April 11, 2024

Anna-Katrina Shedletsky, Founder and CEO of Instrumental, a company that helps other companies optimize their manufacturing process. Shedletsky is an alumna of the 2004 Science Talent Search (STS) and the 2003 and 2004 International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF), both programs of Society for Science.

November 6, 2024

Mohamad Ali, Senior Vice President for IBM Consulting, IBM’s global professional consulting services unit. The global organization spans 150 countries and solves complex problems using technology-based assets and AI. Ali is a 1988 alumnus of the Science Talent Search (STS), a program of Society for Science.

May 10, 2024

Erika Ebbel Angle, CEO and cofounder of Ixcela, a biotech company improving health outcomes through the treatment of gut microbiomes. Angle also founded the nonprofit Science from Scientists, which brings scientists into classrooms to deliver lab-based lessons. Angle competed in the 1999 Science Talent Search (STS) and the 1997 International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF), both programs of Society for Science.

January 30, 2024

Peter Jay Hotez, Dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine and Professor of Pediatrics and Molecular Virology and Microbiology at Baylor College of Medicine. Hotez is the Codirector of the Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development and the Endowed Chair of Tropical Pediatrics at Texas Children’s Hospital.

October 10, 2023

Fatima Cody Stanford, an obesity medicine physician-scientist, educator and policy maker at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. As an expert in obesity medicine, she works at the intersection of medicine, public health, policy and disparities. She is also an alumna of the 1995 International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF), a competition owned and produced by Society for Science.

August 30, 2023

Frank Wilczek, a theoretical physicist, author and Nobel laureate. Wilczek has made seminal contributions to fundamental particle physics, cosmology and the physics of materials. His current research focus includes axions, anyons and time crystals, which are concepts in physics that he named and pioneered. Wilczek is an alumnus of the 1967 Science Talent Search (STS), a competition owned and produced by Society for Science. He serves on the Society’s Honorary Board.

May 5, 2023

Raj Chetty, an alumnus of the 1997 Science Talent Search (STS) and the 1997 International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF). In 2018, Chetty founded Opportunity Insights, an institute based at Harvard University dedicated to harnessing big data to improve upward mobility out of poverty. Chetty is the William A. Ackman Professor of Economics at Harvard, a MacArthur Fellow and a recipient of the John Bates Clark Medal.

January 6, 2023

Gayle Wilson, an alumna of the 1960 Science Talent Search (STS) and an advocate for children’s health care and STEM education. She is the former first lady of California, a position she served in from 1991 to 1999. While first lady, Wilson helped found COSMOS, a summer program that connects high schoolers with prominent STEM researchers in the University of California school system. Wilson has also served on a variety of nonprofit boards, including the Society for Science’s Board of Trustees. She currently is a member of the Society’s Honorary Board. We are thrilled to share an edited summary of their conversation.

October 11, 2022

Hayley Bay Barna, Partner at First Round Capital, a seed-stage venture capital firm. Before joining First Round, she cofounded and grew Birchbox, a company that helped redefine online shopping for beauty and grooming products through personalized monthly subscriptions. Barna was a finalist in the 2001 Science Talent Search (STS), a competition owned and produced by the Society for Science. She serves on the Society’s Board of Trustees.

September 1, 2022

Lisa Su, CEO of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), a multinational semiconductor company that develops computer processors and related technologies. Su is an alumna of the 1986 Science Talent Search (STS), a competition owned and produced by the Society for Science. She was inducted into the National Academy of Engineering in 2018 and was appointed to President Biden’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology in 2021.

May 11, 2022

Paul Modrich, James B. Duke Professor of Biochemistry at Duke University Medical Center, ahead of his retirement. Modrich won the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 2015 and participated in the 1964 Science Talent Search and the 1964 National Science Fair, today called the International Science and Engineering Fair.

January 18, 2022

George Yancopoulos, an alumnus and one of the top winners of the 1976 Science Talent Search. Yancopoulos is Regeneron’s Scientific Founder, President and Chief Scientific Officer.

October 7, 2021

Afton Vechery, an alumnus of the 2005 International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF). Vechery is cofounder and CEO of Modern Fertility, a reproductive health company making personalized fertility information and support more accessible.

September 16, 2021

Roderic Pettigrew, an alumnus of the 1967 International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF). Pettigrew, who won the Vannevar Bush Award from the National Science Foundation and was the founding director of the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB), currently serves as CEO of Engineering Health and Executive Dean for Engineering Medicine at Texas A&M University, in partnership with Houston Methodist Hospital.

May 10, 2021

Nobel Laureate Roald Hoffmann, an alumnus of the 1955 Science Talent Search, a program of the Society for Science. Hoffmann is the Frank H. T. Rhodes Professor of Humane Letters Emeritus at Cornell University. He is also an accomplished poet and playwright.

January 22, 2021

Monika Schleier-Smith, an alumna of the 2001 Science Talent Search who was named to the SN 10, Science News’ list of 10 scientists to watch, in 2019. Schleier-Smith is an Associate Professor of Physics at Stanford University and recently received a MacArthur Fellowship.

December 3, 2020

Dianne K. Newman, an alumna of the International Science and Engineering Fair and the Gordon M. Binder/Amgen Professor of Biology and Geobiology at Caltech. She is a MacArthur Fellow, Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology and member of the National Academy of Sciences.

November 12, 2020

Wei-Hwa Huang, an alumnus of the Science Talent Search, former Google engineer and world-renowned creator of puzzles and games.

September 1, 2020

Ray Kurzweil, an alumnus of the Science Talent Search and a renowned inventor and futurist. Kurzweil also has written five best-selling books, is Cofounder and Chancellor of Singularity University and is a Director of Engineering at Google

December 19, 2019

Feng Zhang, a Core Institute Member of the Broad Institute, a Professor at MIT and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator. He is best known for his central role in developing CRISPR-mediated molecular technologies. Zhang is an alumnus of the 2000 Science Talent Search (STS) and the 1998 and 1999 International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF), both competitions of the Society. He is also a member of the Society’s Board of Trustees.

October 9, 2019

Lester Mackey, a statistical machine learning researcher at Microsoft Research Labs New England. Mackey is an alumnus of the Science Talent Search (STS) and the International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF), both science competitions of the Society.

May 11, 2019

Moon Duchin, Associate Professor at the Tufts University Department of Mathematics, before she spoke to the Regeneron Science Talent Search 2019 finalists. Moon is an alumna of the Science Talent Search and the International Science and Engineering Fair. She is more recently known for her work applying metric geometry to gerrymandering.

March 30, 2019

Thomas Rosenbaum, President of the California Institute of Technology and an alumnus of the Westinghouse Science Talent Search.

October 15, 2018

Mary Sue Coleman, President of the Association of American Universities and a former President of the University of Michigan. Mary Sue is an alumna of the Westinghouse Science Talent Search (STS) and the International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF).

September 13, 2018

Divya Nag, who works for Apple in the Health Special Projects section. Nag is also a member of the Society’s National Leadership Council.

June 28, 2018

Kristina Johnson, Chancellor of The State University of New York and an alumna of the International Science and Engineering Fair.

March 27, 2018

Gideon Yu, co-owner and former President of the San Francisco 49ers, Executive Chairman of Bowers & Wilkins and former CFO at Facebook and YouTube.

October 27, 2017

Dr. Edward Thorp, a mathematics professor, inventor, entrepreneur, founder of the first quant hedge fund, blackjack player and the best-selling author of Beat the Dealer, the first book to mathematically prove that the house advantage in blackjack could be overcome by card counting.