Awards

1988-2025

Magnet students have been winning prominent national science, mathematics, and computer science awards since the first senior class graduated in 1989. Blair's performance in the Regeneron (formerly Westinghouse and Intel) Science Talent Search has been especially noteworthy, with 55 finalists from the Magnet Program since its founding (more than any other school in that timeframe), including two first place winners (1996 and 2015). Blair teams have won the ACSL All-Star Competition 7 times (1991, 1993, 2001, 2003, 2009, 2011, 2013) and the National Science Bowl three times (1999, 2016, 2025). Five Magnet students have represented the United States at the International Mathematics Olympiad (1992-93, 1994, 1996, 2005/07, 2019), eight in the Physics Olympiad (2008, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2014 (x2), 2015, 2018), three in the Olympiad in Informatics (2002, 2005/07, 2010), two in the Chemistry Olympiad (2004, 2024), and one in the Biology Olympiad (2009). Thirteen Magnet students have been named Presidential Scholars (1997, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2008 (x2), 2010, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2018, 2022).

Student Awards by Year:

• 1988-89

  • • Howard Gobioff '89, Sven Khatri '89, Daniel Mall '89, and Maneesh Agrawala ’90 win a $100,000 Cyber 910 workstation at the ETA High School Supercomputer Challenge, which became the first server for the mbhs.edu domain. (Silver Chips)

• 1989-90

  • • Maneesh Agrawala '90 (societyforscience.org) and Joshua Fischman '90 (5th place) named Finalists in Westinghouse Science Talent Search. (societyforscience.org)

• 1990-91

  • • The Computer Team wins first place at the ACSL All-Star Competition. (acsl.org)

• 1991-92

  • • Benjamin Jun '92 (9th place) and Debbie VanderZwaag '92 named Finalists in Westinghouse Science Talent Search. (societyforscience.org) (Washington Post)

    • Wei-Hwa Huang '93 wins Silver Medal at the International Mathematics Olympiad. (imo-official.org)

• 1992-93

  • • Steve Chien '93 (8th place), Wei-Hwa Huang '93 (6th place, sciencenews.org), and Elizabeth Mann '93 (9th place) named Finalists in Westinghouse Science Talent Search. (societyforscience.org) (New York Times)

    • The Computer Team wins first place at the ACSL All-Star Competition. (acsl.org)

    • Wei-Hwa Huang '93 wins Silver Medal at the International Mathematics Olympiad. (imo-official.org)

• 1993-94

  • • Jacob Lurie '96 wins Gold Medal at the International Mathematics Olympiad. (imo-official.org) (Washington Post)

• 1994-95

  • • Samit Dasgupta '95 (4th place) named Finalist in Westinghouse Science Talent Search. (societyforscience.org) (Washington Post)

    • Luke Bergmann '98 wins first place in the NASA Space Science Student Involvement Program (SSIP) competition. (nasa.gov)

    • Aaron Andalman '95 and Marc Hudacsko '95 win First Place at the International Science Fair.

    • Atish Choudhury '95, Gautam Mukunda '97, and Jonathan Schlaifer '97 win the It's Academic Super Bowl. (Washington Post)

    • Jacob Lurie '96 wins Silver Medal at the International Mathematics Olympiad. (imo-official.org)

• 1995-96

  • • Jacob Lurie '96 wins First Place in Westinghouse Science Talent Search. (societyforscience.org) (Washington Post)

    • Carl Miller '97 wins Silver Medal at the International Mathematics Olympiad. (imo-official.org)

• 1996-97

  • • Gautam Mukunda '97 named Presidential Scholar. (Gazette)

• 1997-98

  • • David Wildstrom '98 named Finalist in Westinghouse Science Talent Search. (societyforscience.org)

• 1998-99

  • • Wei-Li Deng '99, James Hansen '99, Grace Lin '99, Michael Maire '99, David Moore '99 (2nd place), and Scott Safranek '99 named Finalists in Intel Science Talent Search. (societyforscience.org) (NBC Nightly News)

    • Manish Gala '99, Andy Mills '99, Jacob Paul '99, Kaushik Roy '99, and Jason Rubenstein '00 win First Place at the National Science Bowl. (energy.gov)

• 1999-00

  • • Elizabeth Epstein '00 and Jonathan Simon '00 named Finalists in Intel Science Talent Search. (societyforscience.org)

    • Anne Lee '00 named Presidential Scholar. (MCPS)

• 2000-01

  • • Alan Dunn '01 (4th place) and William Pastor '01 named Finalists in Intel Science Talent Search. (societyforscience.org)

