SUPERSTAR IN SCIENCE

Local student Pham aces top physics test

What teenager willingly sits through an extra two-hour high school exam? Anthony Pham does. Who goes online searching for videos, not for entertainment, but to find valid applications for the basic principals of physics? Anthony Pham does. Who puts in all this extra effort just to challenge himself, not once but twice? Anthony Pham does. The Grade 12 student at St. Joseph’s high school took the Sir Isaac Newton exam offered by the University of Waterloo in early May and, for a second straight year, scored in the top 100 of 1,957 participants.

“I was pretty shocked at how well I did in Grade 11 (60th overall) and I didn’t want it to be a fluke,” Pham said of writing a second time.

This time around, he was first in Windsor-Essex (out of 32), 33rd in Ontario (out of 1,501), 43rd in Canada (out of 1,766) and 47th overall.

“I’ve been teaching for 17 years and I always run this for the kids,” St. Joseph’s physics teacher Mike Masse said. “I’ve had some kids who have done well, but never top 100, let alone two years in a row. That’s pretty amazing.”

The University of Waterloo administers the exam across Canada and in the U.S. annually to encourage a love and interest in physics.

Pham, 18, enjoyed competing in several math contests and decided to challenge himself in physics as well. “I wanted to go beyond the curriculum to see how well I could do,” he said. “Most of the stuff on the test is in the curriculum but you have to apply it. So I got some books and went online looking for videos.”

Masse credits Pham’s drive and initiative for his success.

“He does it all on his own,” Masse said. “He wants to do better and learn more than the basics of what’s being taught in school.”

Pham is graduating with a 96 per cent average. He’s headed to the University of Waterloo next fall to take biomedical engineering.

“I’ve always found I like to help people so I’m thinking something in prosthetics,” he said of a future career.