The winner for the 2026 cover is Abhijeet Pathy, a PhD student at the University of Alberta.
I took this photo near Cold Lake during my PhD fieldwork. My research is addressing how we can clean up contaminated soil and water using a carbon-rich material called biochar. This site is a peatland that has been contaminated for nearly 20 years. Before my first field trip, I expected to see a barren, damaged landscape. Everything I had heard about the site led me to imagine a place where nothing could survive. But I was surprised. The site was green and alive; grasses, mosses, and even willow trees were growing, despite the contaminated soil beneath them. Standing there, I felt a quiet sense of awe. It reminded me that life doesn’t give up easily. Even under long-term environmental stress, it finds ways to adapt and persist. As a soil science student, this experience deepened my belief in the importance of remediation. On a personal level, it also stayed with me as a lesson, that even in difficult or uncertain times, growth is possible, and resilience can slowly take root.
Abhijeet Pathy works on remediation and reclamation of polluted environments, with a focus on using biochar to remove heavy metals and hydrocarbons from groundwater, industrial wastewater, and contaminated soils. His research emphasizes developing sustainable and economically viable biochar-based systems suitable for industrial-scale applications. He completed his Bachelor of Science degree in biotechnology at the National Institute of Technology, Rourkela, India in 2021, and is currently pursuing his doctoral research at the University of Alberta. Beyond academia, Abhijeet is a minimalist with interests in investing, supporting underprivileged students, YouTube content creation, building applications through vibe coding, and reading.