PIONEERS | SEEMA
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Advocate for Science Maya Ajmera, president and CEO of the Society for Science, discusses social innovation, public education and STEM
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espite her varied career, Maya Ajmera’s life has been stitched together with one simple thread: social impact. In her current role, she is the president and CEO of the Society for Science & the Public, an organization best known for founding America’s oldest and most highly regarded high school science competition, the Regeneron Science Talent Search, which was for many years best known by the sponsor, 8 | SEEMA.COM | DECEMBER 2020
Westinghouse. She is also the publisher of the biweekly, award-winning Science News, a magazine she transformed from a staid, debt-laden institution to one with the financial freedom and journalistic ability to chase down the latest STEM stories and present them to the public. We spoke with her only weeks after she was announced as the recipient of the National Science Board’s 2020 Public Service Award. Honored for her work in STEM ad-
PHOTOGRAPH BY: SHRAVYA KAG
JORDANA WEISS
