Members of the Hopkinton Middle School Science Olympiad team stand together at last month’s state competition.

The Hopkinton Middle School Science Olympiad team achieved its strongest-ever performance at the Massachusetts State Science Olympiad held March 7 at Assumption University in Worcester.

In only its third year of competition, HMS finished fourth place overall. Every participating student received an award, with the team placing in 15 categories, according to coach Sowmya Belur Sowmyakeshava.

Winners included Aarit Nakul and Advaith Gundu (first place, circuit lab), Emily Cao and Pranav Vijayakumar (second place, entomology), Emily Cao and Advaith Gundu (third place, potions and poisons), Roger Gu and Spruha Pawar (third place, water quality), Angeline Manesh, Mayukh Pujari and Anaghashree Nandiraju (fourth place, codebusters), Anaghashree Nandiraju and Susannah Klein(fourth place, disease detectives), Arin Raina and Mayukh Pujari (fourth place, heredity), Jemin Mehta and Mayukh Pujari (fourth place, rocks and minerals), Arin Raina and Anaghashree Nandiraju (fourth place, scrambler), Jenil Mehta and Neil Nakhare (fourth place, write it do it), Jenil Mehta and Susannnah Klein (fifth place, anatomy and physiology), Angeline Manesh and Tejas Prasad (fifth place, crimebusters), Jemin Mehta and Spruha Pawar (fifth place, metric mastery), Roger Gu and Jemin Mehta (sixth place, dynamic planet) and Jenil Mehta and Pranav Vijayakumar (sixth place, solar system).

“We would like to recognize the mentorship of Hopkinton High School volunteers Anushree Nandiraju, Clara Vanguri and Aashrithasai Vuppala,” Sowmyakeshava stated. “Middle school science teacher Mrs. Kerry Thornton-Genova helped proctor the placement test and assigned students to categories based on their strengths. Special thanks to the principal, Mr. Matthew Lefebvre, and the administrative staff for their dedicated support throughout the season.”

Local collegians recognized

Nianhan Tian earned a doctor of philosophy with a major in chemical engineering and a graduate certificate in data science for the chemical industry from the Georgia Institute of Technology, graduating in December.

Also at Georgia Tech, Peter Liang and Natalie Nguyen earned faculty honors for the fall semester. …

Connor Grady was named to the dean’s list at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. …

Hawkins Cui recently was elected for membership in The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi, which calls itself the nation’s oldest and most selective all-discipline collegiate honor society, at Framingham State University.

Editor’s note: Information for college honors is provided by the schools. Those interested in being included in this section should forward the official notification or request for the school to email it to editor@hopkintonindependent.com.