Julia and Alexander Trapp with the Bundeskanzler

Julia Trapp from Year 10 at Ernst-Reisinger-Gymnasium and her brother Alexander from Year 12 at Julius-Lohmann-Gymnasium had a special appointment on 25 and 26 September.

Due to their great success at the "Jugend forscht" national final in Bremen in May, the two were invited by the Federal Chancellor to a two-day trip to Berlin together with the other national winners. After arriving on Monday, the programme included a tour of the city and a visit to the House of Futures (Futurium) as well as a dinner together. The highlight of the trip was, of course, Tuesday morning at the Federal Chancellery with a guided tour and a subsequent reception with Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Federal Education Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger.

After a speech by the Federal Chancellor, there was the opportunity for a personal exchange and a round table discussion on the future prospects of Germany and Europe as a centre of science and industry.

After returning from Berlin, the siblings will continue with the preparations and further development of their research work on the "Development of a resource-conserving and environmentally friendly biochemical redox flow battery" from the national Jugend forscht competition, because the next big trip is coming up next May: The siblings have been selected by a jury of experts to present their research results in the USA at the International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) 2024 in Los Angeles.

The International Science and Engineering Fair is the world's largest research competition and was the model for the founding of Jugend forscht in 1965 by Stern editor-in-chief Henri Nannen. From 11 - 17 May, the two will meet with around 1,600 other STEM talents from all over the world in Los Angeles to present themselves to an international audience and the jury and hopefully also make business contacts in the USA in order to launch a market-ready product in the near future. Prize money of up to US$ 250,000 would of course be an attractive incentive. "After all, we are now achieving 3.5 V and 6.7 Ah per litre with our small 4-cell," say Julia and Alexander. A patent application has already been filed.