Announcements
2024 Updates
2024 State Exposition
The State Exposition will be held on May 3–4, 2024 at Millikin University in Decatur, Illinois. More information coming soon!
The Contest Deadlines for the design and essay contests have been updated. View the contests page for more information. We would like to see many more submissions!
Student decal design and T-shirt design contest submissions are due on March 9, 2024.
Student essay contest submissions are due on March 16, 2024.
Many scientifically adventurous students can be stymied or restricted in their pursuit of research or design due to limited financial resources. The Board of Directors of the Illinois Junior Academy of Science supports students’ efforts by providing grants of up to $250 per year, per project. Send application and endorsement to the past president.
Grant recipients will be notified soon and will be announced at the annual banquet on Friday April 22.
2023 State Exposition Updates
The State Exposition will be held on April 28-29, 2023 at SIU in Carbondale. Click on this link to learn more information about the State Exposition.
The Contest Deadlines are updated. Click here for more information. We would like to see many more submissions!
Decal design contest submissions are due February 15, 2023.
T-shirt design contest submissions are due February 28, 2023.
Essay contest preliminary google forms are due by February 28th, 2023. Regional chairs will then choose 2-3 essays to submit for final consideration by March 28, 2023.
2022 Contest Winners
This was the first year that IJAS introduced the Decal Design Contest. Below are the winning and the finalist designs. The winner of the 2022 IJAS Decal Design Contest is Winnie Choi and the finalists include Sela Nucum, Finn Donnelly and Peter Jankowski. Congratulations to the winner and our finalists for this year! The decals will be made available for purchase at the 2022 IJAS State Exposition on Friday and Saturday.
Winner
Finalist
Finalist
Finalist
Continuing the tradition from past years, the IJAS hosted the Artistic Design Contest once again. Here are the winning and finalist designs. The winning design will be printed on the t-shirts and the finalist design will be on the program cover for Friday night’s banquet. The winner of the 2022 IJAS Artistic Design Contest is Yoonseo Jung and the finalist is Uma Pulugurtha. Congratulations to the winner and our finalist for this year!
Thank you to students who have submitted your essay in the 2022 IJAS Essay Contest! The winner of this year's essay contest is Indigo Wall! The finalists are: Indigo Wall, Gabriella Thalos, and Sophie Mae McPhail! Finalists were invited to present their essay to the IJAS Student Board on the morning of Friday, April 22 at the Peoria Civic Center. Congratulations!
Proclamation by the Governor of Illinois
The governor of Illinois has proclaimed
April 22, 2022 and April 23, 2022 as
Illinois Junior Academy of Science Days.
Our 2022 Keynote Speaker
Coralie Adam will be our 2022 State Science Exposition Keynote Speaker at the banquet held on April 22nd, 2022. She is the Lead Optical Navigation Engineer at KinetX Aerospace, the first privately held company to provide navigation and flight dynamics expertise to NASA. Born and raised in Illinois, she is a graduate of Palatine High School and an alumna of Adler Planetarium’s Astro-Science Workshop. She holds a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering and Astronomy from the University of Illinois, and an M.S. in Aerospace Engineering Sciences from the University of Colorado.
Coralie first started studying and imaging asteroids at age 16, and has since been involved in many small body exploration missions including OSIRIS-REx, New Horizons, ROSETTA, Stardust-NExT, EPOXI, and Lucy. Since 2011, she has worked in the Space Navigation and Flight Dynamics division at KinetX where she has made significant contributions to the exploration of small bodies in our solar system. Ms. Adam was a navigator for the historic first reconnaissance of the Pluto system by NASA’s New Horizons mission in 2015. Next, she began working on the OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return mission – a challenging mission that has now achieved multiple spaceflight records, including smallest body every orbited by a spacecraft, and first U.S. mission to collect a sample from the surface of an asteroid.
For her contributions to NASA’s planetary exploration initiatives, she has received many honors, including a NASA Early Career Achievement medal and main belt asteroid 128314 dedicated in her name. Coralie’s enthusiasm for public outreach inspired the building of Muddy Run Observatory in Lancaster, PA, where one of the telescopes was dedicated in her name.
Coralie is currently the Optical Navigation Lead at KinetX, where she manages a team of engineers supporting multiple planetary exploration missions. In her next role as Deputy Navigation Chief on NASA’s recently-launched Lucy mission, Coralie is looking forward to exploring a new population of asteroids, the Jupiter Trojans, which will further expand our scientific understanding of our solar system and planet’s origins.