New sponsor for science competition

The Science Talent Search (STS) has a new champion: Regeneron, a pharmaceutical company based in Tarrytown, New York. The Society for Science and the Public (SSP), which runs the prestigious annual competition, made the announcement on 26 May.

Regeneron is the third sponsor of STS since it was founded in 1942. The company succeeds Westinghouse and Intel, which said last fall that it would withdraw (see Physics Today, November 2015, page 27 ).

Regeneron has pledged $100 million over 10 years, of which $30 million will be dedicated to SSP outreach programs. The total annual prize money will nearly double to $3.1 million, with the top prizes jumping to $250 000 from $150 000. The purse for semifinalists and their schools will double to $2000 each. Overall, the new sponsorship brings a twofold boost in financial support.

At an event celebrating the passing of the torch, Regeneron founder and CEO Leonard Schleifer—a 1970 STS semifinalist—said that as soon as his company’s board of directors heard that STS needed a new sponsor, the reaction was instantaneous and unanimous: “Go do it! It’s perfect! This is what companies should do.”