The Ultimate Guide to the Regeneron Science Talent Search

What is the Regeneron Science Talent Search?

The Regeneron Science Talent Search is the United States’ oldest, most prestigious science research competition for high school students.

The prizes total over 3 million dollars, with the winner receiving $250,000.

Who can enter STS?

Students living in and attending their last year of secondary school in the US and its territories may apply to the Regeneron Science Talent Search, regardless of citizenship. Students who are US citizens living abroad may also qualify.

What do you need to apply to Science Talent Search?

You need an independent, individual research paper with data and results to apply to Regeneron STS.

Other application requirements are:

• Recommendation requests for mentors,

• Forms including approvals, surveys, consent, and permits,

• Research description,

• 20-page original research report,

• Previous research (if applicable),

• Essay questions,

• Activities, interests, and awards,

• Test score (optional).

Other key STS rules are:

• Students must draft all responses themselves.

  • You also must not use AI to answer any questions,

• Both student and mentor(s) must agree to the Ethics Statement.

• Compensation based on STS results is prohibited.

• Only one project entry per student is allowed.

• Obtain mentor permission to enter research.

• Entries undergo plagiarism detection.

• Exclude external website links in research reports.

What do you need to succeed in Regeneron STS?

To succeed and win in the Regeneron Science Talent Search, you need innovative, independent research, clear written and communication skills, and preferably a knowledgeable mentor.

Original Research

The cornerstone of Science Talent Search is that students undertake a research project that is innovative, impactful, and demonstrates their scientific curiosity.

To do that, you should choose a topic that genuinely interests you, aligns with your strengths, and allows you to explore new frontiers. Your enthusiasm will shine through in your research and presentation. 

Start by immersing yourself in existing literature by diving into scientific journals, articles, and books related to your chosen topic.

This is key, as you need to understand the current state of knowledge and identify gaps. Unanswered questions or unexplored areas can help you decide on your original research question.

Proving rigorous experimentation, data collection, and analysis are crucial for STS, as your ability to design and execute experiments effectively will set you apart.

Find Experienced Mentors

Don’t try to do everything alone. One of the fastest ways to improve your STS project is to get guidance from someone who has more experience than you.

Reach out to teachers, professors, graduate students, or professionals connected to your field. The best mentors do more than answer questions: they help you sharpen your research question, avoid weak experimental designs, and spot problems before they cost you weeks of work.

A good mentor can help you:

• Refine your hypothesis and research plan

• Recommend papers, methods, or software you may not know about

• Identify flaws in your experiment or data analysis

• Push you to think more deeply about your results

• Prepare for difficult questions from STS judges

You do not need a famous professor for your project to stand out. What matters is finding someone who is knowledgeable, responsive, and genuinely interested in helping you improve.

At ScienceFair, we provide coaching for STS. We have coaches who have competed and won ISEF and STS. Get in touch with us to find out more!

Perfect Your Presentation Skills

Effective communication is key to impressing the judges. You need an engaging narrative for yourself and your research that highlights its significance.

To build that, you should practice presenting your research in a clear, concise, and engaging manner. To help you, you can create visually appealing slides or posters: graphs, charts, and images illustrate your findings. Visual aids enhance understanding and leave a lasting impression.

You should also do mock presentations with peers or mentors. Their feedback can highlight any gaps in your presentation and help you to refine your delivery.

A Comprehensive Research Report

The Regeneron STS requires you to hand in a comprehensive 20-page research report. This means you have to clearly articulate your research question, methodology, findings, and conclusions.

You also need to pay attention to formatting, citations, and clarity, and your data analysis must be meticulous. You should use appropriate statistical methods and explain your approach thoroughly, and discuss their implications.

It’s also important to review your written report multiple times. You shouldn’t have typos, grammatical errors, or inconsistencies.

What Winning STS Projects Actually Look Like

One of the most useful things you can do before starting an STS project is study what recent winners actually did. The point is not to copy them, it is to calibrate. Seeing the caliber and the kind of original thinking that reaches the top of the field tells you what "novel and impactful" really means in practice, and it shows you how varied the winning work is across mathematics, biology, engineering, and computation.

2026: Connor Hill, First Place ($250,000)

Connor Hill won the top prize in 2026 for work in pure mathematics. He wrote a computer program to systematically work through the ways of building a noble polyhedron, a highly symmetric shape with flat faces and straight edges, and proved that beyond the two known infinite families there are 146 isolated examples.

It is a good illustration that STS rewards genuine, self-contained discovery, and that a computational math project with no lab or wet-bench component can win outright.

2026: Edward Kang, Second Place ($175,000)

Edward Kang took second place for training AI models on retinal images to detect subtle patterns linked to autism and ADHD, building a screening tool he called RetinaMind. He also created retinal cell models to study the gene changes that might explain why those patterns appear.

His project is a strong example of pairing a practical, applied tool with underlying mechanistic biology, rather than stopping at the application alone.

