SDSU Georgia ACS Student Chapter Hosts Inter-Collegiate Olympiad

The American Chemical Society (ACS) Georgian Student Chapter hosted its first Inter-University Chemistry Olympiad (IUChO) on December 6th, 2020. The event was open to all Georgian students studying at the undergraduate level within Georgia. 25 students participated from SDSU Georgia, Tbilisi State University, and the Agrarian University of Georgia.

The event was funded through a Programming Grant provided by ACS to support community building through events that comply with local pandemic guidelines. The Georgian Student Chapter applied for and received $650 dollars to conduct the Inter-University Chemistry Olympiad.

The Olympiad was designed to test students on their chemistry knowledge through written theoretical examination, using questions composed by professional chemists in Georgia. The goal was to increase student interest in chemistry through independent and creative solving of chemical problems.

The winners were announced on Saturday, December 12th. First prize, along with 900 GEL, was awarded to Giorgi Petriashvili of SDSU Georgia. Nika Kutalia, also from SDSU Georgia, took the second-place prize of 600 GEL and 400 GEL was awarded to the third-place finisher, Lasha Khutsishvili of the Agricultural University of Georgia.

As ACS Georgian Student Chapter Secretary Nana Mirotadze said, “This kind of project is highly important in the Georgian community since it helps the popularization of chemistry.”

In addition to the success of the IUChO event, SDSU Georgia’s ACS Student Chapter was recently selected by the Society Committee on Education to receive an honorable mention for their programs and activities in the 2019-2020 academic year.