Achyuta Rajaram wins $250,000 top award in Regeneron Science Talent Search

Indian American high schooler Achyuta Rajaram has won the top award in the Regeneron Science Talent Search (STS) 2024, America’s oldest and most prestigious science and math competition for high school seniors.

Two other Indian Americans also won prizes. Arnav Chakravarthy, 18, of Cupertino, California won the ninth place and received a $50,000 award, while Aditi Avinash, 17, of Highlands Ranch, Colorado, was named the Seaborg Award winner.

“Congratulations to the winners of this year’s Regeneron Science Talent Search,” said Maya Ajmera, President and CEO, Society for Science and Executive Publisher, Science News.

READ: Saathvik Kannan wins $50,000 Regeneron Young Scientist Award (May 31, 2023)

“The remarkable intellect and ingenuity of these students serves as an inspiration for us all. Their groundbreaking innovations are vital in uncovering the crucial solutions we need now to address our most intractable challenges.”

Rajaram 17, of Exeter, New Hampshire, won first place and $250,000 for developing an automatic method to discover which parts of a computer model are involved in decision-making.

“This knowledge sheds light on what these algorithms are ‘thinking,’ which can help make them more effective, fair and safe,” Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc and Society for Science stated announcing the prize.

READ: Three Indian Americans among top ten in Regeneron Science Talent Search (March 24, 2022)

In machine learning, computer algorithms find patterns in data to answer important, practical questions. Achyuta’s research improved our ability to discover what computer models, that find patterns in images, are ‘thinking’ when they analyze a photo and which parts of their ‘mechanical brains’ are contributing to the decision-making.

For example, when a model identifies a car in a photo, does it first identify wheels and use this to identify ‘car-ness,’ or does it look for something else? Achyuta’s key contribution to this effort was to develop an automatic method for recognizing which parts of the algorithms identify what. This knowledge sheds light on what these algorithms are ‘thinking,’ which can help make them more effective, fair, and safe.

Chakravarthy won the award for comparing the genetic origins of a type of immune cell, known as macrophages, in the brain, liver and bone marrow to learn more about how they replenish themselves.

Most cells could be traced back to their embryonic beginnings, however, Arnav found evidence that certain brain cells may also be replenished from our bone marrow as we age. His findings may shed light on future targeted therapies for age-related diseases like Alzheimer’s.

READ: Four Indian American teens among top winners in 2021 Regeneron Science Talent Search (March 20, 2021)

A macrophage is a type of immune system cell that’s important for the body’s inflammatory response and cleanup. It is believed these cells originate during fetal development, but recent studies suggest that macrophages may also develop from bone marrow as we age.

Arnav hypothesized that a type of brain macrophage called microglia may also replenish in this manner. To test this theory, Arnav used a genomics tool to trace the origins of brain and liver samples alongside bone marrow samples from the same donors and compared the cell’s lineage and unique mutations.

Aditi Avinash, 17, of Highlands Ranch, Colorado, was named the Seaborg Award winner and given the opportunity to speak on behalf of the Regeneron Science Talent Search Class of 2024.

The 40 finalists chose Aditi as the student who most exemplifies their class and the extraordinary attributes of nuclear chemist Glenn T. Seaborg, who won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1951 and served on the Society’s Board of Trustees for 30 years.

The competition, now in its 83rd year, has consistently identified young innovators who become tomorrow’s STEM leaders.

Forty finalists, including Achyuta, were honored Tuesday during an award ceremony emceed by American Broadcaster Soledad O’Brien. More than $1.8 million was awarded to the finalists, who were selected from among the largest entrant pool since the 1960s through a holistic evaluation process.

All other finalists received $25,000. All 40 finalists will join the ranks of other STS alumni, many of whom have gone on to have world-changing careers in STEM fields, and some of whom have earned the most esteemed honors in science and math, including the Nobel Prize, National Medal of Science and MacArthur Foundation Fellowships.

In total, Regeneron awarded $3.1 million in prizes through the Regeneron Science Talent Search 2024, including $2,000 to each of the top 300 scholars and their schools.

READ MORE:

Five Indian Americans in Regeneron Science Talent Search finals (January 25, 2023)

70 Indian Americans among Regeneron Science Talent Search toppers (January 7, 2022)

Indian American finalists in the 2021 Regeneron Science Talent Search aim to tackle world’s vexing problems (February 4, 2021)

Nine Indian American teens among 2020 Regeneron Science Talent Search finalists (January 23, 2020)