2026 US National Chemistry Olympiad
In Mid-March, over 400 students from more than 40 local high schools took the 2026 US Chemistry Olympiad Local Exam. The results of this exam, with teacher input, were used to select a set of National Exam nominees.
On Saturday April 11, thirteen high school students from the Southern California local section area gathered at Cal State Dominguez Hills as National Chemistry Olympiad nominees to take a series of exams for an opportunity to advance in the US National Chemistry Olympiad competition.
The morning started off bright and early with a multiple-choice knowledge-based chemistry exam. Next was a laboratory practicum, in which the students were given a specific set of supplies with which they were to create and perform experiments to answer two problems without a standard operating procedure. One problem was to rank a set of three unknown carbonate powders for lowest to highest carbonate. A known molarity of acetic acid was provided along with the unknowns. The other problem was to set up an electrochemistry experiment that would use the Nernst equation to determine the concentration of two unknown copper solutions. Copper electrodes, standard 1.0M copper solution, potassium nitrate electrolyte, a multimeter, and various clamps and containers were provided. After a nice break for a pizza lunch, the students cheerfully returned to the exam room for another free-response exam. High school students spending their entire Saturday taking chemistry exams and lab practicums and calling it fun.
Shout out to our local USNCO Co-Coordinators, Jerry Delker (Retired) and Barbara Belmont (CSUDH Faculty), volunteer Ismail Kokculer (UCLA grad student), and the SCALACS administrative team for making this event transpire smoothly. We are immensely grateful to our event host, the California State University Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry. With a few exceptions (COVID, one other host venue once), the CSUDH Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry has hosted this event continuously since 2013.
The thirteen students who took the National Exam on April 11 at Cal State Dominguez Hills:
Joshua Bie – Harvard-Westlake School
Alexander Fan – Beverly Hills High School
Rickia Gibson – Venice High School
Kevin Han – Palos Verdes Peninsula High School
Paxton Lin – Arcadia High School
Nathaniel Ou – North Hollywood High School
Saket Pamidipathri – The Science Academy STEM Magnet
Ethan Wang – Arcadia High School
Xiaohan Wang – Palos Verdes Peninsula High School
Emmanuel Wu – Gretchen Whitney High School
Lily Wu – Venice Senior High School
Connor Zhao – North Hollywood High School
Joshua Zhong – Geffen Academy at UCLA
Congratulations to all our students!
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Below is the 112th Annual SCALACS High School Educational Awards presentation celebrating the outstanding achievements of our student participants and acknowledges the dedication and support of their teachers. We invite you to view the presentation and join us in recognizing the exceptional accomplishments of the 2026 Olympiad participants.
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Top 21 Students Highest Scoring Team
1st place
Connor Zhao, North Hollywood Senior High School
Kevin Han, Palos Verdes Peninsula High School
2nd place
Paxton Lin, Arcadia High School
Emmanuel Wu, Whitney High School
3rd place
Mayukh Dey, The Science Academy STEM Magnet
4th place
Saket Pamidipathri, The Science Academy STEM Magnet
5th place
Ethan Wang, Arcadia High School
Nathaniel Ou, North Hollywood Senior High School
6th place
Joshua Zhong, Geffen Academy at UCLA
Tristan Gaertner, The Science Academy STEM Magnet
Keenan Park, Whitney High School
7th place
Haoran Zhang, Arcadia High School
8th place
Xiaohan Wang, Palos Verdes Peninsula High School
Eric Chung, The Science Academy STEM Magnet
Rickia Gibson, Venice Senior High School
9th place
Kevin Wu, Arcadia High School
Lily Wu, Venice Senior High School
10th place
Vincent Tan, Arcadia High School
Alexander Fan, Beverly Hills High School
Joshua Bie, Harvard-Westlake School
Aaron Chang, South Pasadena High School
National Exam High Honors
Emmanuel Wu
Kevin Han
Paxton Lin
National Exam Honors
Connor Zhao
Nathaniel Ou
Lily Wu
Ethan Wang
Saket Pamidipathri
Top Performing High Schools (with 10 or more students participating)
First Place: Arcadia High School,
Teacher: Cherryl Mynster
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