    • The Computer Team wins first place at the ACSL All-Star Competition. (acsl.org)

• 2001-02

  • • Jennifer Alyano '02, Jacob Burnim '02, and Jean Li '02 named Finalists in Intel Science Talent Search. (societyforscience.org)

    • Jacob Burnim '02 wins Silver Medal at the International Olympiad in Informatics. (usaco.org)

• 2002-03

  • • Anatoly Preygel '03 (3rd place) named Finalist in Intel Science Talent Search. (societyforscience.org) (Silver Chips)

    • The Computer Team wins first place at the ACSL All-Star Competition. (acsl.org)

    • Lisa Leung '03 named Presidential Scholar. (ed.gov)

• 2003-04

  • • Stanley Wang '04 named Regional Finalist in Siemens Competition. (Gazette)

    • Melis Anahtar '04 and Gordon Su '04 (10th place) named Finalists in Intel Science Talent Search. (societyforscience.org) (Silver Chips)

    • Emily Tsui '04 wins Silver Medal at the International Chemistry Olympiad. (acs.org) (Gazette)

• 2004-05

  • • Abigail Fraeman '05, Sherri Geng '05, Michael Forbes '05, Justin Kovac '05 (7th place), and Albert Tsao '05 named Finalists in Intel Science Talent Search. (societyforscience.org) (Washington Post)

    • Sherri Geng '05 named Presidential Scholar. (ed.gov)

    • Brian Lawrence '07 wins Gold Medal at the International Mathematics Olympiad. (maa.org) (Silverchips)

    • Matt McCutchen '07 wins Gold Medal at the International Olympiad in Informatics. (usaco.org)

• 2005-06

  • • Minh Huynh-Le '06 and Chelsea Zhang '06 (3rd place) named Finalists in Intel Science Talent Search. (societyforscience.org) (Silver Chips)

    • John Kim '06 and Alice Li '06 win Siemens Award for Advanced Placement. (Silverchips)

• 2006-07

  • • Victoria Yao '07 and Jeffrey Guo '07 named Regional Finalists in Siemens Competition. (Silverchips)

    • Brian Lawrence '07 and Matt McCutchen '07 named Finalists in Intel Science Talent Search. (societyforscience.org) (Washington Post)

    • Kathy Jee '07 named Presidential Scholar. (ed.gov) (Washington Post)

    • Matt McCutchen '07 wins Siemens Award for Advanced Placement. (pdf/MCPS Bulletin)

    • Brian Lawrence '07 wins Silver Medal at the International Mathematics Olympiad. (maa.org)

    • Matt McCutchen '07 wins Gold Medal at the International Olympiad in Informatics. (usaco.org) (Silverchips)

• 2007-08

  • • Louis Wasserman '08 named Regional Finalist in Siemens Competition. (Silverchips)

    • Louis Wasserman '08 named Finalist in Intel Science Talent Search. (societyforscience.org) (Silverchips)

    • Julie Zhu '08 and Christina Zou '08 named Presidential Scholars. (doc/ed.gov) (Gazette)

    • Christina Zou '08 wins Siemens Award for Advanced Placement. (prnewswire)

    • Jonathan Gootenberg '09 wins a Gold Medal at the International Biology Olympiad. (Silverchips) (Gazette)

    • Edward Gan '09 wins a Gold Medal at the International Physics Olympiad. (aapt.org) (Gazette)

• 2008-09

  • • Tai Zheng '09 named Regional Finalist in Siemens Competition. (MCPS) (prnewswire)

    • Jonathan Gootenberg '09 and Sneha Kannan '09 win Siemens Awards for Advanced Placement. (prnewswire)

    • Elizabeth So '09, Ethan Wang '09, and Jeremy Fallick '10 win First Place the It's Academic D.C. Regional Final. (Silverchips)

    • Purnima Balakrishnan '09, Mario Choi '11, Jitu Das '09, Jacob Hurwitz '10, and Sang Tian '09 win first place at the American Computer Science League All-Star Competition. (acsl.org)

    • Jonathan Gootenberg '09 wins a Gold Medal at the International Biology Olympiad. (Silverchips)

• 2009-10

  • • Roger Curley '10, Dalton Wu '10, and Jennifer Wang '10 named Regional Finalists in Siemens Competition. (Silverchips)

    • Yifan Li '10 named Finalist in Intel Science Talent Search. (societyforscience.org) (Silver Chips)

    • Jacob Hurwitz '10, David Tolnay '10, Scott Yu '10, and Andrew Das Sarma '11 win Moody's Mega Math Challenge. (siam.org)

    • Scott Yu '10 named Presidential Scholar. (pdf/ed.gov)

    • Anand Oza '10 wins Silver Medal at the International Physics Olympiad. (aapt.org)

    • Michael Cohen '10 wins Gold Medal at the International Olympiad in Informatics. (ioi2010.org)

• 2010-11

  • • James Pinkerton '11 and Rafael Setra '11 win 3rd place at the National Finals of the Siemens Competition.

