North Hollywood Senior High School
North Hollywood Senior High School
Altair Maine, Coach
Coach Altair Maine did not attend the eighth grade or high school himself and has few regrets about this, but missing the opportunity to compete in Science Bowl is one of the few. A Caltech alumni, he has taught physics, chemistry, mathematics, astronomy, and geology since 2000, and has coached both Science Bowl and Science Olympiad since 2007. You are likely at any given point during the National Science Bowl to find him playing ultimate frisbee out on the field, and he is also an avid hiker. At home, he dotes on his daughters: nine-year-old Fay, who does her best to increase the net entropy of the universe, and preschooler Luna, who is usually climbing all the things. Coach Maine gives his Science Bowl team some serious competition in buzzing practice, but cannot pretend to rival them in biography memes.
Lydia Qin:
Lydia Qin is a senior who likes chemistry. She also enjoys napping and playing ultimate frisbee. She constantly tries to avoid being hit in the face by a frisbee but is often unsuccessful. She is a USA National Chemistry Olympiad semifinalist, American Invitational Mathematics Examination qualifier, and experienced hand-raiser. Lydia dislikes cold rainy days but will have to learn to deal with them for at least the next four years.
Richard Zhu:
Richard Zhu is a junior who sobs when biology is revealed to be 99% identifying phyla. However, his determination to prove that birds are, at least, as great as rocks (in fact, he has come to the conclusion that birds are rocks with his teammate Alex) has led him to become a 2022 USA Biology Olympiad national finalist. His persistence in throwing away his almost-2400 peak bughouse rating strikes a chord with the clowning ability that he hopes not to bring to Science Bowl Nationals.
Alexander Franks:
Alexander Franks is a junior who really likes rocks, sponges, and fossils. He cries out in joy when biology is revealed to be 99% identifying phyla and he shares the conclusion that birds are rocks with his teammate Richard, using his knowledge of birds to attend the 2021 US Earth Science Olympiad training camp and to qualify for the 2022 US Earth Science Olympiad training camp. Alex enjoys karate, biking, playing piano, and spending too much of his time reading textbooks. He also is one of the few people at his school who enjoys cold rainy days with occasional hail.
Boheng Cao:
Boheng Cao is a sophomore who enjoys being equally incapable at each of the science bowl subjects. They also share their teammates’ revelation that rocks are merely a manifestation of birds and that physics is simply applied biology, using this knowledge to accidentally qualify for both the USA Physics Olympiad and the USA Biology Olympiad semifinals. In their free time, Boheng enjoys clowning at math competitions, wondering why their environmental science textbook says that water flies off the moon due to centrifugal force, maintaining a strictly decreasing American Invitational Mathematics Examination score streak, and reading but ultimately not understanding textbooks. Boheng also enjoys cold rainy days despite their coldest winter being spent in a humid subtropical climate.
Camilla Martinez:
Camilla Martinez is a senior who likes longtermism and not sleeping. She also believes that birds are rocks, her favorite being unakite. In her free time, she enjoys mispronouncing words, researching, and not doing math (she cried trying to derive Navier-Stokes during the Research Summer Institute. Camilla also likes cold rainy days, spent inside, and is looking forward to experiencing seasons.
