 "Photo: Office of Campus Communications")
Yudi Pardo, a home-schooled sixteen year old of Wesley Hills, is conducting research at SUNY Rockland in order to utilize photosynthetic bacteria to create solar panels. By using this type of bacteria, he hopes to create a resourceful and environmentally friendly form of solar energy.
Current solar panels use chemical cells to generate electricity, which can emit greenhouse gases, proving to do more harm than good for the environment. Pardo’s intention is to create a cleaner, biological form of solar energy using photosynthetic bacteria.
“My idea is to extract the chemical energy that plants receive from the process of photosynthesis in order to create more efficient solar panels,” Pardo explained.
But conducting research was just half the battle for Yudi Pardo. Since RCC doesn’t have a designated research program for students still in high school, it took a series of meetings with the college administration to give the ambitious, young student an opportunity to carry out his ideas.
As a result, he was able to go into an independent study course: Molecular Genetics Cyanobacteria.
However, Pardo doesn’t carry out the research on his own, his experiments and results are overseen by Dr. Kristopher M. Baker of the Science Department.
“This Ph.D. level project was largely Yudi’s idea. He came to me with questions and a basic plan and I got him started.
He is approaching a complex problem from a multi-disciplinary standpoint, combining the theoretical and practical aspects of plant and aquatic biology, organic and inorganic chemistry, with elements of mathematics and probability also incorporated into his work,” Dr. Baker explained in a online press release.
Through his experiments with photosynthetic bacteria, such as cyanobacteria, Pardo is hoping to create solar panels that will be able to absorb enough energy to facilitate use during nighttime and on cloudy days.
When asked why he chose RCC as the place to conduct his research Pardo said, “ It’s close to home and the college provides me with a lab and equipment needed to do the work; it would be impossible for me to do this in my home.”
Although Yudi’s experiment could potentially advance the efficiency of solar panels as well as create a sustainable and clean form of electricity, it will take years to perfect the research.
While Pardo has formulated plans to help the environment, as most 16-year olds he is still unsure of which college he’d like to attend after receiving his high school diploma.
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