Penrose Magazine STEM Article Competition

Theme: Climate In STEM

Now Open: Submit by August 21st

All deadlines are at 7PM BST

Theme

'Climate in STEM' encapsulates all STEM topics from energy, to sustainability, to agriculture. We encourage applicants to be creative with their choice of topics and explore the theme in any way they see fit.

Article Requirements

Articles must be 750-1500 words in length (not including your reference list)
Articles must use IEEE style citation
Articles must have a clear and relevant title
Articles must follow the theme & have a clear STEM focus
Articles may contain relevant images

Eligibility

Applicants must be 14-19 years old at the time of submission
Applications must be submitted by the deadline
Global Applicants are accepted
Applicants are not required to be studying STEM

Why Apply?

Supportive Feedback

We encourage both novice and experienced academic writers to improve.

Global Recognition

Winners will be featured on the official Penrose Magazine website.

What To Keep In Mind When Writing Your Article:

Maintain Logical Paragraph Structure
Maintain Logical Sentence Structure
Maintain Factual Accuracy
Use Professional Language and Structure
Maintain Correct Grammar
Citations Should Be IEEE Style
Content Should Be Relevant
Avoid Excessive Repetition of Phrases/Concepts
Creativity
Depth
Examples
Intro/Conclusion Should Be Included (abstracts may be included, but will not be looked at/reviewed)

Examples can be found in our published issues.

Raffle Opportunity

For every day you submit your article before the final deadline you will receive an additional entry to a raffle for an article and bio in our next non-competition issue.

No AI Articles Accepted

All articles submitted will be screened for AI usage. If an article is flaggeed for AI we reach out to the author for document history, so we recommend writing articles on Google Docs.

Competition Timeline

Aug 7th 2026 - Aug 21st 2026

Stage 1 (Current Stage): Submissions

During this stage, applicants will submit their first drafts and editors will review them providing extensive feedback. Editors will also provide optional tasks which applicants can complete for bonus points. Applicants will then receive an initial score. Any first drafts submitted outside of this time period will not be reviewed.

Aug 21st 2026 - Sep 11th 2026

Stage 2: Editing

During this stage, applicants will submit their final drafts using the feedback provided by editors. Editors will review these using the same criteria and will calculate a second score.

Sep 11th 2026 - Oct 31st 2026

Stage 3: Final Scorings and Judging

Initial scores will be compared to secondary scores. Bonus points will be awarded for improvements and for completing optional tasks. The initial score, second score, and bonus points will be used to calculate the final score. Top scoring articles will be blindly ranked by external judges and professionals in the STEM field.

TBD

Stage 4: Results

All applicants will receive certificates and placing. The top 12 articles will be featured in an official competition issue on our website. All applicants will subsequently receive certificates in the categories gold, silver, bronze, or participation.

Judging Panel

Christopher Lowe

Emeritus Professor of Biotechnology at Cambridge, OBE, FREng

Andrew Malone

Clinical Assistant Professor of Climate Change, Glaciology, and Paleoclimate at University of Illinois Chicago

Ettore Biondi

Assistant Professor of Geophysics at Stanford

Alessandro Alabastri

Assistant Professor at Rice, Electrical and Computer Engineering Director, Applied Physics Graduate Program Core Member, Smalley-Curl Institute

Mahan Ghafari

Wellcome Trust Early Career Research Fellow at Oxford, Ghafari Research Group; Pandemic Sciences Institute; Lincoln College, Department of Biology

Brenda Boonabaana

Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography and the Environment at The University of Texas at Austin

Patricia

Founder of PCFGSTUDY tutoring

Apply Now

Fill out this application to submit your article. Make sure your article meets our article requirements before submitting (seen above).

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Past Judges

Dan Congreve

Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering at Stanford University

Sonia Katyal

Associate Dean, Faculty Development and Research Co-Director, Berkeley Center for Law & Technology Roger J. Traynor Distinguished Professor of Law

Tim Coulson

Professor of Zoology at University of Oxford and Professorial Fellow of Jesus College, Oxford

Nilay Shah

Professor of Process Systems Engineering at Imperial

Raymond Mooney

Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Texas at Austin

Alison Barth

Maxwell H and Gloria C. Connan Professor of the Life Sciences at Carnegie Mellon University

Steven Cundiff

Harrison M. Randall Collegiate Professor of Physics, Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS)

Kris Gunsalus

Professor of Biology; NYU-AD CGSB Co-Director; NYU-AD Faculty Director of Bioinformatics

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