Mission San Jose High School
Mission San Jose High School
Lane Melcic, Coach
Coach Lane Melcic has been at Mission San Jose High School since 2013. Since then, he has taught biology, honors biology, physics of the universe, living earth, honors living earth, and AP biology. He is also the advisor to the school's Medcorps and TARC clubs. Coach Melcic earned an A.A. degree in general education from De Anza College, a B.A. in anthropology from San Francisco State University, and a M.A. in teaching science from the University of Southern California. Coach Melcic is well known amongst his students as an "avgeek" and well seasoned traveler; he's been to seventy eight countries and always has at least one future trip on his schedule! When not teaching or traveling he enjoys spending quality time with his husband, son, and their orange tabby cat, Pumpkin.
Richard Chen
Richard Chen is a senior at Mission San Jose High School. He has participated in Science Bowl since freshman year and is excited to be representing his school at the national competition this year. He is mainly interested in the fields of mathematics and physics and enjoys thinking about tough olympiad problems. In college, he hopes to continue pursuing these interests as well as exploring the humanities. Aside from academic competitions, he also likes solving online puzzle hunts and trying new foods with friends.
Gokulanath Kumar
Gokulanath Kumar is a sophomore at Mission San Jose High School and has participated in Science Bowl for five years. His interests include neuroscience, medicine, biology, and research. Aside from Science Bowl, he is a semifinalist at the USA Biology Olympiad, member of his high school’s Ocean Sciences Bowl team, and the secretary of the Neuroscience Club and American Red Cross. At school, he enjoys all kinds of science, especially biology, and aspires to become a neurosurgeon in the future. In his free time, he can be found scratching a tune on the violin, scrolling through Wikipedia, playing Wordle and its variants, listening to music, learning magic tricks, and playing Fireboy and Watergirl with his younger brother.
Inimai Subramanian
Inimai Subramanian is a senior planning to study electrical engineering and planetary science. She hopes to combine her interests to contribute to space missions and instrumentation in the future. In addition to Science Bowl, Inimai is the senior captain of her school’s two Science Olympiad teams, the founding president of the climate engineering and activism club Youth4Climate, and vice president of the competition club Academic Challenge. Her interest in climate change sparked her work on her school’s High Altitude Balloon Project, where she guides students to launch stratospheric balloons with scientific payloads, as the student technical lead. She aims to develop technological ways to mitigate climate change and promote environmental justice. Inimai was also part of the 2021 US National Earth Science team, where she won several excellent (gold) commendations at the International Earth Science Olympiad. Outside of academics, she loves to read science fiction novels, dance, hike with her family, and find new specimens for her rock collection.
Titus Tsai
Titus Tsai is a senior at Mission San Jose High School. His interests largely lie within the realm of earth science - he was part of the 2021 US National Earth Science team where he won several excellent (gold) commendations at the International Earth Science Olympiad. He plans to continue this interest as a geology major in college. Aside from Science Bowl, he is also a member of Mission’s Science Olympiad and Ocean Sciences Bowl team. Though he never really participated in a Quiz Bowl or History Bowl tournament, he still enjoys attending the practices for those competitions as well. Athletically, he really enjoys hurdling even if it means falling over a lot - he does not quite understand why it is so much fun, but he continues to go to track practices whenever he can. At home, he enjoys playing chess online, favoring blitz chess where instinct generally wins over-thinking due to the time constraint.
Samuel Zhou
Samuel Zhou is a junior at Mission San Jose High. He discovered Science Bowl in sixth grade, quit, missed the team in seventh, went to Nationals in eighth, and has been doing Science Bowl ever since. He loves physics and math, and in particular, he has qualified for the USA Physics Olympiad three times, earned an honorable mention, and has qualified for USA Math Olympiad. In college, he plans to continue his study of these fields and meet some interesting people who share similar interests as him. He is also involved in the physics club, math club, and Academic Challenge. In his free time, he watches Attack on Titan, plays Minecraft, and is obsessed with the Golden State Warriors. One fact about him is that he is currently in the process of growing his hair out, but has considered going bald before. However, he thinks that going to school the next day after going completely bald would be a pretty hairy situation.
