Where is Daniel Burd?

Various commenters on blog posts ask "Where is Daniel Burd?" and "What is the state of plastic decomposition?".

I found an obituary that seems relevant. Looking at Genrich's papers (1 2) it seems clear he had a significant influence on the project. Since children generally have different interests from their parents, I would guess that Daniel is enjoying the fruits of his science fair winnings but has not pursued it further. The lack of internet presence is typical; most people generate surprisingly little footprint.

There are other similar science fair projects, it's not particularly hard as a research project.

I would guess the problem is that the bacteria isolated are not very fast or effective, hence decomposition using them is not feasible. Academic research seems to be focused on isolating and improving the enzymes the bacteria use. And of course for industry scaling up requires capital and expertise, but at the moment landfills and recycling are sufficient so there is not much financial incentive for commercialization yet.