintain healthy crops in arid conditions, reducing the need for frequent irrigation and therefore conserving water in agriculture.”  

The team’s presentation noted that “water scarcity affects 40 percent of the world population, and 55 million people live in areas impacted by droughts annually,” and “more than 85 percent of droughts affect low- to middle-income countries.” The hydrogels, the team noted, “can absorb many times their weight in water” and “allow crops to survive two times as long during droughts, reducing food insecurity and water use.” 

The plan called for pilot programs in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia, “countries most vulnerable to drought and food insecurity,” the team’s presentation noted. 

Idil Doğa said the conference, which she attended for two days, was an “interesting and impressive” experience. In addition to participating in the competition, she said, she got to see many different projects at the large international gathering. More than “65,000 world leaders, decision-makers, private sector organizations and civil society members gathered for COP29,” according to the World Economic Forum. 

Back at Loomis Chaffee, Idil Doğa is an active member of the school community. She plays the clarinet in Chamber Music and the Wind Ensemble, participates in dance (ballet and tap), and is an International Student Ambassador (ISA). She first came to the school last year as a new junior from Turkey, and being an ISA is important to her.  

“I didn't know what the United States was like, and the ISAs were the first people I talked to. They introduced me to Loomis, which was important to me, and so I wanted to give back in my second year,” she said. 

She said she appreciates the freedom to choose which courses to take and which after-school activities to join at Loomis. “In Turkey,” she said, “I didn't have the opportunity to take the courses I wanted to, so I self-studied a lot of subjects like calculus. But here I can choose just about anything, and I like that a lot.” Last year she said she especially enjoyed physics, and this year she is enjoying genetics. 

More on the team’s Climate Change Challenge plan can be found here.