The award
The Society for Science lists the 2017 Gordon E. Moore Award, worth $75,000, to Ivo Zell of Hessen for 'A Wing Is Enough: An Improved Flying Wing Based on a Bell-Shaped Lift Distribution'. The prize goes to the single project judged best across the entire fair.
Zell was 18, and one of two European students among that year's three top winners. The others were Valerio Pagliarino of Italy and Amber Yang of Florida.
What a flying wing is, and why it is hard
A flying wing has no fuselage and no tail: the whole aircraft is the lifting surface. The configuration is aerodynamically efficient, because nothing is being carried that does not contribute lift, and it is notoriously difficult to control, because the tail is what normally provides stability in yaw.
Bell-shaped lift distribution is a proposed answer to that problem. Rather than spreading lift evenly across the span, it concentrates it inboard and tapers it toward the tips, which changes how the wingtips behave and can produce yaw control from the wing itself. Zell's title says he applied that principle to an improved flying wing; the source publishes no abstract, so no results, dimensions or flight tests are documented here.
The 2017 fair
Intel ISEF 2017 ran from 14 to 19 May at the Los Angeles Convention Center, with nearly 1,800 young scientists selected from 425 affiliated fairs across more than 78 countries, regions and territories.
Approximately 600 finalists received awards, including 20 Best of Category winners at $5,000 each, plus $1,000 grants to their schools and affiliated fairs.
The other 2017 winners
Two Intel Foundation Young Scientist Awards of $50,000 were given. One went to Valerio Pagliarino, 17, of Castelnuovo Calcea, Italy, for 'LaserWAN — Laser Broadband Internet Connections'.
The other went to Amber Yang, 18, of Windermere, Florida, for 'Multi-Orbit Space Debris Cloud Tracking Using Iterative Closest Points Registration with Machine Learning'. Aeronautics, optical communications and orbital debris tracking took the 2017 top awards.
What is documented — and what is not
The listing gives his name, age, home region, the award, its value and the project title. It names no school, no mentor and no institution, and publishes no technical detail.
It also stops at the fair. No source used here reports his later studies or work, whether an aircraft was built and flown, or whether the design was developed further. His birth year is inferred from being 18 in May 2017 and is approximate.
A long argument in aviation
Flying wings have been pursued since the early twentieth century and have repeatedly failed on stability rather than efficiency; the configuration survives today mainly in military aircraft with computerised flight control.
That history is what makes the subject a serious one for a student project rather than a novelty. This page reports only that a panel of judges rated Zell's entry first among nearly 1,800; it makes no claim about how his design performs.
| Person | Country | Milestone | Age / Stat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wenzel Grüß | Germany | Most Versatile Calculator, 2018 Mental Calculation World Cup | Age 9 |
| Shahab Gharib | Germany | High school at twelve, a university degree course at thirteen, law school | Age 12 |
| Ivo Zell | Germany | Gordon E. Moore Award, top prize at Intel ISEF 2017 | Age 18 |
| Simon Reinhard | Germany | Winning the Extreme Memory Tournament in 2014 and 2016 | Age 35 |
| Alexis Tinker-Tsavalas | Germany | Winning Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2024 | — |
What is documented — and what is not
✓ Documented
- Won the $75,000 Gordon E. Moore Award at Intel ISEF 2017 at 18 (Society for Science)
- Project title: 'A Wing Is Enough: An Improved Flying Wing Based on a Bell-Shaped Lift Distribution'
- From Hessen, Germany
? Unverified, disputed or wrong
- No abstract, dimensions, wind-tunnel or flight data published in the source
- No school, mentor or institution named
- No information on his studies or the design's development after 2017
Questions people ask about Ivo Zell
How old was Ivo Zell when he won?
Eighteen, in May 2017. No date of birth appears in the source used here.
What is a flying wing?
An aircraft with no fuselage or tail, in which the entire structure is the lifting surface. It is efficient but hard to stabilise.
What is bell-shaped lift distribution?
A way of distributing lift across the span that concentrates it inboard and tapers it toward the tips, which can generate yaw control without a tail.
How much did he win?
$75,000, the Gordon E. Moore Award, the top prize at Intel ISEF 2017.
Did he build and fly the aircraft?
The source publishes only the project title. No construction or flight testing is documented here.
Where is Ivo Zell now?
No source used here reports on his studies or work after 2017.
Is Ivo Zell on Wikipedia?
No Wikipedia article on him was confirmed for this entry.
Who else won top awards in 2017?
Valerio Pagliarino of Italy, for laser broadband internet connections, and Amber Yang of Florida, for tracking space debris with machine learning.
Quick quiz: how well do you know Ivo’s story?
What kind of aircraft was Ivo Zell's project about?
Which award did he win?
Which lift distribution did the project use?
Sources
- Intel ISEF 2017 (top award winners) — Society for Science
Checked by the Geniuses.club editorial team. Ages are given as of September 2026.
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