Announcing the 2021 Semifinalists!

This year, Genes in Space honors 30 Semifinalists who contributed outstanding proposals to our 2021 competition. These Semifinalists will be issued a new challenge: pitch your idea to a lay audience in a 60-second video.

Our reviewers will use these videos, in tandem with the Semifinalists' written proposals, to select 10 Honorable Mentions and the 5 Finalists who will compete to launch their projects to space. Honorable Mentions and Finalists will be announced on Monday, May 17.

We proudly recognize the following Semifinalists:

• Audrey Acken (16), Maya Avida (16), Alanna Yelland (16) & Karen Guo (17) from the Nueva School, San Mateo, CA
• Aiden Ackerman (15) from Stuyvesant High School, New York, NY
• Perisa Ashar (18) from Maggie L. Walker Governor's High School, Richmond, VA
• Leyla Carson (14), Lela Tu (13), Andreas Vavasis (14) & Kamilah Khan (14) from Arts and Letters 305 United, Brooklyn, NY
• Keerthana Danasekaran (17), Noah Black (17) & Ashi Jain (17) from miRcore, Ann Arbor, MI
• Nishant Domala (17), Shruthi Chakravarthy (17), Mori Ono (17) & Claire Swadling (17) from miRcore, Ann Arbor, MI
• Zachary Finger (17) from Smithtown High School East, St. James, NY
• Aditi Ganesan (17) & Noah Vogel (17) from miRcore, Ann Arbor, MI
• Peter Goswami (15) from Stuyvesant High School, New York, NY
• Tamara Gruslova (16) from BASIS San Antonio Shavano, San Antonio, TX
• Sneha Jaiswal (17) & Zoe Shleifer (17) from Milton Academy, Milton, MA
• Jaeah Kim (17), Jaejeong Kim (17) & Jaemin Kim (14) from Hunter College High School, New York, NY
• Selin Kocalar (17) from Leigh High School, San Jose, CA
• Joseph Lee (14), Eddy Tian (14) & Dino Rutten (15) from Stanford Online High School, Redwood City, CA
• Eric Li (16), Tanvi Ganapathy (17), Sonya Hamid (14) & Justin Wang (16) from The Lakeside School, Seattle, WA
• Rayna Malhotra (14) from Moravian Academy, Bethlehem, PA
• Rumaysa Merchant (15) from Waubonsie Valley High School, Aurora, IL
• Xinyi Gao (17) from The Bronx High School of Science, the Bronx, NY
• Haya Prasla (18) from Clear Springs High School, League City, TX
• Ilana Propp (16) & Sophia Tully (16) from The Nightingale-Bamford School, New York, NY
• Srishti Rajeev (16), Nathan Sullivan (16) & Owen Donsker (16) from Paradise Valley High School CREST, Phoenix, AZ
• Chinmay Rana (16) & Dushyant Singh (15) from Shrewsbury High School, Shrewsbury, MA
• Riley Rane (17), Reva Agrawal (17) & Jibiana Jakpor (16) from miRcore, Ann Arbor, MI
• Victoria Sanchez (17), Maggie Schneider (16) & Helena Zheng (16) from the Bronx High School of Science, the Bronx, NY
• Nidhi Shah (17), Riddhishrree Badhan (16) & Amy Wang (17) from Hillsborough High School, Hillsborough, NJ
• Kiley von Bernthal (16) from International Academy Central, Bloomfield Township, MI
• Malcolm Wilson-Ahlstrom (15) from Stanford Online High School, Redwood City, CA
• Vivian Yee (17) & Erika Yee (14) from Ernest W. Seaholm High School, Birmingham, MI
• Rania Zaki (16) from Stuyvesant High School, New York, NY
• Jack Zhang (16) & Eric Heng (17) from Salem High School, Canton, MI

The Genes in Space team warmly congratulates all the deserving awardees. We wish you all the best as you undertake your next challenge!