Teenage scientist wins a quarter million dollars

For the first time in its 78-year history, the Regeneron Science Talent Search competition took place virtually, but that didn't dampen the excitement as to winners were announced. Lillian Kay Petersen of Los Alamos, New Mexico, won a quarter million dollars.

The 17-year-old incoming freshman at Harvard College invented a simple tool for predicting harvests early in the growing season, which helps improve food distribution, and will aid groups working to remedy global food insecurity. She was motivated to do research in this field after her parents adopted children who faced food insecurity, and later, she read about Ethiopia where a famine had affected millions of people.