Two Ferris High School seniors from Spokane claimed second place in environmental science at the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair in May 2026, earning one of the most coveted student research honors in the world after spending the entire school year studying how wildfire smoke affects agricultural crops.
Teddy Osborne, 18, and Anders Thogerson, 17, competed against 1,383 projects from students across 67 countries at the prestigious event, which has run for 76 years and stands among the most competitive high school science competitions on the planet. Their second-place finish is only the second time a student from Eastern Washington has won an ISEF award in the fair’s history.
Smoke, Seeds, and the Science Behind the Research
The pair’s project examined how exposure to wildfire smoke alters the structure and germination behavior of three crop species: wheat (Triticum aestivum), rice (Oryza sativa), and broccoli (Brassica oleracea var. italica). Seeds exposed to smoke showed slower germination and growth rates compared to unexposed seeds, and microscopic examination revealed more surface cracks and deposits on the smoked seeds.
The research has direct implications for agricultural regions across the Pacific Northwest and Inland Empire, where wildfire smoke has become an increasingly common seasonal presence threatening crop yields. For farming communities throughout Latah County and the broader Palouse region, where wheat production anchors the local economy, the kind of data Osborne and Thogerson generated carries real-world significance.
The project received a boost from Anna Armstrong, an Eastern Washington student who is now a senior at Western Washington University. Armstrong had placed fourth in environmental engineering at ISEF in 2022 — the only previous regional winner in the competition’s history — and contributed scanning electron microscope images of seed coats that supported the pair’s microscopy analysis.
Osborne and Thogerson took home $2,400 in prize money and accepted their award on stage in Phoenix.
Teacher’s Reaction and a Year of Hard Work
The research grew out of Ferris High School’s biomedical innovations class, where the two spent the full academic year developing, testing, and refining their project. Their teacher, Darci Hastings, has taught the course for roughly half of her 26-year career in education — and she learned about the win the way millions of people follow major events today: watching a YouTube livestream from her classroom.
Hastings said the moment the results came through, she was unable to contain her reaction. “I was literally running up and down the hallway and telling everyone in the hallway that they had won,” she said, adding that her ninth-grade students watched her celebration unfold in real time.
Ferris Principal John O’Dell praised the students not just for their academic achievement but for their character. “These are just great young men who are kind to people, who are hardworking, who lift other people up,” O’Dell said. “And to see them go all the way to the international science fair and get second in the world — it’s just like, I’m just so proud of them.”
The research touches on themes of growing relevance to science and agriculture students throughout the region. University communities like Moscow have increasingly emphasized research connecting environmental pressures to food systems — a thread that connects to the kind of academic culture described in coverage of student life at the University of Idaho and the strengths that have helped Moscow earn recognition as one of America’s standout college towns.
What Comes Next
Both Osborne and Thogerson are graduating seniors, meaning the award caps their high school careers on a historic note. No details about their post-graduation plans were available at the time of publication. Their teacher, Hastings, remains at Ferris to guide future classes through the biomedical innovations curriculum, and the program now carries the distinction of producing the highest-ranked regional finisher in ISEF environmental science in the competition’s seven-decade run. Whether future Ferris students build on this research — particularly its agricultural implications for smoke-affected growing seasons — remains to be seen, but the foundation laid by Osborne and Thogerson gives the school’s science program a credible platform to work from.