Meet Raji Doshi, 12, who won America’s Top Young Scientist and $25,000

Ocean acidification rarely makes headlines the way storms or heatwaves do, yet it quietly changes the chemistry that coral, shellfish and other sea creatures rely on. One twelve-year-old from Connecticut has decided to take it on. Raji Doshi, a seventh-grade student at Talcott Mountain Academy, designed a coastal solution that pairs algae with natural calcium buffers, and it earned her a place among the ten national finalists of the 2026 3M Young Scientist Challenge. This article explains how her idea works, why she created it, which invention she admires most, and what she hopes to build in the future.How a durable algae and aragonite alkalinity system aims to lower ocean acidity and protect sea lifeAccording to Raji's finalist profile on the 3M Young Scientist Lab, she created an innovative coastal solution that uses algae and natural calcium buffers to lower ocean acidity and boost marine health.