2nd consecutive gold medal for Mangalick in biology Olympiad.
By Raif Karerat
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WASHINGTON, DC: Indian American students brought home top honors from both the International Physics Olympiad and the International Biology Olympiad, which were held in Mumbai, India and Aarhaus, Denmark, respectively.
Saranesh Prembabu, who recently graduated from Dougherty Valley High School in San Ramon, California, earned a gold medal at the 46th International Physics Olympiad, held from July 5 to July 12.
In addition to his new gold medal, in March, Prembabu won $75,000 for winning a second place innovation award in the Intel Science Talent Search in Washington, D.C.
He was also a National Merit Scholar finalist, was one of 20 National Society of High School Scholars selected to attend Nobel Week in Stockholm, Sweden, and won first place awards in regional high school science bowls in 2014 and 2015.
According to his U.S. Physics team profile, math didn’t always appeal to Prembabu.
“I did not realize its use for things other than simple but tedious addition and multiplication problems,” he said. “Now, physics is definitely one of my favorite areas of science. I often spend free time working on challenging physics problems , many of which are from the Soviet popular science journal Kvant (through which I also teach myself Russian),” he added.
Shortly after Prembabu took a top prize in Mumbai, Varun Mangalick, a senior at Mounds View High School in Arden Hills, Minnesota, claimed his second consecutive gold medal at the International Biology Olympiad in Denmark on July 19.
Mangalick, who finished 19th overall and earned a Gold Medal in the 2014 Olympiad, earned his second consecutive gold this year and finished seventh overall. He earned his spot on the United States team by scoring well at the national finals at Purdue University in June.
Mangalick has been a member of his school’s varsity math team, Science Olympiad Team, and Minnesota All-State Math Team, and in April he was named a U.S. Presidential Scholar.
According to his LinkedIn profile, Mangalick is slated to attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology this autumn, where he will be working toward of B.S. in computer science.