Teenager Wins $75k For Invention That Stops Germs From Spreading On Airplanes | Celebrity Net Worth 2026

Over the weekend, the biggest high school science competition in the world reached its conclusion. It's the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in Pittsburgh, and its top prize was snagged by one Raymond Wang, a 17-year-old Canadian science student who came up with a way to halt the spread of germs on airplanes – a hot button issue for anyone who's ever had to fly with a sore throat, a cough, or a stuffy nose. They know that being on a plane with a virus is akin to having a scarlet letter in puritan times, especially in the age of Ebola.

Basically, Wang's invention is a system of fins that can be installed on a plane's existing airflow valves, and which, when in action create pockets of air around each and every passenger on board. This results in "personalized ventilation zones" that would make airplanes less of a hotbed for airborne viruses (Ebola is not transmitted that way, incidentally, but good luck convincing your average plane traveler of that fact). Instead of those germs that fly all over the cabin whenever anyone sneezes, the germs would be sucked out of the vents through the fins and shot out into the atmosphere where they can't get anyone else sick. And if in reading that your brain automatically kicked into "too good to be true" mode, wait until you get a load of how much it costs – according to Wang's estimates, the systems would cost just $1,000 to install per airplane, and could be completed overnight. If that's so, it's more than worth the $75,000 prize Wang received for his invention, not to mention the millions more he could get from the resulting patent on the system.