The Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts recognized winners of the 2025 West Central Regional Science Fair during an awards ceremony on Feb. 28.
The team of senior Kolten Shook of North Little Rock and Lukas Bowler of Hot Springs won first place overall for their project in the Animal Science category. Senior Carmella Lewis of Alma won second place for her Cellular and Molecular Biology project. Senior Avagail Christine Dunning of Clarksville won third for her project in the Microbiology category.
The three overall winners were awarded a trip to participate in the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair, which will be held May 10-16 in Columbus, Ohio. The event is the world’s largest pre-college STEM competition. Students from around the world are expected to compete for awards, prizes and scholarships.
Individual awards were also announced in various categories. The top three projects and some high-placing honorable mentions in each category earned entry into the Arkansas State Science and Engineering Fair that will be held at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway on April 4-5.
Individual category winners included:
Animal Science: 1. Team of Kolten Shook of North Little Rock and Lukas Bowler of Hot Springs 2. Team of Plinio Tola of Little Rock and Mason Meenen of Gravette 3. Reagan Smith of Marion Honorable Mention: Team of Evan Fowlkes of Mountain View and Kendra Grant of Bismarck
Behavioral and Social Science: 1. Sindia Michael of Jonesboro 2. Alice Dong of Arkadelphia 3. Team of Lydia Robertson of Pea Ridge and Claira Hartig of Greenbrier
Cellular and Molecular Biology: 1. Carmella Lewis of Alma 2. Team of Graydon Anderson of Little Rock and Syed Imam of Little Rock 3. Kayleigh Murphy of Alexander
Chemistry: 1. Shelby Norris of Alma 2. Kalyn You of Everton 3. Lycci Pan of Jonesboro Honorable Mentions: Lane de Foor of Hot Springs, Morgan Broadway of Mabelvale
Computer Science: 1. Team of Kelvin Orduna of Huntsville, Cody Schulist of Russell and Evan Quirk of West Fork 2. Team of Paul Murphy of Conway, Kavan Patel of Sherwood and Titus Reynolds of Camden 3. Team of Berto Garcia of Nashville, Jack Russenberger of Bigelow and Riley Raymick of Sheridan Honorable Mentions: Zaelyn Horton of Little Rock, the team of Therese Ella Ambos of Greenbrier, Madeline Liachenko of Benton and Sarah Pham of Hot Springs
Earth Science: 1. Team of Riley Richardson of Belleville and Drayton Makepeace of Hagarville
Engineering: Electrical and Mechanical: 1. Karilynn Arellano of Mineral Springs 2. Damian Biggs of Washington County 3. Jonathan Matul of Decatur
Engineering: Materials and Bioengineering: 1. Miranda Lee of Conway 2. Team of Alan Ye of Conway and Justin Nicholson of Pine Bluff 3. Riley Hart of Mountain View Honorable Mention: Ava Beck of Hot Springs
Environmental Management: 1. Kaiyan Yu of Benton 2. Team of Finneas Salazar of Searcy and Ezekiel Summers of Paragould 3. Team of Daymond Franklin of Lexa and Haven Herring of Benton
Environmental Science: 1. Kira Burnett of Farmington 2. Aarush Goyal of Little Rock 3. Team of Addison Nance of Delight, Jade Espinoza of Corning and Maxine Uriarte of Sparkman Honorable Mention: Edame Egar of Helena
Mathematics: 1. Jackson Whittaker of Benton 2. Anna Le of Fort Smith Honorable Mention Hiro Linker of Little Rock
Medicine and Health Sciences: 1. Meera Patel of Hot Springs 2. Team of Emily Lin of Little Rock, Kaitleen Toh of White Hall and Nathan Grady of Blytheville 3. Charlotte Young of Paragould
Physics/Astronomy: 1. Team of Titan Dinwiddie of Sherwood, Levi Fason of Conway and Ty Carmichael of Hot Springs Village Honorable Mention: Cassie Davis of Marion
Plant Science: 1. Team of Nora Medlock of Dyer and Bianca Navarro of Hot Springs 2. Jeremiah Chen of North Little Rock 3. Nathan Alam of White Hall
Several special awards and recognition were also announced during the awards ceremony. They include:
Regeneron Science Talent Search Entrants Recognition: Olivia Judkins of Benton, Kira Burnett of Farmington, Meera Patell of Hot Springs and Kalyn You of Everton
Soybean Science Challenge award that recognizes a student for their project as well as their project adviser for an outstanding project in soybean science or agriculture: Team of Nora Medlock of Dyer and Bianca Navarro of Hot Springs, advised by Dr. Lindsey Waddell
Missouri University of Science and Technology Kummer Center for STEM Education for outstanding junior research students: Miranda Lee of Conway, the team of Graydon Anderson of Little Rock and Syed Imam of Little Rock, Anna Le of Fort Smith and the team of Emily Lin of Little Rock, Kaitleen Toh of White Hall and Nathan Grady of Blytheville
Trinity Environmental Consultants award recognizes a project that best develops a solution for an environmental problem with preference given to an outstanding junior: Kaiyan Yu of Benton
Association of Women Geoscientists for outstanding geoscience project by female or non-binary student(s): Riley Richardson of Belleville
NASA Earth Systems Award for outstanding earth science project: Team of Addison Nance of Delight, Jade Espinoza of Corning and Maxine Uriarte of Sparkman
NOAA Taking the Pulse of the Planet Award for project that emphasizes science, service and stewardship in addressing issues related to climate, weather, oceans and coasts: Edame Egar of Helena
Ricoh USA, Inc. award: Team of Finneas Salazar of Searcy and Ezekiel Summers of Paragould
Society for In-vitro Biology award for outstanding 11th-grad life science project: Team of Graydon Anderson of Little Rock and Syed Imam of Little Rock
Stockholm Junior Water Prize to the top project related to water quality and water resource management: Kira Burnett of Farmington
United States Air Force award: Cassie Davis of Marion, Karilynn Arellano of Mineral Springs, Lycci Pan of Jonesboro and Maya Allen of Harrison
U.S. Metric Association for the best use of International System of Units: Riley Hart of Mountain View
Yale Science and Engineering Association award for best 11th-grade exhibit in computer science, physics, chemistry or engineering: Miranda Lee of Conway
Regeneron Biomedical Science Award for outstanding project in translational medical science, microbiology or medical science: Team of Emily Lin of Little Rock, Kaitleen Toh of White Hall and Nathan Grady of Blytheville