Ten high school students mentored by six Stony Brook University faculty members have been named among the top 300 scholars in the 2026 Regeneron Science Talent Search (Regeneron STS). All of these semifinalists participated in Stony Brook University’s Simons Summer Research Program, which provides high school students with experience in college-level research. Since its inception in 1997, the program has helped mentor about 600 semifinalists.
The Regeneron STS is a national competition that recognizes outstanding high school seniors in science and math. It selects participants from thousands of applicants representing hundreds of schools across the United States and several other countries. Each scholar and their high school receive a $2,000 award. The competition will announce 40 finalists on January 21, who will compete for over $3.1 million in awards at an event held in Washington, D.C., from March 5-11.
The Stony Brook faculty mentors and their student mentees include Benjamin Hsiao from the Department of Chemistry, who worked with three students on projects related to water remediation using nanocellulose hydrogels; Mohammad Javad Amiri from Computer Science, who mentored a student on consensus protocols using machine learning; Yuefan Deng from Applied Math and Statistics, who guided research on AI-enabled drug discovery; Zhenhua Liu from Applied Math and Statistics and Computer Science, whose mentee studied GPU sustainability; Howard Sirotkin from Neurology and Behavior, who supervised work on epilepsy modeling using zebrafish; and Nengkun Yu from Computer Science, whose student explored quantum entanglement phenomena.
Two additional Simons Fellows were recognized as semifinalists for research conducted outside Stony Brook: Edward Kang for work on biomarkers for neurodevelopmental disorders and Bryan Zhu for research on optimization techniques.
Maya Ajmera, president and CEO of Society for Science and Publisher of Science News, said: “Congratulations to the top 300 scholars in this year’s Regeneron Science Talent Search. Their research highlights the creativity, rigor and determination that’s pushing forward the future of scientific discovery. We are honored to recognize their achievements and support their continued pursuit of STEM excellence.”
The Regeneron STS is administered by Society for Science. Since 1942 it has challenged students to present original research addressing important scientific issues.
