Louisville teenager named finalist for prestigious national STEM award

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- A Louisville student is being celebrated as a finalist in a national STEM competition.

Owen Park, a student at St. Francis of Assisi School on Bardstown Road, is a finalist in the 2025 Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge, the nation's premier middle school STEM competition.

From a pool of more than 3,000 contestants nationwide, there are 30 finalists. To recognize the achievement, St. Francis held a schoolwide assembly Thursday. Park's project — titled "A Breakthrough in Low-Voltage Regolith Mitigation" — explores repelling Martian dust using electric fields, a solution aimed at protecting hardware placed on the surface of Mars from dust accumulation, an obstacle that could hinder future space exploration.

"I am very lucky to be standing here with this National Science Fair nomination, but this spotlight should not just be on me," Owen said at Thursday's assembly. "There's so many incredible people with incredible projects that I feel should be in this position just as much as I do."

Owen will travel to Washington next month to represent his school and the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

Family waiting for answers after Denny's sign crushes car, kills 72-year-old woman

Louisville leaders crush $100,000 Hellcat Durango to deter illegal street racing