2026: Iris Shen, Third Place ($150,000)

Iris Shen placed third for testing a potential cancer drug in clams to see whether they could serve as an animal model for blood cancer drug discovery. The drug produced an effect in the clams similar to what researchers see in human cells, and a mix of other candidate drugs slowed tumor growth.

Her project shows the value of an unexpected, well-justified model organism, a choice that is itself a mark of original scientific thinking.

2025: Matteo Paz, First Place ($250,000)

Matteo Paz won the grand prize in 2025 for designing machine-learning algorithms to comb through 200 billion entries of raw infrared data from the NEOWISE telescope. By analyzing tiny changes in infrared radiation, his model sorted objects into ten classes and surfaced roughly 1.5 million new candidate objects.

It is a great example of a project defined by the scale and ambition of the computation, applied to real astronomical data.

2nd Place - Ava Grace Cummings ($175,000)

Ava Grace Cummings took second place for creating a fruit fly model of STAC3 disorder, also known as Native American myopathy, a rare genetic muscle disease. She found that the common nettle herb, alone or combined with the experimental drug Tirasemtiv, improved movement in both adult flies and larvae.

Ava Grace used an accessible model organism to make progress on a rare disease, and pairing a natural compound with an experimental drug to test a treatment. This is both original and shows clear impact.

2024: Achyuta Rajaram, First Place ($250,000)

Achyuta Rajaram won first place for developing an automatic method to identify which parts of an image-analysis model are actually involved in its decisions.

The work sheds light on how these algorithms reach conclusions, which matters for making them more effective, fair, and safe. It reflects how strongly STS rewards work at the frontier of interpretable and trustworthy AI.

What These Projects Have in Common

Across years and fields, the pattern is consistent. Winning projects identify a genuine gap and fill it with original work, whether that is a mathematical proof, a new screening tool, an unconventional model organism, or a method for understanding how AI makes decisions.

They are rigorous, they are the student's own, and they connect to something that matters beyond the project itself. That combination, originality plus rigor plus real impact, is exactly what the judges evaluate, and it is what you should be aiming for from the first day you choose your question.

Develop the Mindset of a Scientist

Beyond strong research and mentorship, STS rewards students who think and act like real scientists. That means being resilient, embracing revision, and understanding the broader impact of your work.

Embrace Setbacks and Keep Going

Scientific research rarely goes perfectly the first time. Every scientist encounters failed experiments, unexpected results, or ideas that do not work out as planned.

Rather than seeing these setbacks as failures, view them as opportunities to learn. Often, the most important insights come from understanding what went wrong. Analyze your results, identify what could be improved, and adapt your approach.

Perseverance matters. STS judges want to see that you can continue making progress even when research becomes difficult. Students who keep refining their work, instead of giving up, often produce the strongest projects.

Expect an Iterative Process

Science is not a straight line from hypothesis to conclusion. Research usually involves detours, revisions, and new questions.

As you gather data, be prepared to refine your hypothesis, redesign parts of your experiment, or change your methods based on what you learn. Strong researchers are flexible and willing to adjust their approach when new evidence appears.

You should also seek feedback throughout the process. Mentors, teachers, peers, and even your own observations can help you improve your project. Use that feedback to strengthen your research and make each version better than the last.

Think Beyond the Project

The strongest STS applicants show that they care not only about their research, but also about its broader impact.

Consider how your work could benefit society, address a real problem, or contribute to your community. You might mentor younger students, participate in science outreach, organize events, or collaborate with local organizations.

You should also think about the ethical side of your work. Demonstrating social responsibility and awareness of your research’s implications shows maturity and helps distinguish you from other applicants.

Want Guidance From People Who Have Been to STS?

The strongest STS students do not just work hard: they learn from people who already know how the competition works.

At ScienceFair, our coaches include Regeneron STS Scholars, STS participants, and ISEF Grand Award winners. They have been through the same process themselves: developing original research, writing competitive applications, and answering the hardest judging questions.

Whether you need help refining your project, strengthening your paper, or preparing for STS interviews, you can work directly with mentors who know what it takes to stand out.

Create a personalized plan with our academic advisor and learn from past competitors who have already succeeded at the highest level.

FAQs About STS

What is Regeneron Science Talent Search?

The Regeneron Science Talent Search has been a Society for Science research competition since 1942. The STS aims to identify, inspire, and engage the US’s most promising young scientists who are creating the most innovative scientific solutions. 

How prestigious is STS?

STS is a highly prestigious science research competition for high school students. The highest prize is $250,000, and the top 300 scholars win $2,000 for themselves and their school.

Who is eligible for the Regeneron STS?

Any student in their last year of high school in the US and its territories. Students who are US citizens living abroad may be eligible. Students must have independent, individual research.

How many people apply to STS?

2,600 students from over 800 high schools across 46 states, Washington, D.C., Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and 16 countries applied to STS in 2026.

When is the Regeneron Science Talent Search deadline?

The deadline to apply for the 2027 cycle of the Regeneron Science Talent Search is June, 1, 2026.