NEWTON, Mass. — Silent Spring Institute concluded its week-long 2026 Summer Institute on Friday, providing high school students with a free virtual introduction to environmental health science through lectures and discussions led by researchers specializing in toxicology, exposure science, environmental policy, and public health.
The program, held from July 6 to July 10, brought together students in grades 9 through 12, with middle school students aged 13 and older also eligible to participate, according to the independent environmental health research organization. Participants attended daily online sessions examining how environmental exposures, including chemicals in air, water, food, household dust, and consumer products, can influence human health and disease risk.
Silent Spring Institute said the curriculum covered environmental justice, scientific research methods, exposure science, and approaches for translating scientific findings into practical interventions aimed at reducing harmful chemical exposures. Students who completed the course received certificates recognizing their participation.
The institute said the program was led by Executive Director Mary Beth Terry, a cancer epidemiologist, and featured presentations from scientists including Robin Dodson, Jennifer Kay, Jennifer Ohayon, Laurel Schaider, Ruthann Rudel, Katie Boronow, and Kristin Knox. The sessions were designed to introduce students to research methods used to investigate links between environmental factors and health outcomes while highlighting career pathways in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
According to Silent Spring Institute, the Summer Institute is intended to help students understand how scientific research informs efforts to reduce disease risk and improve public health. The organization, based in Massachusetts, conducts research into environmental contributors to cancer and other diseases and works with academic, government, and community partners on environmental health studies.
The 2026 program follows the launch of the institute's inaugural Summer Institute in 2025. According to the organization's publicly available annual filing, more than 100 students from the United States and other countries participated in the first year of the initiative, which was established as a week-long environmental health certificate program for high school students.
Registration for this year's program closed in early June, and the institute said enrolled students received access through the Zoom platform for the virtual sessions. The organization has indicated it plans to continue offering the educational program annually, with future registration information to be announced through its regular communications channels.
