Sophia Clement wins with a tick repellent made from pelargoniums – supported along the way at the ESFZ
A tick repellent for mountain sheep, obtained from pelargoniums: with this project Sophia Clement of the St.-Irmengard-Gymnasium in Garmisch-Partenkirchen took first prize at the BundesUmweltWettbewerb 2025/26, Germany’s national environment competition for young people. She received the award on 19 September 2026 at the awards ceremony at the Klimahaus Bremerhaven.
„Entwicklung eines nachhaltigen Zeckenabweisemittels auf Basis von Pelargonien für Bergschafe“ – “Developing a sustainable tick repellent based on pelargoniums for mountain sheep” – behind the title lies a question that ties together animal husbandry, plant chemistry and environmental protection. Ticks are a serious burden on grazing animals; the usual remedies are a serious burden on the environment. Sophia Clement looked for an alternative that answers both, and found it where one would not look first: in an ornamental plant.
Two projects, two disciplines
Remarkably, this was not her only success this year. At the Bavarian state round of Jugend forscht she had already won an outstanding second place – with an entirely different subject: „Die Arie des Raubtiers – eine physikalische Betrachtung der komparativen Bioakustik“ (“The predator’s aria – a physical view of comparative bioacoustics”). It pursues the question of why prey animals flee at certain sounds. From the calls of predators and prey across different classes of animals she derived spectrograms by Fourier transform and compared them – by frequency bandwidth, pitch, frequency development over time, amplitude envelope and harmonic complexity. The work was entered in the field of biology; she answered its question with the tools of physics.
Supported at the ESFZ
Both project ideas are Sophia Clement’s own. At the Erlangen Student Research Centre (ESFZ) she was accompanied and supported in her research over a longer period – with tutorial guidance, with equipment and with help in searching the literature. After the success at Jugend forscht, it was the ESFZ that suggested entering the pelargonium project in the BundesUmweltWettbewerb as well, since it fitted the call for entries precisely. That it would go straight to first place did surprise everyone.
This is exactly what the ESFZ is for: giving young people space, equipment and expert guidance so that a question of their own can grow into sound research. The questions are brought by the young researchers themselves – and they remain theirs.
About the BundesUmweltWettbewerb
The BundesUmweltWettbewerb (BUW) is open to young people and young adults between 10 and 20 and has been held nationwide since 1990. Sophia Clement’s award falls in its 36th round. Among the six German ScienceOlympiaden it is the only project competition: it honours work that gets to the root of environmental problems and meets them with creativity and commitment – true to its motto „Vom Wissen zum nachhaltigen Handeln“ (“From knowledge to sustainable action”).
Links
BundesUmweltWettbewerb: www.scienceolympiaden.de/buw
Jugend forscht Bavaria, award-winning project: Die Arie des Raubtiers