From Students to Stars: Supporting Budding Scientists at the AACR Annual Meeting 2025

The AACR Annual Meeting 2025, which will be held in Chicago April 25-30, will feature some of the most high-profile minds shaping the field of cancer research. Award lectures will honor trailblazers such as Douglas Hanahan, PhD, FAACR, one of the minds behind the foundational hallmarks of cancer, who will receive the Pezcoller Foundation-AACR International Award for Extraordinary Achievement in Cancer Research. Two former directors of the National Cancer Institute—Monica M. Bertagnolli, MD, and W. Kimryn Rathmell, MD, PhD—will headline a unique session about the state of cancer research in the current political climate. You might even catch a glimpse of Nobel laureate James P. Allison, PhD, FAACR, known both for his pioneering work in tumor immunology and for his harmonica skills in the band The CheckPoints.

In such a star-studded venue, it can be important to remember that these paragons were once students learning the ropes of the scientific world and charting their paths toward promising careers. They attended classes, sought mentorship from experts, and nervously networked with their peers much like current students. In recognizing that tomorrow’s Nobel laureates and Fellows of the AACR Academy are today’s high school and undergraduate students, the AACR has made a commitment to fostering a supportive and welcoming environment for students at all stages.

This year, as in past years, the AACR Annual Meeting will include a robust slate of programming for budding scientists who have not yet entered the doctoral phases of their training. These students will have a unique opportunity to learn from the stars of cancer research at one of the world’s most prominent venues for cancer scientists.

A Long Tradition of Elevating Undergraduates at the AACR ANnual Meeting

This year’s Annual Undergraduate Student Caucus and Poster Competition, happening Saturday, April 26, will be the 20th held at the Annual Meeting, demonstrating AACR’s long-standing commitment to supporting undergraduate researchers. The program provides students with an introduction to the world of AACR and to various facets of research they might explore in their graduate or medical training, explained Brian Rivers, PhD, MPH, chair of the AACR Science Education and Career Advancement Committee, which organizes activities that provide career development support for scientists at all career stages. The committee has planned a robust program of Professional Development Sessions to be conducted at the meeting, including the undergraduate and high school programs.

The Poster Session gives undergraduates the opportunity to present their data on one of the biggest stages in the cancer research world.

“It can be daunting, but at the same time, very exciting,” said Rivers, who is from Morehouse School of Medicine. “It’s a great time for undergraduate students to network with each other.”

This year’s Undergraduate Student Caucus and Poster Competition will be a full-day affair that includes career development panels, robust networking opportunities, and a poster competition judged by established investigators. After the competition, Margaret Foti, PhD, MD (hc), chief executive officer of the AACR, will address the undergraduates and present the winners with a monetary prize, courtesy of the Margaret Foti Foundation.

From the more than 200 poster presenters, judges will select one first-prize winner, two second-prize winners, three third-prize winners, and several recipients of meritorious honors who will get to present their posters in a special Poster Session on Monday, April 28, in the main poster hall. This gives all attendees the opportunity to congratulate them and see their great work.

Other honors for undergraduates include 22 AACR Undergraduate Scholar Awards, a special program in which select students are paired with established mentors and participate in various activities during the meeting. Attendees can come by and meet these prestigious scholars as they present their posters in the main poster hall alongside the winners of the poster competition.

Reaching High School Audiences Using New Methods

Drawing in undergraduates who have selected potential careers is one thing. How do you reach even younger students and pique their interest in cancer research? The Science Education and Career Advancement Committee regularly grapples with this question while arranging their Special Program for High School Students.

“Individuals don’t always learn in a typical lecture-style format,” Rivers explained. “We have to tend to a new type of learner—folks used to learning things in two minutes or less from a TikTok video. So, how do we communicate more succinctly but make it fun, exciting, innovative, and hands-on?”

The high school program borrows many ideas from the undergraduate program—including their own class of scholars, tailored scientific talks, career panel discussions, and a Poster Session featuring more than 40 presenters—but it also offers up fresh ideas to engage the younger crowd. This year, for instance, the students will get to perform an experiment using fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster), a common model organism used to teach genetics.

The AACR also engages the high school scholars by assigning them near-peer mentors who were recently in their shoes. The undergraduate scholars agree to mentor their high school counterparts in addition to serving on a career panel for the larger cohort of high school program participants. The undergraduate scholars’ mentoring duties include tours of the sprawling Exhibit Hall at the AACR Annual Meeting, which Rivers said can spark a great deal of excitement in budding scientists.

“The Exhibit Hall is something to marvel at,” Rivers said. “Their eyes light up when they walk in, and we always hear, ‘Oh, I wish we had more time.’”

Rivers leverages that enthusiasm to convince students to come back next year and see more of the meeting’s offerings. “AACR wants to foster this awareness—this exposure that draws them in year after year,” he said.

Another highlight of the high school program is community engagement. Most of the more than 300 students registered for this year’s event are from one of nine participating high schools in the Chicago area. The program is also supported in part by local cancer centers, including the University of Chicago Medicine Comprehensive Cancer Center, Northwestern University Lurie Cancer Center, and the University of Illinois Cancer Center.

“It’s so great to see that local support,” Rivers said.

Fueling Tomorrow’s Leaders

Rivers hopes that these undergraduate and high school students’ experiences at the AACR Annual Meeting will set them up with skills they can use in the next steps of their career journeys and catalyze invaluable relationships between these participants and their peers and mentors.

“Being able to reach a student early on, help them with some of their decision-making, guide them, and mentor them to success is extremely important,” he said.

Continued programming for the high school and undergraduate scholars will provide students with ongoing support throughout the year. Rivers said that AACR plans quarterly check-ins with the scholars as well as seminars on relevant topics such as writing college essays or transitioning to graduate school.

“We want to reach students in more than just one dose,” Rivers said. “We want to create a longitudinal approach to science education and career advancement.

Rivers hopes the longitudinal approach stretches beyond training and resources and has a lasting impact on the students themselves. “Presenting your science, building your confidence, and building your self-efficacy are all important character developments we know are germane to success in the future, and we want to see them happen,” he said.