Aum Upadhyay of Bellevue’s Odle Middle School has continued his winning ways as a chemistry whiz. The seventh-grader, who won the state title in the You Be the Chemist Challenge on April 19, came in sixth in the national competition June 23 out of 25,000 students.

The chemistry competition, created by the Chemical Educational Foundation, is a quiz-bowl-style academic competition that aims to engage students in the fifth through eighth grades in learning important chemistry concepts, scientific theories, and chemical safety awareness. The competition hopes to spark interest in students to pursue scientific careers.

The event includes 10 rounds of chemistry questions before a national champion was crowned – Audrey Gallier, a sixth-grader from Brookfield, Ill. For participating, Aum received prizes including an engraved beaker, Thames & Kosmos CHEM3000 chemistry kits, gift certificates to the Discovery Channel Store, and more.

In addition to the contest, Aum was able to visit the Academy of Natural Sciences, a day of science discovery at The Franklin Institute, and a celebration dinner held at the National Constitution Center. The dinner included speeches from two previous winners of the national competition, an award ceremony and a live chemistry show, and provided participants the opportunity to interact with business leaders, chemical industry members, chemists, and science educators.