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Nine Fairfax County Public Schools students have been selected among the top 300 scholars in the 2026 Regeneron Science Talent Search, one of the nation’s leading science and mathematics competitions for high school seniors.
Eight attend Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, while one attends Chantilly High School. The students previously attended several Fairfax County middle schools, including Carson, Frost, Johnson, Kilmer and Longfellow.
Each scholar will receive $2,000. Their schools will also receive $2,000 for every selected student enrolled.
The FCPS scholars and their research projects are:
- Anusha Agarwal, Thomas Jefferson: “Multigrid-Inspired Neural Operators for Real-Time Brain Biomechanics Prediction With Spectrally-Aware Learning.”
- Rushil Kukreja, Thomas Jefferson: “Preparing for the Next Carrington: Spatiotemporal Agent-Based Modeling for Safeguarding Satellite Infrastructure Under Extreme Space Weather Disturbances.”
- Madeline Levorson, Thomas Jefferson: “Novel Antimicrobial Treatments Designed With Discovered Lytic Bacteriophages Evaluated Through a Rapid Screening Protocol and an In Vivo Galleria mellonella System.”
- Caroline Li, Thomas Jefferson: “Improving the Detection Sensitivity of Calcium Transients in Densely Labeled Neuronal Tissue Through Pinhole Illumination: A Low-Cost Approach.”
- Nived Nandakumar, Thomas Jefferson: “A Closed-Loop Deep Generative Model for the Inverse Design of Radiation-Resistant Polymers.”
- Medha Pappula, Thomas Jefferson: “Identifying Underlying Brain Connections in Pediatric ADHD: A Pathway to Early Diagnosis and Reduced Secondary Effects.”
- Aashritha Penumudi, Thomas Jefferson: “A Novel Approach to Understanding the Structural Basis of Ribosome Stalling by AMD1 and Cellular Arresting Peptides.”
- Samanvi Tummala, Chantilly: “From Waste to Worth: Transforming Resistant Starches From Waste Rice Into a Single-Use Plastic Alternative and Controlled-Release Organic Fertilizer.”
- Max Zhao, Thomas Jefferson: “Improving Time-Series Flood Detection on Remote Sensing Satellite Imagery With Persistent Homology.”
The 300 scholars were chosen from 2,600 applicants representing 826 high schools across 46 states, Washington, D.C., the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico and 16 other countries.
Selections were based on students’ original independent research, essays and recommendations, along with their research ability, leadership, community involvement, academic commitment, creativity and potential as future STEM leaders.
Forty of the scholars are scheduled to be named finalists on Jan. 21. Those students will compete for more than $1.8 million in awards during a weeklong competition in Washington, D.C., from March 5 through March 11.
Alumni of the Science Talent Search have collectively received millions of dollars in scholarships and later earned honors including Nobel Prizes, Fields Medals and MacArthur Fellowships.