The Show Goes On for New Jersey Chemistry Olympics

The New Jersey Chemistry Olympics (NJCO) has become an NJIT springtime tradition — for more than three decades, scores of young chemists prepare throughout the year for the competition, culminating on campus in a one-day test of wits among high school teams from across the state. Of course, this year's event saw a slight break in that tradition, but the 2020 class of nearly 100 ambitious Olympians wouldn't be denied from carrying forward the competition's torch and chasing gold-medal glory at the first-ever Virtual NJCO. 

This year's Olympics, held online from June 1-11, recently capped off at the NJCO Award Ceremony via WebEx, where medal winners were announced for each of the events in this year's competition — organized by NJIT and the North Jersey Section-American Chemical Society, with support from Merck, Exemplify, and Ashland LLC. 

Along with adapting to the unusual nature of this year's online competition, students took on the Olympics' always-demanding flurry of technical trials awaiting them under the competition’s central theme this year, pollution. 

“Our event involved doing research about the importance of clean water, how water is treated, and how the Clean Water Act has impacted our country,” said Rebecca Mastrol, a senior on Stafford Township’s Marine Academy of Technology & Environmental Science (MATES) Team B. “For our event, we were also supposed to create and test our own filter but due to current world circumstances, we had access to neither materials nor testing equipment. We were determined to succeed by doing thorough research about our topic and ensuring that we understood every facet of what we presented.” 

While competitors took to webcams to give TED Talk-style presentations on their research, showcase new scientific websites and more in front of remote judges, some things remained unchanged from the Olympics that preceded this one — all competitors had eyes on the competition's awards. 

“With the uncertainty of this year’s New Jersey Chemistry Olympics, I’ve appreciated all the efforts that went into reimagining how our students could participate and how the teachers help our students this year … against all odds this show is going on,” said Kevin Belfield, dean of NJIT’s College of Science and Liberal Arts at the NJCO ceremony. 

This year’s gold medal for Chemistry Research went to MATES Team B. Tenefly High School took gold for the competition’s Informational Search category while the gold medal for Website Design was snatched up by Whippany Park High School. 

“Honestly, we were shocked to see that we won first place … we thought it would be impossible to win because we were unable to perform the experiment portion of the research due to social distancing,” said Maya Quinn, a junior on MATES Team B after the ceremony. “It was an incredible surprise when we found out that we were awarded first place and we are extremely grateful and honored! We are ecstatic that our work was able to surpass our expectations, especially during these unprecedented circumstances.” 

“Ultimately, it was hours of hard work and, frankly, a lot of reading, that allowed us to take gold,” added Mastrol. 

“We’ve been so thankful we had the opportunity to participate in this competition virtually this year,” said fellow MATES Team B member Maya Quinn. “It is always a pleasure to be able to compete against other students in various exciting chemistry topics. What I think our team found most rewarding was that although we were not able to physically meet as a team, our communication with each other was impeccable and we were able to see how crucial of a role dedication, persistence and patience play in success.” 

For more about the New Jersey Chemistry Olympics, visit: https://www.njchemistryolympics.com