Meet the musical, multilingual and inventive Thermo Fisher JIC Top 300

The 2026 Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge is here! This year’s Top 300 Junior Innovators form an exceptional group of middle school researchers and innovators. Representing 34 states, Guam and Puerto Rico, they bring an impressive mix of curiosity, creativity and determination not only to their wide-ranging STEM endeavors, but also to their hobbies and extracurricular activities. Take a peek at these fast facts about the 2026 Top 300 Junior Innovators to learn more about their diverse talents and interests.

• These Junior Innovators can certainly hold a tune: 72% participate in music, whether by singing in choir or playing an instrument.
• Beyond their STEM accomplishments, they are just as active outside the lab. About 70% participate in athletics, with swimming, tennis, track and cross country, soccer and basketball among the most popular sports.
• The Top 300 are a notably multilingual group: 66% speak at least one language in addition to English. Collectively, they reported 34 additional languages, including Hindi, Spanish, Mandarin, Tamil and Telugu.
• Most students selected engineering as their project category, accounting for 23% of projects, followed by environmental and earth sciences, medicine and health sciences, and energy and sustainability.
• Most students entered solo projects, while 43 of the Top 300 collaborated on team projects. Many of these students are charting their own research paths: 90% said they conducted at least part of their research at home or outside of school hours.
• The Top 300 represent 231 schools, 55 of which are celebrating their first-ever Junior Innovator
• Eighth graders lead the class, making up 57% of the Top 300, followed by seventh graders at 32% and sixth graders at 11%.

Congratulations to the 2026 Thermo Fisher JIC Top 300 Junior Innovators!

Stay tuned for the Top 30 finalists announcement on September 16th at noon E.T. and follow the Society on Facebook, X and Instagram to learn more about this year’s Junior Innovators.