Meet the Team
See the people who have spent many hours organizing the competition, writing problems, reviewing problems, and maintaining the website!
Brian Zhang
Director & Problem Writer
Brian Zhang is a rising freshman at MIT. In seventh grade, he came across Richard Feynman’s book Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman! which sparked in him a profound interest in physics. Ever since then, a ceaseless curiosity to explore further into physical phenomena has driven his learning. He is a member of the 2023 and 2024 U.S. Physics Team, 3 time USAJMO qualifier, earning an Honorable Mention in 2023, and 2024 USAMO qualifier. Brian is also enthusiastic about computer science, especially machine learning. Outside of STEM, Brian plays piano and finds deep joy in classical music and is an avid tennis player and runner.
Richard Yang
Problem Writer
Richard Yang will be an incoming freshman at MIT this fall. In 2024, he won a gold medal at EuPhO, representing the US. In his free time, he likes to read, play video games, and listen to music.
Tristan Yan-Klassen
Problem Writer
Tristan Yan-Klassen is a first year Mechatronics Engineering student at the University of Waterloo. As a member of Physics Team Canada, he won a Bronze medal at EuPhO 2024. This year, he is helping to train the Canadian team for IPhO 2025 as a problem writer, testsolver, and lecturer. An avid enjoyer of science olympiads, he competed in both the Canadian Physics Olympiad and Canadian Mathematical Olympiad in both 2023 and 2024. He enjoys skiing, hiking, reading, and solving fun problems in his free time.
Ryan Tang
Problem Writer
Ryan Tang is an incoming MIT freshman majoring in electrical and computer engineering. Passionate about science and engineering, he enjoys self-studying chemistry, biology, and physics, often writing physics simulations in his free time. Outside academics, he’s an avid mountain biker and astrophotographer.
Kai Wen
Problem Writer
Kai Wen is a high school student at Raffles Institution in Singapore. He has gone for IOAA in 2023 and 2024 (getting gold both times) and will be going for IPhO in 2025 (and possibly IOAA again). He enjoys doing physics, some areas of astronomy and playing Rain World with a bunch of nerds once in a while. At some point he also did astrophotography but got demotivated after realising how difficult it was in the world's most light polluted country. He also plays the piano and double bass but is quite bad at both instruments.
Isaac Chang
Problem Writer
Isaac Chang is a first-year studying Mathematics, Physics, and CS at the University of Chicago. Isaac was a member of the US Physics Team in 2024, made High Honors in USNCO in 2022 and 2024, and is also a USAMO qualifier. Isaac enjoys PhO (not necessarily the noodle) because of how it admits intuitive problem-solving; in his free time, he enjoys conjuring up devilishly tricky problems, devising suspect proofs for suspect propositions, finding novel ways to confuzzle the nearest LLM, and eating pho. You can usually find him in the Regenstein Library or on PhODS.
Joshua Wang
Problem Writer
Joshua Wang is an incoming freshman at MIT from Brookfield, Wisconsin. He enjoys solving math and physics problems (except for relativity!) and was a member of the 2024 US Physics Team. He is also the lead designer and programmer for his school's FIRST robotics team. In his free time, he likes to read science fiction novels and play tennis. Joshua wrote Open and Invitational problems for OPhO 2024.
Kartik Ramachandrula
Problem Writer
Kartik Ramachandrula is a high school senior from Wisconsin passionate about math, physics, and ML. He is '23 Physics Team. Kartik also loves math Olympiads (USAMO Bronze, and JMO winner) and procrastinating on research to go literature diving (PRIMES, RSI 24'). He loves learning languages, cooking (literally and figuratively), and volunteering/teaching.
Michael Voigt
Problem Writer
Michael Voigt is a freshman at MIT majoring in physics and artificial intelligence. In high school, he was a silver medalist in the USA Physics Olympiad and a gold medalist in Optics at his state Science Olympiad Tournament. At MIT, he now writes for both the MIT Science Olympiad and MIT Informatics Tournament. In his free time, Michael practices violin and taekwondo, and plays video games.
