2018 Society Annual Report

SPARKING AN INTEREST IN STEM Finalist Ella Feiner shares her research with a young visitor at the Public Exhibition of Projects.

GLADWELL INSPIRES Bestselling author Malcolm Gladwell delivers the keynote at the Regeneron STS Gala.

REGENERON SCIENCE TALENT SEARCH

SHARING SCIENCE Finalist Kavya Kopparapu works with a local student on an experiment.

Identifying Tomorrow’s Leaders

Novel research into crop blight, vaping and the rare disease Turner Syndrome (TS) garnered high awards at the Regeneron Science Talent Search. Benjamin “Benjy” Firester won first place and $250,000 for his mathematical model that uses disease data to predict how weather patterns could spread spores of the late blight fungus, which caused the Irish Potato Famine and still causes billions of dollars in crop damage. Second place and $175,000 went to Natalia Orlovsky for her research into the response of lung epithelial cells to fluids used in vaping and third

place and $150,000 went to Isani Singh for her work towards deter- mining that women with TS have some cells with two X chromosomes. The competition, which is the oldest and most prestigious science and math competition for high school seniors, seeks to identify, inspire and engage the nation’s most prom- ising young scientists. During the competition, Regeneron awarded more than $3.1 million to the top 300 scholars, their schools and the top 40 finalists. Over 1,800 students applied in 2018.

WORDS OF WISDOM California Institute of Technology President Thomas Rosenbaum shared his Science Talent Search experience with the 2018 finalists.

TOMORROW’S LEADERS Benjy Firester and the top winners of the 2018 Regeneron Science Talent Search.

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