Caltech Hosts 2025 Southern California State Science Olympiad Tournament
More than a thousand middle and high school students came to Caltech's campus for the Southern California State Science Olympiad tournament on Saturday, April 12. Student teams from 31 middle schools and 31 high schools from San Diego to Santa Barbara participated in science competition events ranging from engineering to chemistry to epidemiology.
The event was largely coordinated by the Caltech Science Olympiad planning team, which comprises Caltech students—many of whom are former Science Olympiad participants themselves. This year, Science Olympiad hosted most of its chemistry events in the new Resnick Sustainability Center's labs and lecture spaces, with other competition events happening across campus.
For the second year, the state tournament included lab tours for student competitors. Graduate students, postdocs, and faculty members from 21 labs across multiple Caltech divisions gave tours of their labs to middle and high school students. More than 450 students from 28 different Southern California schools attended the lab tours. Students had the opportunity to explore geology labs, aerospace robotics labs, and other spaces and ask researchers questions about their work.
At the tournament's concluding awards ceremony, Caltech Provost David Tirrell, the Ross McCollum-William H. Corcoran Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering and Carl and Shirley Larson Provostial Chair, welcomed participants to campus. Congresswoman Judy Chu, who represents the greater Pasadena area in the US House of Representatives, also made remarks at the ceremony. She encouraged students to continue pursuing the sciences while reflecting on the impact they can make on society and presented a certificate of congressional recognition to Caltech, the Caltech Science Olympiad planning team, and to Southern California Science Olympiad for creating opportunities for students to explore the sciences.
Sierra Vista Middle School of Irvine and Troy High School of Fullerton took first place in the middle and high school divisions of the competition, respectively, and will both be representing Southern California at the National Science Olympiad tournament at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln on May 23 and 24.
