Site Logo

Bellevue student earns gold medal at International Biology Olympiad

Published 2:30 pm Monday, July 20, 2026

USA Biolympiad Team gold medalists, pictured from left to right: Kian Dhawan, Montgomery Blair High School, Silver Spring, Maryland; Suzuko Ohshima, North Hollywood Senior High School, California; Emma Li, Lakeside School, Seattle; and Kevin Wu, BASIS Independent, Bellevue. Photo courtesy of The Center for Excellence in Education

USA Biolympiad Team gold medalists, pictured from left to right: Kian Dhawan, Montgomery Blair High School, Silver Spring, Maryland; Suzuko Ohshima, North Hollywood Senior High School, California; Emma Li, Lakeside School, Seattle; and Kevin Wu, BASIS Independent, Bellevue. Photo courtesy of The Center for Excellence in Education

Special to the Reporter

The Center for Excellence in Education (CEE) announced that Kevin Wu, a Bellevue BASIS Independent high school biology scholar, has earned a gold medal representing the United States at the 37th International Biology Olympiad (IBO), a worldwide competition involving student teams from 78 countries hosted July 12-19 in Vilnius, Lithuania. He is one of four U.S. gold medalists.

“These students honored our country at the IBO competition,” said Joann DiGennaro, president of CEE. “They are exceptional scholars headed for outstanding careers.”

According to his bio, Wu, a sophomore, “found a great interest in biological systems years ago, (and) has since perused textbooks ranging in topic from biochemistry to mycology. In the meantime, he satisfies his need to look at greenery by adding to his over 5,000 observations on iNaturalist and capture pictures of his favorite moss, P. insigne. On his less active days, he returns to reading and editing Wikipedia, skimming the latest issue of Cell.”

The IBO competition included practical exams on molecular biology and biochemistry, animal physiology, animal morphology and systematics and plant computational biology; and theoretical exams on cell biology, plant anatomy and physiology, animal anatomy and physiology, ethology, genetics and evolution, ecology and biosystematics.

You Might Like