2026 Louisville Regional Science and Engineering Fair
The 2026 Louisville Regional Science & Engineering Fair took place on Saturday, March 7, 2026. View the complete list of our Saint Francis of Assisi Cougar Science Team winners below! Not only did 31 of of our young scientists qualify to advance to the Kentucky State Science and Engineering Fair, but for the eleventh year in a row, St. Francis of Assisi took home top prize as the 1st Place Middle School in the day’s competition.
We are incredibly proud to announce our amazing middle school scientists who placed in this year’s LRSEF competition:
2026 LOUISVILLE REGIONAL SCIENCE & ENGINEERING FAIR WINNERS
(§) denotes Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovator Challenge Winners (learn more):
ANIMAL SCIENCES
1st Place: Carol Erwin, St. Francis of Assisi - Exploring Acupressure as Stress Reduction in Horses; Winner: U.S. Air Force-U.S. Air Force Certificate of Achievement (§)
2nd Place: Nora Burton, St. Francis of Assisi – Can Fish Smell Fear?; Winner: Bakelite Synthetics-Creative Project Award
3rd Place: Davis Sprague, St. Francis of Assisi - Alarm Pheromones in Fish
4th Place: Simon Barmore, St. Francis of Assisi - Exploring Dog Tail Patterns
BEHAVIORAL AND SOCIAL SCIENCES
1st Place: Celia Nunn, St. Francis of Assisi - Uncanny Valley: Exploring Visual Processing Patterns in AI Generated Faces
2nd Place: Avery McGalliard, St. Francis of Assisi - Neurocognitive Outcomes of Placebo Based Hyperactivity Claims
BIOCHEMISTRY
1st Place: Ian Rasnake, St. Francis of Assisi - Herbicides/Insecticides Affect Coagulation; Winner: American Chemical Society-American Chemical Society Award (§)
2nd Place: Amelia Turner, St. Francis of Assisi - Kentucky Goldenrod: A Potential Natural Treatment for Eczema; Winner: American Chemical Society-American Chemical Society Award
3rd Place: Brooke Meade, St. Francis of Assisi - Effect of Natural vs. Synthetic Food Dyes on a Digestive Enzyme; Winner: Bluegrass Institute of Food Technologists Food and Beverage Science and Technology Award
BIOCHEMISTRY
2nd Place: Miles Williams, St. Francis of Assisi - Exploring the Effects of Phototherapy on Stem Cells and Signaling; Winner: Gibson Family Special Awards-STEM Achievement Award (§)
3rd Place: Olivia Naidu, St. Francis of Assisi - Tongue Controlled Computer Accessibility Device
4th Place: Chase Gratz, St. Francis of Assisi - H.A.P.N.: A Device Which Assists Patients with Peripheral Neuropathy in the Hands
BIOMEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES
1st Place: Emma Cowley, St. Francis of Assisi - Exploring Square Breathing as An Academic Anxiety Intervention; Winner: Norton Children Research Institute Affiliated with University of Louisville School of Medicine-Child Health and Well-being Award (§)
3rd Place: Noa Jeffreys, St. Francis of Assisi - Perfume Fragrance Affects Stem Cell Function
CELLULAR AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY
1st Place - Riley Bartlett, St. Francis of Assisi - Winterbloom: a Potential Native Kentucky Anti-Cancer Remedy (§)
2nd Place - Maura Keeley-Fine, St Francis of Assisi - Diphenhydramine: Does it Affect Stem Cells? (§)
3rd Place: Violet Dunn, St. Francis of Assisi - The Effect of OLED Blue Light on Planarian Stem Cells
CHEMISTRY
1st Place: Lincoln Knockwafel, St. Francis of Assisi – Rusting Alaska: Salt’s Impact on Iron Oxidation and Precipitation, Winner: American Chemical Society-American Chemical Society Award & The Lemelson Foundation-Lemelson Early Inventor Prize (§)
3rd Place - Owen Lloyd, St Francis of Assisi - Chitosan: Solving the Wine Sulfite Problem
COMPUTATIONAL BIOLOGY AND BIOINFORMATICS
1st Place: Tony Church, St. Francis of Assisi – Exploring IBD Gene Expression in Parkinson’s Disease (§)
EARTH AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE
1st Place: Sophia Fitzgerald, St. Francis of Assisi – Sunlight’s Effect on Drug Toxicity in Aquatic Systems; Winner: MIDDLE SCHOOL JUNIOR BEST OF FAIR & Office of Naval Research-Naval Research Award (§)
2nd Place - Carroll Harping, St Francis of Assisi - Testing Playgrounds for Heavy Metals; Winner: Bakelite Synthetics-Community Impact Award (§)
3rd Place: Jack Cornett, St. Francis of Assisi - Microplastic Prevalence in Central Kentucky Cave System; Winner: Gibson Family Special Awards-Global Environmental Impact Award & Ricoh USA, Inc.-Sustainable Development Award
