The Society for Science has announced Great Neck students Andy Zhuang and Eric Zhuang among the Top 300 Junior Innovators in the 2024 Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge (Thermo Fisher JIC)—the nation’s premier science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) competition for middle school students.
The Top 300 Junior Innovators were selected from nearly 2,000 students from 48 states plus U.S. Territories who applied to compete in the Thermo Fisher JIC this past spring.
Junior Innovators receive a $125 award from the Department of Defense STEM and a prize package with gifts from program sponsors.
Andy and Eric qualified to enter the Thermo Fisher JIC by winning first place at the Long Island Science and Engineering SSP Broadcom Masters Fair (LISEF), held in March 2024, for their research project, “Gene Expression Analysis of the Impact of Febrile Seizures on Mesial Temporal Lobe Epilepsy.”
They conducted their research as eighth graders at South Middle School with guidance from science research mentor Tobias Hatten.
“The Top 300 projects are an extraordinary reflection of what matters most to these students and their dedication to improving lives through the use of STEM,” Karen Nelson, Chief Scientific Officer, Thermo Fisher Scientific, said. “Congratulations to the entire class of 2024 Junior Innovators—your example strengthens our ambition to make STEM education equitable for all youth.”
The Thermo Fisher JIC, a program of Society for Science, seeks to inspire young scientists, engineers and innovators to solve the grand challenges of the future.
Established in 1921, Society for Science is best known for its award-winning journalism through Science News and Science News Explores, its world-class science research competitions for students, including the Regeneron Science Talent Search, the Regeneron
International Science and Engineering Fair and the Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge, and its outreach and equity programming that seeks to ensure that
all students have an opportunity to pursue a career in STEM.
