Carmel High School senior David Liang earned a gold medal at the 45th International Chemistry Olympiad in Moscow. Liang earned his spot on the four-student team after this summer’s American Chemical Society study camp at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado. In total, the U.S. team won two gold and two silver medals.
Seventy-five student teams from around the world vied for international recognition in this chemistry competition. Only the most talented chemistry students qualified to compete.
Since ranking in the top 150 chemistry students as a freshman, Liang escalated his scores in a series of national exams. This year, he achieved status as one of the nation’s top 20 chemistry students.
At the Moscow Olympiad, Liang excelled during a five-hour laboratory practical plus five-hour written theoretical examination. He specifically brushed up on organic chemistry in preparation.
“There was a bit of organic on the theoretical and experimental sections of the exam,” Liang said. “I was glad I had worked on it before the (Olympiad).”
Liang was surprised Moscow University provided viscometers for each student chemist.
“They are rather expensive and not used in many labs these days,” he said. He also was surprised by “how fragile the viscometer was, since I broke it before I could even use it.”
“The exam was good at incorporating real-life examples into the problems,” Liang said. “From something rather mundane like testing the quality of pool water to dealing with underwater methane sources.”
Liang enjoyed learning about Russian culture from his team’s tour guide.
“One interesting fact is that the actual Russian name for Red Square doesn’t actually translate into Red Square in English,” he said.
Guides explained the Red Square is known by Russians as Krasnaya Ploschad. The term generally means beautiful victory and several old Russian towns use the same title for their main squares.
Networking proved easier than expected, Liang noted “since many students from non-English speaking countries knew English.”
“The (Olympiad) experience very much opened my eyes to just how important chemistry is to the world,” Liang said.
Liang is also a 2103 Siemans Award for Advanced Placement scholarship recipient and serves as the unofficial assistant coach of the Carmel High School Math Counts team.
