Millie Pradawong, a Madison High freshman who grew up in Vienna, is one of ten finalists nationwide in the 2026 3M Top Young Scientist Challenge. She will compete in October at the 3M Innovation Center in St. Paul, Minnesota, for a $25,000 grand prize.

Pradawong built a machine-learning tool called MACRO (Machine Learning-Augmented CRISPR Reprogramming Optimization) that predicts how gene editing could help microalgae produce more biofuel. She developed the project as a seventh-grader at Thoreau Middle School during a science unit on pollution, FCPS announced Aug. 31.

She spent six months on the work.

The challenge she tackled: algae cells use their resources both to grow and to produce lipids, oils that can become fuel. Increasing lipid production slows growth. Prioritizing growth limits fuel output. MACRO uses computational tools to identify genes that could be modified with CRISPR, a gene-editing technology, narrowing which changes look most promising before lab testing.

"I want to mass produce a plant that can take in all the greenhouse gases out there that grows at a rate that makes it still beneficial," Pradawong said in the FCPS profile.

Her path to the national stage started at Vienna Elementary School. In first grade, her teacher Ms. Gutowski gave each student a tree to grow at home.

Pradawong's tree still stands in her backyard, now twice as tall as she is.

That project sparked a lasting interest in biology. Pradawong was selected from thousands of middle school students in grades 5 through 8 who submitted video pitches proposing science-based solutions to real-world problems. As a finalist, she spent the summer collaborating with a 3M scientist mentor.

FCPS has recent history in the competition. In 2023, Heman Bekele of Woodson High School won the 3M Top Young Scientist Challenge with a soap that treats and prevents skin cancer. Bekele was later named TIME's 2024 Kid of the Year.

In October, Pradawong will face live challenges and present her project to a panel of judges at the 3M Innovation Center.