High School North placed first and High School South placed second in this year’s Science Olympiad competition. The nation’s largest team science competition, more than 5,”000 middle and secondary schools participated.
North advances to the state championship in March after placing in all events in which it competed. The team is coached by teachers Jim Looney and Rich Therkorn, and assisted by teacher Holly Crochetiere and parent Anand Gnanadesikan.
First place: Ecology: Tracie Kong, and Spencer Palombit; Environmental Chemistry: Shir Aharon and Louisa Ying; Experimental Design: Louisa Ying, Varnika Atmakuri, and Felix Xiao; Picture This: Mrinalini Basu, Gita Gnanadesikan, and Linda Maa; and Remote Sensing: David Goldfinger and Rohit Reddy.
Second place: Chemistry Lab; Shir Aharon and Mrinalini Basu; Dynamic Planet: David Goldfinger and Renuka Reddy; and Electric Vehicle: Greg Doidge and Sanjana Manikandan.
Third place: Disease Detectives: Lahari Vudayagiri and Felix Xiao.
Fourth place: Cell Biology: Yiqing Kong and Renuka Reddy; Elevated Bridge: Gita Gnanadesikan and Varnika Atmakuri; Herpetology: Spencer Palombit and Rohit Reddy; and Write it Do it: Linda Maa and Lahari Vudayagiri.
Seventh place: Junkyard Challenge: Gita Gnanadesikan and Sanjana Manikandan.
Eighth place: Trajectory: Greg Doidge and Varnika Atmakuri; and Protein Modeling: Sam Goldfinger, Prathima Radhakrishnan, and Damini Saxena.
High School South placed second in the tournament. The advisors are faculty members Meenakshi Bhattacharya, Brendan Field, and Karen Galley.
First place: Chemistry Lab: Naveen Galla and Ronak Gandhi; and Dynamic Planet: Piyush Poddar and Satyajeet Pal.
Second place: Disease Detectives: Satyajeet Pal and Ashwin Amurthur; Picture This: Manu Venkatasweran, Piyush Poddar, and Mark Benjamin; Write It Do It: Stephanie Ku and Peter Ku; and Protein Modeling: Ankita Gore and Nikita Singh.
Third place: Ecology: Becky Shi and Ming-Ming Tran; Electric Vehicle: Ante Qu and Ronak Gandhi; and Environmental Chemistry: Naveen Galla and Ronak Gandhi.
Fourth place: Remote Sensing: Manu Venkatasweran and Aditya Girish.
Fifth place: Cell Biology: Becky Shi and Ming-Ming Tran; Elevated Bridge: Manu Venkatasweran and Sarath Jaladi.
Sixth place: Trajectory: Sarath Jaladi and Charles Zhou.
Eighth place: Herpetology: Stephanie Ku and Aditya Girish.
