Canary Islands – October 10, 2026 -- A Spanish STEM educator and an 11-year-old British wildlife campaigner will receive STARMUS VIII's two junior medals at the festival in Tenerife and La Palma, running 17 to 22 October 2026.
Valeria Corrales built a 240,000-subscriber STEM channel
Valeria Corrales, from Spain, will receive the Junior Stephen Hawking Medal for her work bringing science, programming and technology to young audiences. She co-founded the educational platform ValPat in 2018, at age ten, with her mentor Patricia Heredia.
ValPat has grown into a major Spanish-language STEM education platform with more than 750 videos and 240,000 YouTube subscribers. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Corrales and Heredia ran 100 consecutive days of free online STEM classes for thousands of children across Spain and Latin America.
Her recognition includes a place among Forbes Spain's 23 Changemakers in 2023 and a finalist spot for the Princess of Girona Social Award in 2025. She also reached the Top 10 of the Global Student Prize, chosen from nearly 11,000 applications and nominations across 148 countries. She now studies Computational Media at the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Aneeshwar Kunchala started campaigning for animals at age four
Aneeshwar Kunchala, from the United Kingdom, will receive the Junior Jane Goodall Earth Medal for his dedication to wildlife conservation and biodiversity. He began his mission at four, after learning that a whale had died because of plastic pollution.
Now 11, he has reached audiences through television documentaries, educational programmes, public speaking, journalism and art. His appearances and productions include work for BBC, Sky Kids and Channel 5.
He holds three Guinness World Records and has received the Diana Award and the British Citizen Youth Award. He is a young ambassador for the National Trust and the first young columnist for National Geographic Kids UK. The Scientific Exploration Society also gave him its Young Scientific Explorer honorary award.
His own message is simple: save the animals and make sure the world looks beautiful.
STARMUS VIII takes on "The Search for Truth"
The festival's theme is The Search for Truth. It will bring together leading figures in science, space exploration, technology, music and the arts to examine evidence, knowledge, reason and scientific thinking.