    • Sandra Yan '11 named Presidential Scholar. (pdf/ed.gov) (Gazette)

    • Jason Hyun '13, Andrew Lu '12, Lisha Ruan '13, Audrey Shi '13, and Charlie Pasternak '13 win first place at the American Computer Science League All-Star Competition. (acsl.org)

    • Andrew Das Sarma '11 wins Silver Medal at the International Physics Olympiad. (aps.org)

• 2011-12

  • • Frederic Koehler '12 named Finalist in Intel Science Talent Search. (societyforscience.org) (Silverchips)

    • Nina Lu '12 won a 2nd Award for Biochemistry at ISEF 2012. (pdf/windows.net)

    • Ziyao Wang '12 named Presidential Scholar. (ed.gov)

• 2012-13

  • • Neil Davey '14 is part of a team that wins Third Place at the Siemens Competition National Finals. (prnewsire)

    • Tatyana Gubin '13 wins Siemens Award for Advanced Placement. (pdf/multivu.com)

    • Sam Zbarsky '13 (7th place) named Finalist in Intel Science Talent Search. (societyforscience.org) (Silver Chips)

    • Jason Hyun '13, Brian Ko '15, Scott Wu '14, Victor Xu '15, and Eric Neyman '13 win first place at the American Computer Science League All-Star Competition. (acsl.org)

    • Sam Zbarsky '13 wins a Silver Medal at the International Physics Olympiad. (aapt.org)

• 2013-14

  • • Shaun Datta '14 (10th place), Neil Davey '14, and Jessica Shi '14 named Finalists in Intel Science Talent Search. (societyforscience.org) (Washington Post)

    • Daniela Ganelin '14 (4th Award for Behavioral and Social Sciences) and Neil Davey '14 (1st Award for Medicine and Health Sciences) won awards at ISEF 2014. (societyforscience.org)

    • Huey Shih '14 named Presidential Scholar. (ed.gov) (Gazette)

    • Alexander Bourzutschky '14 and Michael Winer '15 win Silver Medals at the International Physics Olympiad. (aapt.org)

• 2014-15

  • • Matthew Yu '15 named Regional Finalist in the Siemens Competition. (MCPS)

    • Michael Winer '15 wins the First Place Medal of Distinction for Innovation at the 2015 Intel Science Talent Search! (societyforscience.org) ( Washington Post)

    • Adam Busis '15 wins a Gold Medal at the International Physics Olympiad. (aapt.org)

• 2015-16

  • • Arnold Mong '16 and Josephine Yu '16 were named Finalists in the Intel Science Talent Search. (societyforscience.org) (Washington Post)

    • Jeffrey Ge '17, Simin Li '17, Alex Ma '17, and Caleb Robelle '17 named regional winners in the Toshiba Exploravision competition (exploravision.org)

    • Elliot Kienzle '18, Eric Lu '16, Alex Miao '17, Arnold Mong '16, and Jamie Vinson '17 win the National Science Bowl! (energy.gov) (Washington Post)

• 2016-17

  • • Robert Yang '18 named Regional Finalist in the Siemens Competition. (siemens-foundation.org) (MCPS)

    • Sambuddha Chattopadhyay '17 and Rohan Dalvi '17 named Finalists in the Regeneron Science Talent Search. (societyforscience.org) (WJLA)

    • Sambuddha Chattopadhyay '17 won a 3rd Award in Physics and Astronomy at ISEF 2017. (societyforscience.org)

    • Ethan Chen '17 wins a 1st place prize at National JSHS. (jshs.org)

    • Anson Berns '19, Sambuddha Chattopadhyay '17, and Ben Miller '18* win the It's Academic Superbowl! (itsacademicquizshow.com) (@blairprincipal)

• 2017-18

  • • Andrew Komo '18 and Robert Yang '18 are Regional Finalists in the Siemens Competition. (siemensusa) (Silver Chips) Andrew is a National Finalist and wins the top individual prize in the 2017 Siemens Competition! (siemensusa) (WAMU)

    • Sarah Gao '18, Andrew Komo '18, David Wu '18 (5th place), and Alice Zhang '18 named finalists in the Regeneron Science Talent Search. (societyforscience.org/finalists) (societyforscience.org/top10) (Silver Chips)

