Congratulations to Gigatonne Bio, an interdisciplinary team of graduate students from Duffield Engineering, the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Princeton, and Colombia that won the 2026 OpenAir Carbon Removal Challenge for their approach to covering mine waste into CO2 removal and critical metals with engineered bio-mining bacteria. Team members include Joseph Lee, Kyle Dayton, and Alia Almansoori, and the team was advised by professors Esteban Gazel and Buz Barstow.