Christine Ye of Sammamish, Washington, won the $250,000 top award. Second place and $175,000 went to Victor Cai of Orefield, Pennsylvania, and third place and $150,000 went to Amber Luo of Stony Brook, New York.

Hailee Han Byur Youn of Roslyn, New York was named the Seaborg Award winner and given the opportunity to speak on behalf of the Regeneron STS Class of 2022 during the awards ceremony, which featured Saturday Night Live cast member Melissa Villaseñor.

Christine Ye, 1st Place Winner of the 2022 Regeneron STS

Christine Ye won first place and $250,000 for her project, which analyzed gravitational waves emitted from huge collisions between neutron stars (collapsed super-dense stars) and black holes. Her research set a novel precedent for modeling rapidly rotating neutron stars, showing that a quickly spinning neutron star could be extra massive, but still smaller than a black hole.

Amber Luo, 3rd Place Winner of the 2022 Regeneron STS

Amber Luo won third place and $150,000 for developing the RiboBayes software, which identifies key regions known as “ribosome pause sites” along a cell’s mRNA transcripts that regulate protein synthesis. Her tool reveals critical insights into how ribosome pause site expression is altered by diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease and cancers.

Hailee Youn

“The strong community that we have built among one another, and the greater STS community that we are now joining, are the real prizes, and are parts of our identity that we will carry forever.”