On Tuesday, senior Michelle Wei became the third-place winner of this year’s Regeneron Science Talent Search, taking home an award valued at $150,000 for her project, which focused on optimizing the solving of second-order cone programming (SOCP) problems that are important in supply chains, airline schedules and the distribution of electric power. She is the first Harker student to place in the top 10 in the STS since Regeneron became its sponsor in 2016. The awards ceremony, which took place in Washington, D.C., is available to view on YouTube.

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Feb. 27, 2024:

Senior Michelle Wei has been named one of the top 40 finalists in the 2024 Regeneron Science Talent Search, the Society for Science announced today. She will travel to Washington, D.C. in March for the final stage of the competition, where $1.8 million in prizes will be awarded to the top placers. Finalists will also participate in a special public exhibition of their projects at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library.

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Jan. 10, 2023:

Society for Science announced today that five Harker seniors – Ella Lan, Michelle Wei, Ella Yee, Ryan Zhang and William Zhang – are among the 300 scholars in the 2024 Regeneron Science Talent Search, the most of any California school. Each of the scholars will receive a $2,000 cash prize and is eligible to become one of the top 40 finalists, who will be named later this month.

A total of 2,162 entries were submitted for this year’s contest, from more than 700 high schools across the United States as well as international schools in Guam, Puerto Rico and 10 other countries. The finals of the competition will take place in March in Washington, D.C.

Since first entering the competition during the 2005-06 school year, Harker has had 110 students recognized in the Science Talent Search, either as semifinalists or as scholars. To date, 18 Harker students have been finalists. Andrew Jin ’15 won first place nationally in the Global Good category in 2015.