The 2018 result
The Science Talent Search's winners list places Benjamin Firester first in 2018, from New York City. The year matters to the competition's own history: 2018 fell in the first stretch of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals' sponsorship, which began in 2017 after Intel's run from 1999 to 2016 and Westinghouse's from 1942 to 1998.
The research record behind this page describes his work as plant pathology modelling, and lists Benjy Firester as a form of the name used in coverage. Neither claim is confirmed by the sources read here, so both are recorded as open rather than stated.
What the competition is
The Science Talent Search is described as the oldest and most prestigious research-based science competition for American high school seniors. Around 2,000 projects are submitted each year, the top 300 scholars receive $2,000 each, and 40 finalists are selected to compete for the main awards.
First place is worth $250,000. In 2021, a nearby edition with published figures, the 40 finalists were chosen from 1,760 entrants for their projects' scientific rigour and their potential as future scientists and leaders, and every finalist received at least $25,000.
Why the prize is watched
The competition's standing comes from what its alumni went on to do. Thirteen have won Nobel Prizes, twenty have received MacArthur Fellowships and eleven have been awarded National Medals of Science, with many more elected to the National Academy of Sciences or the National Academy of Engineering.
That is an unusual record for a school competition, and it is the reason a first place is reported nationally. It identifies research ability at seventeen or eighteen, before a university has put its name to the work.
The winners either side
The winners list also shows the company Firester's name keeps. Ana Humphrey of Alexandria, Virginia took first place the following year. Yunseo Choi of Phillips Exeter Academy won in 2021 for a project titled On Two-Sided Matching in Infinite Markets, and Christine Ye of Sammamish, Washington in 2022.
Read together, those entries show the competition's spread across fields and states: mathematics, astrophysics and the plant sciences, from New Hampshire, Washington, Virginia and New York in successive years. No single school or region dominates the list, because entry runs through individual students and their mentors rather than through a national qualifying system.
What is documented - and what is not
Firm: the first place, the year, the city and the competition's structure, history and award levels, all drawn from the encyclopaedia record and from Society for Science's published finalist information.
Not documented here: the project itself. The official finalist page for 2018 returned an error when checked for this page, and no press coverage was consulted. No birth year, age, school, photograph or quotation appears in the sources used here, and nothing is documented about what Firester has done since 2018. Those blanks are left as blanks.
| Person | Country | Milestone | Age / Stat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rishi Shiv Prasanna | India | Winning the Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar in 2023 at eight, for… | Age 0 |
| Cannan Huey-You | United States | Presenting research on a Milky Way gas cloud at the American Astronomical… | Age 11 |
| Ángela Olazarán Laureano | Mexico | An AI medical assistant built in Veracruz, designed to work where there is | Age 14 |
| Émer Hickey | Ireland | Co-winning the 2014 Google Science Fair grand prize | Age 16 |
| Benjamin Firester | United States | First place, 2018 Regeneron Science Talent Search | — |
What is documented — and what is not
✓ Documented
- First place in the 2018 Regeneron Science Talent Search (Wikipedia winners list)
- Listed from New York City
- The competition dates from 1942 and its first-place award is $250,000
? Unverified, disputed or wrong
- No project title or description confirmed; the official 2018 finalist page returned an error when checked
- The plant pathology description and the name Benjy Firester come from the research record, not from a source read here
- No published birth year, age, school or later activity
Questions people ask about Benjamin Firester
What is Benjamin Firester known for?
Taking first place in the 2018 Regeneron Science Talent Search, the oldest research-based science competition for American high school seniors.
What was his project about?
The sources read here do not confirm it. The research record behind this page describes it as plant pathology modelling, and the official 2018 finalist page no longer resolves.
Is he also called Benjy Firester?
The research record lists that form of the name. It is not confirmed by the sources read here.
How much is first place worth?
$250,000.
How old is Benjamin Firester?
No source used here gives an age or birth year. The competition is for American high school seniors.
Who sponsors the competition?
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals since 2017. It was the Intel Science Talent Search from 1999 to 2016 and the Westinghouse Science Talent Search from 1942.
Is Benjamin Firester on Wikipedia?
There is no article devoted to him. He appears in Wikipedia's list of Science Talent Search winners.
Where is Benjamin Firester now?
Nothing after the 2018 competition appears in the sources used here.
Quick quiz: how well do you know Benjamin’s story?
In which year did Benjamin Firester win the Science Talent Search?
Which company has sponsored the competition since 2017?
How many finalists compete for the main awards?
Sources
- Regeneron Science Talent Search — Wikipedia, n.d.
- Regeneron Science Talent Search 2021 Finalists — Society for Science, 2021
- Regeneron STS 2022 - top 10 — Society for Science, 2022
Checked by the Geniuses.club editorial team. Ages are given as of September 2026.
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