While Luxembourg may not have gotten a medal at the Olympics, young baccalaureate student Julia Bringewald (19) from Lycée de Garçons, brought home second place in one of the most prestigious global competitions for young scientists, CASTIC.
At the end of July, Julia Bringewald participated in 38th edition of CASTIC (China Adolescents Science and Technology Innovation Contest) supported by CAST (China Association for Science & Technology) in Tianjin. Bringewald was coached and mentored by the Fondation Jeunes Scientifiques Luxembourg (FJSL) as she prepared to compete in one of the world's most reputable contests for young scientists.
Through a rigorous and inventive social sciences study, she presented the concept of “cosmic compassion”, demonstrating that adopting a cosmic perspective on human existence strengthens people's altruism, empathy, and pro-social tendencies.
Julia Bringewald, who has always had a passion for astrophysics and will be studying physics at the University of Aachen in the coming academic year, researched the concept of "cosmic perspective", which has been defined by famous American astrophysicist Carl Sagan as thinking about the human existence with an awareness of humankind's modest place in the immensity of the Universe.
As Bringewald collected content from popular science videos, received questionnaire data and analysed statistical data, she was able to fill a gap in the psychological literature. All of this led to the concept of "cosmic compassion" - that by thinking of "cosmic perspective" in our everyday lives, people can present more altruistic behaviour and a proactive commitment towards society's challenges.
Bringewald qualified for this competition after being selected as one of the top ten projects presented to the jury of Luxembourg's “Jonk Fuerscher” competition organised annually by the FJSL in the spring. Thanks to her success —during her first participation in the competition, no less — she received general financial support from the Fondation Jean-Paul & Nicolas Lanners to attend CASTIC in mainland China.
Thanks to her hard work and new discoveries, Julia was awarded the silver medal by the CASTIC jury at the end of a week of cultural activities in Tianjin. The event brought together over 600 participants from 24 countries/regions around the world (Asia, Africa, South America, Oceania, and Europe). From Europe, only 6 countries were actually represented (Bosnia-Herzegovina, Czech Republic, Italy, Luxembourg, Portugal, and Romania).This relatively low figure could be linked to the slow recovery of international events in China in the post-Covid era (CASTIC unfortunately remained closed to international delegations between 2020 and 2023).
In addition to the traditional first, second and third prizes awarded by the Chinese organisers, CASTIC was also an opportunity for CAST's partner institutions in other countries to reward budding scientists with special prizes. The FJSL honoured talented Chinese high school students who proposed an optimisation of bus routes and stops in a mountain region of China by inviting them to take part in the next LISE (Luxembourg International Science Expo) which will be held at the Forum Geesseknäppchen from 4 to 8 November.
The event will be open to the public with free admission on 6 and 7 November - so be sure to save the date!
Read also: In April, young scientists from Luxembourg stood out at the International Festival of Engineering Science and Technology, in Tunisia.
