3 Filipino students win medals at International Chemistry Olympiad

Three Filipino students won medals at the 53rd International Chemistry Olympiad held July 25 to Aug. 2 in Japan.

As reported by Mark Salazar on “24 Oras” Friday, these students competed around the same time as our athletes at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Nathan Wayne Ariston and Ron Angelo Gelacio took home silver medals, while Aames Juriel Morales bagged bronze.

Nathan shared on “24 Oras” the problem he had to solve during the Olympiad. “It was about hydrogen storage. Sabi nila, the future daw ng electric car and ’yung vehicle mismo ay ’yung fuel cells na hina-harness na reaction ay byproduct ng water, so it needs hydrogen storage. ’Yun ang tinackle ng problem. Problem No. 1 pa talaga yun, nahirapan ako roon.”

Aames, meanwhile, said he thought he could have done better. “I think I could have done better po and I’m apologetic to our mentors kasi they exerted a lot of efforts in teaching us but I wasn’t able to translate that into a better medal po.”

For Nathan, he believes that there will be more opportunities for Filipinos if science and technology are given more importance.

“I believe if malaki ’yung pondo, kung mapakitaan natin ang more importance ang science and technology sa country natin, I’m pretty sure uunlad tayo in that aspect. Naniniwala akong maraming matatalino sa atin,” he said.

He has received an offer to study at Yale University, where he plans take a bachelor of science degree in Physics next year.

Both him and Aames, however, promise that whatever they learn and achieve elsewhere, they will always give back to the Philippines.

“Pangako ko po sa sarili ko, kahit among mangyari ay maglilingkod ako sa aking bayan sa abot ng aking makakaya,” said Aames. – RC, GMA News