Eli Jacob, a senior at Herricks High School and mentee of Lillian Park, associate professor in the Psychology department, was selected as one of the top 300 scholars in the prestigious Regeneron Science Talent Search 2026. Jacob, described as industrious, hardworking and innovative by his mentor, was among 2,600 applicants in the search.
The Regeneron Science Talent Search, founded in 1942, is one of the oldest science competitions for high schoolers in the United States. The Regeneron STS empowers the next generation of scientists by encouraging and rewarding innovative research and ideas with the goal of creating opportunities for those who show strong potential for a future in science.
“Students are expected to conduct independent research with a mentor,” Park explained. This research is submitted to the search in the form of a Research Report that is 20 pages or less. Their research must include their own original work that is designed, executed and written by themselves.
Jacob’s research was titled “Misinformation in Shaping Ethical Attitudes Toward AI-Centered Academic Misconduct via Social Media.” His research was student-driven, with Park providing guidance throughout the process.
“I did this by exposing the participants to these false statistics about the prevalence of AI cheating via an Instagram post format or just a plain text format,” Jacob explained. Within each condition, he set one control group where the stimuli were unrelated to AI. The other conditions involved a high prevalence of AI usage and a low prevalence of AI usage. After being exposed to the stimuli, the participants filled out questionnaires regarding attitudes toward AI academic misconduct, general attitudes towards AI usage, and personal AI usage.
With the data results, Park helped mentor him through potential conclusions he could draw. “I hypothesized that I would see differences among all groups, but these differences would be more exaggerated when participants viewed an Instagram post format and I actually did not see that at all,” Jacob explained. “I think what was most surprising was just seeing more uniformity than expected.”
The really fun part for me is being able to support students and then watching them accomplish wonderful things
-- Lillian Park, Ph.D., associate professor of Psychology
In order to draw his conclusions from his research, Jacob had to analyze the data. “He had to do more sophisticated statistical analysis, so I'm there to teach him,” Park said. Through mentorship on a previous project, he learned about data analysis with Park, which helped him better navigate it this time around. “I was a lot more confident this year,” he said.
Park began mentoring Jacob two years ago after receiving an unsolicited email from him seeking mentorship. “He was very much interested in science, and he wanted to conduct research to participate in other local science fair competitions,” Park said.
Park’s research focuses and methods stood out to Jacob when he was deciding on his mentor. “I felt like that was where I would like to learn more about and be able to conduct my own projects,” he said.
Through their introduction, they realized they were both interested in research to analyze and understand the Asian American experience based on how strongly people in the community identify with their ethnic group. He engaged in this research during his junior year under Park’s mentorship.
Jacob is Park’s second student mentee to be selected in the top 300 scholars for the Regeneron STS, with the first being Molly Graff from Wellington C. Mepham High School in 2024. Park believes in the power of mentorship and the importance of giving back to her community because of her own positive experiences with mentors throughout high school, college and graduate school.
“The role that mentors can really play is that they augment areas that students are interested in pursuing that they don't necessarily have some personal experience within their own life,” Park explained.
Park’s mentorship has supported Jacob in becoming an independent researcher. “During my junior year, she was able to show me how to do everything and instill those psychological research methods,” he said. In his recent research, he was able to use what he learned to design the project independently.
“The really fun part for me is being able to support students and then watching them accomplish wonderful things,” Park said. She hopes to nurture a love of science in her mentees, even in times where research can prove challenging.
The top 300 scholars in the Regeneron STS and their respective schools each earn $2,000 for their distinction and earn the opportunity to among 40 semifinalists who earn at minimum $25,000 and a week in Washington D.C. to present their research. Then, finalists selected to be in the top ten will receive a monetary prize ranging from $40,000 to the grand prize of $250,000 for first place.