Zhi Zheng
Problem Writer
Zhi Zheng is an incoming freshman at MIT from Malaysia with a deep-rooted passion for physics and astronomy! In high school, aside from doing his A-Levels, he participated in the IPhO and IOAA, and has a collection of HM, Bronze, Silver and Gold medals. (diversity!) Now, he is part of the Malaysian training team and also manages AMISO, an organization that aims to disseminate information about Olympiads to high-schoolers all across Malaysia. Outside of being a nerd, he loves Pokémon, music and making.
Zian Shi
Problem Writer
Zian Shi is a freshman at MIT, where he will pursue a B.S. in Artificial Intelligence and Physics. A natural problem-solver with a passion for both theoretical and applied science, his talents have earned him international recognition—highlighted by Gold Medals at the International Physics Olympiad and the European Physics Olympiad. Zian’s aptitude extends into computer science as well, evidenced by his strong performances in the USA Computing Olympiad (Platinum Division) and the USA Junior Mathematical Olympiad. He currently focuses on developing and training AI models.
Trung Phan
Problem Writer
Trung (Average) Phan is an incoming Assistant Professor of Physics at the Claremont Colleges (Pitzer and Scripps). A former silver medalist at the International Physics Olympiad (IPhO), he has stayed actively involved with the Vietnamese Physics Olympiad community for nearly two decades. He has served as a coach for Vietnam’s national teams, and has contributed many problems for the Online Physics Olympiad. In his free time, he enjoys collaborating with talented students on exploratory research across a broad range of scientific topics.
Rian Atri
Developer
Rian Atri is a sophomore from NC, and is a fullstack developer of the site and portal. He especially enjoys applications of computer science in healthcare. Over the years, he has worked at various companies as a software engineer, enhancing and building upon his skills to start freelancing. When he is not coding or working, Rian likes playing games, basketball, and reading whatever piques his interest.
Sourish Pramanik
Problem Writer
Sourish Pramanik is an incoming freshman at MIT and a graduating senior at Montgomery High School. His favorite field of physics is quantum mechanics, for its unique ideas and (sometimes) elegant math. He was a member of the 2024 US Physics TEAM, and earned a USAPhO gold in 2023. He also loves competing in an array of events like Optics, Materials Science, and Air Trajectory in science olympiad, a part of the team that won 4th at Nationals in 2024. Outside of STEM, he loves making youtube videos, playing tennis for his school team, building things in minecraft and painting different things.
Stanley Li
Developer
Stanley Li is a freshman at UC Berkeley intending to study physics and/or math. He discovered a passion for solving physics problems in high school, and quickly fell down the physics competition rabbit hole. He dabbled in the national olympiad, Science Bowl, and OPhO, earning a USAPhO Silver Medal and a special relativity book. In his free time he enjoys coding random projects including a GamePigeon Wordhunt bot, neural networks, and video games. In his actual free time he enjoys watching Invincible, playing Bloons Tower Defense, reading and writing, and lifting weights that are too heavy for him to lift. As depicted in the picture, he only eats at the fanciest and highest end restaurants.
Nicholas Song
Developer
Nicholas Song is an incoming freshman at Carnegie Mellon University studying computer science. He has participated in USAPhO and USACO, and enjoys math, physics, and computer science. Additionally, he is involved in research in program synthesis. In his free time, Nick likes to play tennis, mountain bike, and lift weights.
Matías Páez
Problem Writer
Matías Páez is a high school student from Argentina who has been passionate about physics for a good chunk of his life. He won first prize(gold) at the 2024 Argentine physics Olympiad and is likely going to IPhO 2025. In his free time he enjoys hitting the gym, playing padel, watching sports and reading fiction.
Houlai Zhou
Problem Writer
Houlai Zhou is a high schooler from Sydney, Australia who is currently in his final year. Before doing the physics Olympiad, he competed and prepared for the informatics and chemistry Olympiads, until ultimately realising that physics was altogether much more interesting and exciting to work with. From that point onwards, he has won a gold medal at APhO 2024, and was invited to be a part of the IPhO 2024 team, although was unfortunately unable to participate due to political reasons. Combining experience in different disciplines, he has worked on novel materials for lithium-ion batteries, applying computational methods in density functional theory. Aside from these, Houlai also plays the piano and flute, finding special interest in newer pieces of work after receiving training in classical music.