Society for Science and Thermo Fisher Scientific are proud to announce the Top 300 competitors in the 2026 Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge (JIC) — the nation’s premier STEM competition for middle school students. The Thermo Fisher JIC seeks to inspire young scientists, engineers and innovators to solve the world’s most intractable challenges.

August 2026: The STEM Outreach Associate Specialist will assist the day-to-day operations and continued growth of the STEM Outreach Programs as a supporting member of the Science Education Programs department of the Society for Science (Society).

August 2026: Science News Media Group seeks an innovative Social Media Producer to help build new audiences for our award-winning science journalism that we have produced for over a century.

August 5, 2025: Society for Science, a national leader in science education and STEM literacy, today announced $275,000 in grants to 57 high-impact organizations representing 25 states, Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico.

Notable Alumni: A leading geneticist, molecular biologist and mathematician, Eric Lander received first prize in the 1974 STS for his project on quasi-perfect numbers.

Middle school students across the nation were invited to apply for the Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge (JIC) after placing among the top 10% of participants at their Society-affiliated science fairs. Congratulations nominees for the 2026 competition!