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MI’s Li earns gold medal at International Biology Olympiad

Published 2:30 pm Monday, July 20, 2026

By Reporter Staff

USA Biolympiad Team gold medalists, pictured from left to right: Kian Dhawan, Montgomery Blair High School, Silver Spring, Maryland; Suzuko Ohshima, North Hollywood Senior High School, California; Mercer Island’s Emma Li, Lakeside School, Seattle; and Kevin Wu, BASIS Independent, Bellevue. Photo courtesy of The Center for Excellence in Education

USA Biolympiad Team gold medalists, pictured from left to right: Kian Dhawan, Montgomery Blair High School, Silver Spring, Maryland; Suzuko Ohshima, North Hollywood Senior High School, California; Mercer Island’s Emma Li, Lakeside School, Seattle; and Kevin Wu, BASIS Independent, Bellevue. Photo courtesy of The Center for Excellence in Education

Mercer Island biology scholar Emma Li first struck gold at Harvard University and then she did it again in Lithuania.

The 16-year-old Lakeside School of Seattle rising senior earned a gold medal while representing the United States at the 37th International Biology Olympiad (IBO), a worldwide competition involving student teams from 78 countries hosted July 12-19 in Vilnius, Lithuania.

She is one of four U.S. gold medalists, according to The Center for Excellence in Education (CEE), which held its USA Biolympiad National Finals for high school students at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, this summer.

“These students honored our country at the IBO competition,” said Joann DiGennaro, president of CEE. “They are exceptional scholars headed for outstanding careers.”

The IBO competition included practical exams on molecular biology and biochemistry, animal physiology, animal morphology and systematics and plant computational biology; and theoretical exams on cell biology, plant anatomy and physiology, animal anatomy and physiology, ethology, genetics and evolution, ecology and biosystematics.

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