Varun Mangalick, an Indian American senior at Mounds View High School in Arden Hills, Minn., claimed his second consecutive Gold Medal at the International Biology Olympiad in Aarhaus, Denmark, on July 19.
The Olympiad, which was held from July 12 to July 19, featured the top biology students representing countries throughout the world. The top four students in each country advanced to the IBO.
Mangalick and his three teammates, Grace Chen of Bridgewater-Raritan Regional High School, Bridgewater, N.J.; Yilun Du of Pullman High School, Pullman, Wash.; and Boyang “Peter” Dun of Canterbury School, Fort Wayne, Ind., earned their spots on the United States team by scoring top marks at the national finals at Purdue University in June (I-W, June 29, 2015).
All four U.S. students performed well at the Olympiad, each taking home a Gold Medal.
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 with a total score (adding up scores of the theoretical and practical exams) of 333.79.
Dun topped the U.S., finishing second overall with a score of 343.02; Chen finished 15th at 323.23; and Du came in 23rd, scoring 317.24. Mangalick has been a member of his school’s varsity math team, Science Olympiad Team and Minnesota All State Math Team. His other interests include photography, creative writing, Bollywood, hip hop dance, and making strangely large sculptures out of twist-ties. In April, he was named a U.S. Presidential Scholar.
