I am fully aware that many of you have followed the Livestream of the Grand Awards Ceremony but if you are just hearing about our results for the first time, I can gladly announce that the AUSSEF team performed brilliantly this morning at the Grand Awards. Our 10 students won an unprecedented 6 Grand Awards – remember that Grand Awards are only given to the top 25-27% of the 1650 finalists. Here is the list of Grand Awards in the order that they were announced:
Isabelle Aduna – Wellington Girls’ College, NZ – 3rd Chemistry (USD $1,200)
Cathy Zhang – James Ruse Agricultural High School, NSW – 3rd Earth and Environmental Science (USD $1,200)
Lily Rofail – PLC Sydney, NSW – 4th Physics and Astronomy (USD $600)
Anubhav Ammangi – Redeemer Baptist School, NSW – 3rd Plant Sciences (USD $1,200)
Jesse Rumball-Smith – Wellington College, NZ – 1st Behavioral and Social Sciences (USD $6,000 + USD $1,000 for his school and his fair)
Tim Wilson – Barker College, NSW – 1st Robotics and Intelligent Machines (USD $6,000 + USD $1,000 for his school and his fair)
Between them, our students have won a total of USD $16,200 which is equivalent to around AUD $25,300 – not a bad morning’s work. Our AUSSEF fair also has received USD $2,000 for these two 1st places.
To put this in context, it took 18 years for an Australian to win a 1st place award. Our New Zealand team won a 1st place award on their first attempt, which we are all on Cloud 9 about.
To our sponsors, can I just say thank you, thank you, thank you …. We could not have done this without you and we would love you to continue your partnership with AUSSEF for 2026 and beyond. You have given these amazing STEM ambassadors an opportunity to shine on the world stage! When we return, we need these 10 students to have as much exposure as possible in Australia and New Zealand as they are the ones who can best inspire the next generation of STEM students.
Finally, here are a few photos of our victorious team and some raw video footage, showing the excitement of a Fair Director when Jesse Rumball-Smith and Tim Wilson won their respective 1st place Grand Awards.
Thank you for following these seven updates and I am so pleased that every day had something special that we could share with everyone back home.