High School Seniors Win $1.8 Million at Regeneron Science Talent Search 2024 for Innovative Scientific Research on Artificial Intelligence, Cancer Metabolism and Mathematical Optimization

$250,000 top award goes to Achyuta Rajaram in the nation’s oldest and most prestigious Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) competition for high school seniors

TARRYTOWN, N.Y. and WASHINGTON, D.C., March 12, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: REGN) and Society for Science (the Society) announced that Achyuta Rajaram, 17, of Exeter, NH, won the top award in the Regeneron Science Talent Search (STS) 2024, America’s oldest and most prestigious science and math competition for high school seniors.

The competition, now in its 83rd year, has consistently identified young innovators who become tomorrow’s STEM leaders. The 2024 finalists demonstrated extensive scientific knowledge through research and interviews while showcasing their commitment to addressing societal issues, passion for discovery, noteworthy leadership and community involvement.

Forty finalists, including Achyuta, were honored this evening during an award ceremony emceed by American Broadcaster Soledad O'Brien. More than $1.8 million was awarded to the finalists, who were selected from among the largest entrant pool since the 1960s through a holistic evaluation process.

• Achyuta Rajaram won first place and $250,000 for developing an automatic method to discover which parts of a computer model are involved in decision-making. This knowledge sheds light on what these algorithms are “thinking,” which can help make them more effective, fair and safe.

• Second place and $175,000 went to Thomas Cong, 17, of Ossining, NY for investigating the rapid growth of certain cancers and whether information controlling metabolism is primarily controlled by the expression of genetic information. He found that immune cancers have pronounced differences in metabolism and gene expression, which suggests that a more complex landscape of metabolic variation exists and gives further insight into cancer studies.

• Third place and $150,000 went to Michelle Wei, 17, of San Jose, CA for finding that second-order cone programming problems can be solved more quickly than previously thought by converting the original problem into a modified form. Problems of this type appear frequently in areas ranging from supply chain optimization to electrical power distribution to financial portfolio management or machine learning, and she hopes her research may lead to process optimizations across various industries.