2020 Breakthrough Junior Challenge Winner Maryam Tsegaye Represents Canada Alongside Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the Coronation of King Charles III

May 6, 2023 – (London) – Breakthrough Junior Challenge winner Maryam Tsegaye accompanied Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to the coronation of King Charles III.

Twenty-year-old Maryam, who hails from Alberta, Canada, won the Challenge in 2020 for her clear and inventive video explaining the complex physics phenomenon of quantum tunneling.

Now studying Symbolic Systems, Music, and Science Communication at Stanford University, she was invited to the coronation as an official member of the Canadian delegation. Pictured with Maryam and her fellow young Canadian invitees, Prime Minister Trudeau commented, “These impressive, talented and esteemed Canadians are helping represent our country on the world stage... You are what makes Canada – and the Commonwealth – so strong, vibrant, and great.”

Just three weeks earlier, Maryam had appeared onstage at the Breakthrough Prize ceremony in Los Angeles to receive her award alongside fellow winners Noor Haideri (2022) and Amber Kwok (2021), introduced by film star Gal Gadot and Breakthrough Prize co-founder Julia Milner.