Asha Suppiah, 19
Deep River, Ontario

In many parts of the world, including developed countries, there are extreme shortages of fresh water. When Asha was in Grade 6, she often wondered why two things that are freely available - ocean water and sunlight - could not be used to harvest fresh water.

Over the next few years, Asha researched solar desalination and discovered that its use was stymied by low efficiency rates of solar desalinators and the cost of the systems.

Asha then spent a few more years exploring various ways of utilizing solar energy to produce fresh water, and eventually succeeded in developing a novel technique of spreading salt water on a corrugated rotating screen to increase the surface area required to evaporate the water. This technique is very valuable because the equipment is of low cost and the system can be constructed cost effectively.

Asha's scientific accomplishment has not gone unnoticed. Asha is a two-time winner of the Pfizer Canada Award of Excellence, and at the Canada Wide Science Fair, Asha won gold three times and silver three times, along with numerous awards including the AECL Award of Excellence, Natural Resources Canada Award and the Ontario Power Generation Award to name a few. Asha's invention is currently patent pending.

Ryan Thirlwall, 19
Victoria, British Columbia

Ryan Thirlwall is a survivor, overcoming monumental adversities and speaking to the needs of at-risk youth.

Abused at a young age, Ryan sought escape through hard core drug addiction and crime, eventually ending up in the juvenile justice system.

Now drug free and holding a steady, managerial level job, Ryan is committed to supporting youth and others in need.

Ryan has spoken to thousands of young people in BC and throughout Canada and is a member of the board of the BC Positive Community Youth Development Coalition, which builds the capacity of communities in British Columbia to enhance the positive development of youth.

Ryan's latest endeavour is "PAY IT FORWARD BIKE TOUR" 2008 where he will ride his bike from Prince Rupert to Victoria to raise money for his organization.

His fundraising goal is $1 million.

David Wang is a multi-talented young person with extraordinary initiative and creativity.

David came up with the idea of developing a plant-based edible vaccine for SARS after its outbreak in 2003 which killed nearly 800 people worldwide. After putting so much effort to the research, David produced transgenic plants expressing a protein antigen that has the potential for inducing neutralizing antibodies against the virus.

David's research provided a solid foundation for the development of a plant-based, safe, cost-effective, edible SARS vaccine.

Inspired by his great success in his first SARS vaccine project, he then began to work on developing a new oral immunotherapy for treating human autoimmune diseases.

After two years' hard and creative work, David generated transgenic plants expressing a biologically active IL-13 protein and demonstrated it has a great promise against Type-1 diabetes.

It is not surprising that David has received many scientific accolades including First Place in Botany in the 2006 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF), Second Place in Medicine and Health Sciences in the 2007 Intel ISEF, and six National level awards in the Canada Wide Science Fair and Sanofi-Aventis Biotech Challenge.

When David is not in the lab, he can be found playing chess and is a three time Canadian Youth Chess Champion and a member of the Team Canada World Youth Chess Championship.

In 1954, Marilyn Bell became the first person to swim across Lake Ontario.

In the summer of 2006, Samantha Whiteside became the 38th person and the second youngest to accomplish this 52 KM feat.

In doing so, she raised over $25,000 for juvenile arthritis - the same disease that afflicts Samantha today.

Not many people are aware of the preparation and planning that goes into the crossing - it takes roughly one year to train for the swim and many months to plan.

Once in the water, the swimmer is not allowed to wear a wetsuit or use floatation devices, nor are they allowed to touch any person or boat during the swim. Samantha completed her swim, missing the World Record by 71 seconds.

Samantha has vowed to return to Lake Ontario to not only raise more funds for the Arthritis Society, but to become the fastest swimmer, male or female, to cross Lake Ontario.