Jiaen Jiang, a 16-year-old student from Rosenberg, Texas, has won a $25,000 Davidson Fellows Scholarship for an engineering project designed to capture fine lunar dust before it enters future Moon habitats. Jiang’s project, called the Moondust Magnet, uses a bipolar interdigitated electrode array to create controlled electric fields that can attract and capture both charged and neutral particles of lunar regolith. The system is intended for use inside habitat airlocks, where dust carried in on astronauts’ suits and equipment could otherwise enter the living area and reach primary filtration systems. Jiang has demonstrated the concept through benchtop experiments using lunar dust simulants. She was also one of five finalists selected by the 2025-26 MIT THINK programme from 1,042 applications, according to MIT’s results document. The Davidson Institute describes the scholarship as one of the nation’s most prestigious honours for students aged 18 and under.
Lunar dust could pose a health problem on future Moon missions
Lunar regolith is the loose layer of soil and fragmented rock covering the Moon’s surface. Its fine particles can become a problem during human missions because dust can cling to spacesuits, equipment and other surfaces and be carried into habitats. Jiang’s Davidson project description says inhaled lunar regolith can cause severe respiratory irritation and that repeated exposure may contribute to chronic lung disease and cellular damage. Research into lunar dust has also identified its movement and adhesion as important challenges for future exploration systems.Jiang’s device is intended to address the problem after astronauts return from the lunar surface. Instead of relying solely on a habitat’s primary filtration system, the proposed system would capture airborne dust inside the airlock before it reaches those filters. According to the Davidson Institute, removing the particles at this stage could reduce astronauts’ exposure, lessen the strain on filtration equipment and reduce the amount of time crews spend in airlocks. The project remains at an experimental stage. Jiang’s current work uses benchtop experiments with lunar dust simulants to demonstrate whether the approach is feasible. It has not been tested on the Moon, and the Davidson Institute says additional research is needed.
She turned a dust-repelling idea into a dust-catching system
The idea for the Moondust Magnet emerged from a different area of lunar research. Jiang said she was reviewing research into preventing rocket-plume damage and studying electrodynamic dust shields, which use electrostatic waves to repel lunar regolith from surfaces. That led her to consider whether a similar electrostatic approach could instead attract and capture airborne dust. The resulting system uses a bipolar interdigitated electrode array. Rather than relying on a conventional magnet, the electrodes generate controlled electric fields that interact with dust particles and allow the system to collect both charged and neutral regolith. The Davidson Institute describes the array as acting similarly to a magnet for small particles, which is where Jiang’s “Moondust Magnet” name comes from.Jiang’s MIT THINK project had a more specific experimental target. The programme’s 2025-26 finalist abstract says she planned to prototype and test a custom high-voltage embedded bipolar electrode array in an enclosed environment using different lunar dust simulants. The stated goal was to extract at least 80% of airborne lunar dust particles within an airlock. That 80% figure is a target for the project, not a reported final performance result.
Much of the research was done independently
Jiang is a student researcher at the University of Houston and says much of the project was conducted independently of her school. She taught herself concepts in electrostatics, experimental design and data analysis while developing the system. Her current project listing describes the work as an ongoing effort, with further development being carried out at the University of Houston. Her MIT THINK finalist project also represents a relatively early stage of development. The competition abstract describes a system that is being prototyped and evaluated in an enclosed test environment rather than a completed device ready for deployment in a lunar habitat. MIT selected five finalists from 1,042 applications during the 2025-26 cycle, the largest applicant pool in the programme’s history.The broader scientific problem is already the subject of extensive research. Electrostatic methods have previously been investigated for removing lunar dust from equipment and surfaces, including solar panels and optical components. A 2023 review of lunar dust-remediation technologies found that electrostatic dust shields and other approaches remained under development, with further work needed to establish their performance and operational safety.
The project earned her a $25,000 Davidson Fellowship
The Davidson Institute selected Jiang as a 2026 Davidson Fellow and awarded her a $25,000 scholarship for the Moondust Magnet project. The institute lists her age as 16 and her hometown as Rosenberg, Texas, and says she is a rising junior from the Greater Houston area. The scholarship adds to several other recognitions. Jiang’s Davidson profile says she previously received a Space Center Houston scholarship and Houston’s Nova Spotlight Award for an aerospace engineering project. She was also selected as an MIT THINK finalist for the Moondust Magnet project.Outside her research, Jiang practices martial arts and competes in sparring matches. She also volunteers by making cards and bracelets for children in homeless shelters and supporting food banks. She plans to study aerospace engineering after high school and eventually work in space exploration. Her stated ambition for the Moondust Magnet is to contribute to the infrastructure needed for longer-term human activity on the Moon and, eventually, Mars.