Thabit Pulak

Thabit Pulak
USA
Name: Thabit Pulak
Age: 18
Location: Richardson, TX
The Innovation: Affordable Home-based Bio-sand Arsenic Water Filter and Rapid Arsenic Water Test Using Nanotechnology.
Brief Bio: From a young age, Thabit has always had an interest in his ancestral home place, Bangladesh. Every other year, he and his family would visit Bangladesh to see his grandparents. As he grew older, Thabit took notice of the problems people living in Bangladesh faced in their daily lives and he was determined to find a way to solve these problems. An interesting fact about Thabit is that he has a YouTube Channel, which he opened when he was 13. It now has over 750 subscribers. Currently, Thabit is a freshman at Duke University, majoring in Environmental Sciences and Policy, as a pre-medicine student.
Developments: Arsenic water poisoning is widely prevalent in many third-world countries such as Bangladesh, where over 70 million people are estimated to be affected. Arsenic water filters do exist, but are too expensive for the average person in these countries. Thabit has worked to build an affordable arsenic water filter that not consists of cheaper parts, but also, these parts are ensured to be locally available. This will make implementation of the filter more feasible and sustainable. Currently, Thabit is working with volunteers in Bangladesh to further test filters in the field, and ultimately implement the filters in the future.