EMBEDDED SYSTEMS
1st Place: Andrew Head, St. Francis of Assisi – Engineer a Low-Cost Acoustic Early Warning Flooding System, Winner: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Assoc. (NOAA) – National Oceanic and Atmospheric Award (§)
4th Place: Lawson May, St. Francis of Assisi - Automating Field Narcotic Tests Using OpenCV; Winner: Office of Naval Research-Naval Research Award
ENERGY: SUSTAINABLE MATERIALS AND DESIGN
3rd Place: Lucas Schaefer, St. Francis of Assisi - Exploring the Effect of Calcium Carbonate in Dye-synthesized Solar Cells
ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGY: STATICS AND DYNAMICS
2nd Place: Thomas Messier, St. Francis of Assisi - Exploring Accuracy in Supercavitation Torpedoes
3rd Place: Lucas Schaefer, St. Francis of Assisi - Engineering Fasteners for Comet Mining
ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING
1st Place: Lauren Duncan, St. Francis of Assisi – Cicada Shells: A New Natural Dye Adsorbent; Winner: MIDDLE SCHOOL JUNIOR BEST OF FAIR & Gibson Family Special Awards-Excellence in Animal Investigations; (§)
2nd Place: James Sexston, St. Francis of Assisi - Can Milkweed Floss Remediate Microfibers; Winner: Jefferson County Conservation District-Conservation Awards
3rd Place: Elijah Garris, St. Francis of Assisi - Exploring Photocatalytic Plastic Remediation; Winner: Jefferson County Conservation District-Conservation Awards
MATERIALS SCIENCE
1st Place: Jude Oetken, St. Francis of Assisi – Exploring Conductive Electrolyte Films Placement
3rd Place: Andrew Mayer, St. Francis of Assisi - Creating Electrically Conductive Hydrogels
4th Place: Noah Garris, St. Francis of Assisi - Impact of Microplastics Leaching Based On pH Level
MATHEMATICS
1st Place: Grady Stage, St. Francis of Assisi – Finding Fractals in Shark Migration Routes
MICROBIOLOGY
1st Place: Bennett Garvin, St. Francis of Assisi – Neotame: Possible Impact on Bacteria from the Gut-Microbiome; Winner: MIDDLE SCHOOL JUNIOR BEST OF FAIR (§)
2nd Place: Lucy Pulliam, St. Francis of Assisi – Exploring the Effects of Plastic Leachate on the Gut Microbiome
3rd Place: Mae Taylor, St. Francis of Assisi – Survival of Playground Surfaces: Crumb Rubber vs. Wood Chips; Winner: Gibson Family Special Awards-Excelling in Math and or Statistics Award
4th Place: Elizabeth Graeser, St. Francis of Assisi – Does Full Body Deodorant Impact The Epidermal Microbiome?
PHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY
1st Place: Owen Park, St. Francis of Assisi – Optimizing Electromagnetic Dust Shields for Martian Regolith Mitigation, Winner: Department of Defense-Department of Defense STEM Leadership Prize (§)
3rd Place: William Cooper, St. Francis of Assisi – Seeing the Invisible: How Galxay Motion Could Reveal Dark Matter
PLANT SCIENCES
1st Place: Samuel Hawley, St. Francis of Assisi – Exploring Associative Learning in Plants
3rd Place: Paddy Weyland, St. Francis of Assisi – Injury Communication in Plant Roots
4th Place: Roger Quarles, St. Francis of Assisi – Exploring the Allelopathic Relationship Between Deadnettle and Soybeans; Winner: Gibson Family Special Awards-Shining Star Award
ROBOTICS AND INTELLIGENT MACHINES
2nd Place: William Paxton, St. Francis of Assisi – Improved Prosthetic Grip Control, Winner: U.S. Air Force Award, Middle Grades
3rd Place: Gabe Galla, St. Francis of Assisi – IRIS: The First SIDS Risk Detecting Python Library
SYSTEMS SOFTWARE
1st Place: Eric Gregory, St. Francis of Assisi – ScamScanner: An App to Help Protect the Elderly From Scams
2nd Place: Max Dunn, St. Francis of Assisi – Prydwen: A System for Preventing Prompt Injections Within LLMs (§)
3rd Place: Lucile Eatherly, St. Francis of Assisi – Parachute- a Service Finding App for the Homeless
TECHNOLOGY ENHANCES THE ARTS
1st Place: Henry Buchenberger, St. Francis of Assisi – Picasso Canvas: Creating Tactile Art Experiences for the Blind (§)
TRANSLATIONAL MEDICAL SCIENCE
1st Place: Caroline Keeney, St. Francis of Assisi – Rhubarb Extract: A Potential Anti-Cancer Therapy
2nd Place: Catherine Burket, St. Francis of Assisi – Exploring the Effects of Urban Pollutants on Stem Cell Activity
3rd Place: Edith Quarles, St. Francis of Assisi – Sumac: A Potential Agent For Epidermal Healing
4th Place: Amelia Medina, St. Francis of Assisi – Yellow Root tea: Appalachian Blood Sugar Treatment?
