Junior wins president's environmental youth award.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) awarded Tanishka Aglave with the President’s Environmental Youth Award (PEYA). This honor recognizes outstanding environmental stewardship projects developed by youth. In America in 2025, the EPA handed out 11 of these awards.
Aglave spent some of her growing-up years on a citrus farm, seeing the greening disease’s impact on oranges. Over the past two decades, this disease has devastated the Florida citrus industry, resulting in an over 90 percent decline in production. Aglave labored for years to develop an eco-friendly and sustainable strategy to combat the disease through the development of a novel, biological bactericide and three-dimensional (3-D) printed modifications to commercial trunk injection syringes to optimize treatment delivery.
To develop the bactericide, Aglave used the Indian curry leaf plant, which is in the citrus family. and is highly attractive to the insects that spread the disease bacteria. In a novel mechanism, when Asian Citrus Psyllids (a sap-sucking invasive species) eats shoots from this curry plant, they no longer spread disease. She theorized that using the natural curry bactericide on orange trees could make them immune from the citrus greening disease. The results have been promising.
In addition to her PEYA award, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Cornell University gave public recognition of Aglave and her efforts, in part, because her work can serve as a model for eco-friendly, sustainable farming practices everywhere.
Also, over the past two years Aglave has led a statewide campaign that distributed disease management kits to citrus growers, conducted educational workshops, and planted more than 1,500 citrus trees. As if that wasn’t enough, she also authored a children’s book titled, “The Story of Oranges.”
Clearly, the young scientist has a lot going on. However, she took time out of her full schedule to respond to questions about winning the PEYA.
Has your research and experience given any new insights since April 2024 when you won the Horvitz Prize?
The Dr. H. Robert Horvitz prize gave me lots of inspiration to achieve excellence in science. Continuing some of my research, I have come up with two new scientific, research-driven formulations, and both are showing excellent results in managing the citrus greening disease in my greenhouse studies. I am very confident that these formulations can make a revolution in the citrus industry.
How did you respond to winning the President’s Environmental Youth Award?
When I won this award, I was in utter surprise! I recall being in my psychology class when I opened the email and saw congratulations on the first line. I was confident in my project and the work that we were able to accomplish, however, it felt amazing to receive the recognition at this level. I am so incredibly grateful for all the opportunities I have received, support that I have received from everyone, and the President’s EPA Award committee for choosing my project out of all the incredible work that so many young individuals have been accomplishing.
What does winning the award
mean to you?
First of all, I believe this award sheds light on the transformative potential of youth in being able to undertake environmental stewardship and accomplish a positive change in the world. I think it is very important for youth like me to get recognized, and I hope this award is a symbol that inspires more youth to lead environmental and sustainability efforts. I am glad that this award empowers youth and communities such as my own.
To me, this award means an incredible amount as it represents not only my project, but also the efforts of Florida citrus growers and the citrus industry, everyone who has supported me, and the years of research that have been put into finding a solution for citrus greening disease. I believe that this fight together has consistently been empowered by national and international support, and I am glad that this award has been able to bring this project to light. Being inspired by this incredible award, I hope to continue this project by being able to help all Florida citrus growers and to continue making research and societal contributions to the field. My journey started with the district and international science and engineering fair 1st place award, and I hope that it continues to grow even more from here.
What is the recognition your work received from Cornell and the USDA?
I am working with a team of researchers from Cornell and the USDA led by Dr Michelle Heck. I am also thankful to Mr. Rick Dantzler, Chief Operating Officer of Citrus Research and Development Foundation (CRDF), for his support during this entire citrus research journey.
What was the statewide campaign? Why and how did the statewide campaign come about?
I advocated for agricultural sustainability through a two-year campaign, which focused on 1) the mobilization of my curry-leaf extract based formulation to Florida growers, and 2) sustainability awareness. I was able to accomplish these objectives through my work with the CRDF and the “Grove-First” Program, where I have been able to test my formulations that can help citrus growers across Florida. My work has also involved being an invited speaker at multiple grower’s meetings and research symposiums, where I was able to spread awareness of sustainability in agriculture and educate growers about how they can manage the citrus greening disease threat more effectively using a curry-leaf extract-based formulation that I have discovered.
What was in the disease
management kits?
The disease management kits contained a curry-leaf, extract-based bactericide formulation along with the modified trunk injection syringes, which were engineered through 3-D printing technology.
Did you produce those?
Yes
Why your children’s book?
Despite living in Florida, I observed my peers and younger audiences lacked exposure to the reality of the Florida citrus industry, sustainable agriculture, pesticide use, and plant disease threats. I thus authored the children’s book, “The Story of Oranges,” published on Amazon to bring greater awareness about the citrus crisis and the disease threat to the Florida citrus industry, alongside the promotion of sustainable agriculture. This children’s book is currently selling in three countries, and I hope to hold readings at local schools to educate children about overcoming environmental pesticide pollution in agriculture.
Who published it?
I self-published the “Story of Oranges” through Amazon Kindle. Currently, I am working on publishing the story through other formal platforms, with hopes of potentially making the book available at local bookstores, libraries, and schools.
What is the next step for your research?
The goal is to find permanent solutions to cure citrus greening disease and would like to work towards that goal, or want be a part of the research team who is heading in that direction.
Imagine seeing orange groves flourishing across Florida once again. When they do, we may have Aglave to thank for it.
