Ana-Maria Iordache, a pupil at Decebal National College in Deva, won the bronze medal at the 2026 International Genius Olympiad, held from 8 to 13 June at St. John Fisher University in Rochester, New York, United States, with a project focused on addressing iodine deficiency in the body.

The competition brought together more than 1,000 participants from 79 countries, who presented research projects centred on sustainability and the environment.

'In the Science category, one of the most competitive sections of the competition, more than 500 research projects were presented. Ana-Maria Iordache, a 12th grade pupil at Decebal National College, impressed the jury with an innovative project promoting new methods of preventing iodine deficiency in animals,' wrote Decebal National College Director Marin Florin Ilies wrote on his Facebook page on Sunday.

Ana-Maria Iordache's project examines how iodine deficiency can be addressed through the use of chilli peppers in the diet, in a similar way to the use of iodised salt.

To this end, the pupil carried out a study and experiment using chilli peppers grown in an iodine-enriched environment. Final measurements showed an increase in iodine concentration in the plants grown under these special conditions, reaching up to 850 per cent compared with the control plants.

Ana-Maria explained that her experiment focused on cultivating varieties of chilli peppers because they are consumed by a large number of people worldwide.

'Globally, we are facing a very serious iodine deficiency problem, with more than 2.2 billion people affected. (...) I noticed that iodised salt has not fully achieved its purpose. Although it is present in 85 per cent of households, it has not solved the issue. That made me think we could use a method that would not necessarily replace salt but rather support it as an additional source of this substance,' Ana-Maria Iordache told AGERPRES in February.

The young researcher intends to continue the study by extending the experiments to tomato crops and by using organic iodine. Future plant treatment could include applying iodine to the leaves as well as to the soil. AGERPRES (RO - writing by: Sorin Blada; EN - writing by: Adina Panaitescu)