Marc Hauser’s award-winning research, at the interface between evolutionary biology and cognitive neuroscience, is aimed at understanding how the minds of human and nonhuman animals evolved.

Pamela Schaller is the primary biologist for a charismatic colony of African penguins and designed and implemented the first-ever penguin wetsuit, which helped a balding bird re-grow his feathers and stay warm.

Jarod Miller is a young naturalist, zoologist, pet expert, and regular guest lecturer for zoos, universities, and promotional events, having lectured on captive management and wildlife conservation at venues including the White House.

Peter Staley has been a long-term AIDS and gay rights activist, first as a member of ACT UP New York, then as the founding director of TAG, the Treatment Action Group. He served on the board of the American Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR) for 13 years.

Alexandra Horowitz is a professor of psychology at Barnard College, Columbia University and author of Inside of a Dog: What Dogs See, Smell, and Know and On Looking: Eleven Walks with Expert Eyes. The Horowitz Dog Cognition Lab at Barnard conducts research on a wide range of topics.

J. Kenji López-Alt is the author of the New York Times Best-Selling cookbook The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science, the managing culinary director of Serious Eats, and a columnist for Cooking Light.

Matthew Chun graduated from Jericho High School in 2014 and participated in ISEF in 2013 (4th place: Materials and Bioengineering) and 2014 (2nd place: Chemistry). Chun is currently a senior at MIT studying Mechanical Engineering.