    • Laura Cui '19, Elliot Kienzle '18, Anish Senapati '18, Noah Singer '18, and David Wu '18 win the National Ocean Sciences Bowl! (nosb.org)

    • Anson Berns '19, Ben Miller '18*, and Ian Rackow '19 win the It's Academic Superbowl! (Silver Chips) (@blairprincipal)

    • Michael Yin '18 named Presidential Scholar. (ed.gov)

    • Daniel Zhu '19 wins a Gold Medal at the International Physics Olympiad. (aapt.org) (Physics Today)

• 2018-19

  • • Grace Cai '19, Kevin Qian '19, and Daniel Schäffer '19 named finalists in the Regeneron Science Talent Search. (societyforscience.org) (WJLA)

    • Kevin Qian '19 wins a 2nd Award in Physics and Astronomy at ISEF 2019 (umd.edu)

    • Naveen Durvasula '19 wins a 3rd place poster prize at National JSHS. (jshs.org)

    • Anson Berns '19, Ian Rackow '19, and Sophia Weng '20 win the It's Academic Superbowl! (@blairprincipal)

• • • Daniel Zhu '19 wins a Gold Medal at the International Mathematical Olympiad. (maa.org)

• 2019-20

  • • Elia Safir ‘21 and Lillian Zhou ‘21 named Regional Winners in the Toshiba Exploravision Competition (exploravision.org)

    • Michelle Tang '20 wins a 3rd place prize at National JSHS. (jshs.org)

• 2020-21

  • • Leela Mehta-Harwitz '22 and Ashley Thommana '22 named Regional Winners in the Toshiba Exploravision Competition (exploravision.org)

    • Timothy Qian '21 wins 5th place in the Regeneron Science Talent Search (societyforscience.org) (WJLA)

    • Rohan Ojha '21 (2nd Award - Physics/Astronomy) and Timothy Qian '21 (4th Award - Physics/Astronomy) win awards at ISEF 2021. (societyforscience.org)

• 2021-22

  • • Anushka Poddar '23 and Aileen Qi '23 named Regional Winners in the Toshiba Exploravision Competition (exploravision.org)

    • Efe Eroz '22 wins a 2nd place poster prize at National JSHS. (jshs.org)

    • Dhruv Pai '22 named Presidential Scholar (ed.gov) (Bethesda Magazine)

• 2022-23

  • • Julia Gelfond '23 (2nd Award - Chemistry) and Sudhish Swain '23 (4th Award - Computational Biology/Bioinformatics) won awards at ISEF 2023. (societyforscience.org)

    • Christy Li '23 wins a 2nd place prize at National JSHS. (jshs.org)

• 2023-24

  • • Jason Youm '25 wins a 3rd place award in Physics at ISEF 2024 (societyforscience.org) (fox5dc.com)

    • Yunyi Ling '25 wins gold medal at the International Chemistry Olympiad (acs.org)

• 2024-25

  • • Yunyi Ling '25, Katherine Wang '25, Jason Youm '25, Evan Zhang '26, and Kian Dhawan '26 win the National Science Bowl! (energy.gov)

* Blair student not in the Magnet program

Teacher/Program Awards:

• • Eric Walstein won the Edyth May Sliffe Award for Distinguished Mathematics Teaching in 1989, 1992, and 2003 from the Mathematical Association of America.

  • Eric Walstein won the Alfred Kalfus Founder's Award at ARML in 1995.

  • Nannette Dyas was named the 1996 Maryland High School Mathematics Teacher of the Year.

  • Nannette Dyas won a 2006 Siemens Award for Advanced Placement Teaching. (Silverchips)

  • James Schafer was named 2010-11 MCPS Teacher of the Year. (MCPS)

  • Montgomery Blair High School won a 2011 Maryland Excellence in Gifted and Talented Education (EGATE) award. (Gazette)

  • Eric Walstein won the Samuel L. Greitzer Award at ARML in 2012.

  • James Schafer won a 2015 Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching. (paemst.org) (Washington Post)

  • Samir Paul '06 was named a MCPS Rising-Star Teacher of the Year in 2016 by the Marian Greenblatt Education Fund.

  • David Stein was awarded a 2016 Edyth May Sliffe Award for Distinguished Mathematics Teaching by the Mathematical Association of America.

  • Megan Hart was awarded the 2018 Schubert Award from the Chemical Society of Washington, recognizing her as an outstanding teacher of high school chemistry.

Please help us add to this list by contacting us at news@mbhsmagnet.org.