The Biology Olympiad Topper in India is a student of CFAL in Mangalore

June 25: Having topped the nation in the biology olympiad, Shreyas Vasudev Pai looks forward to a new adventure at one of the world’s leading institutions – Trinity College, University of Cambridge.

Shreyas Pai, son of doctors Vasudev and Praveena Pai, started his journey with the Centre for Advanced Learning (CFAL) in class 9. Travelling from his home in Manipal to Mangalore every weekend, his perseverance and endeavour allowed him to crack the below prestigious exams:

National Talent Search Examination (NTSE) in class 10
All India Rank of 116 in the Kishore Vaigyanik Protsahan Yojana (KVPY) in class 11 giving him a seat in India’s top science institute, the Indian Institute of Science (IISc)
Shreyas improved on his KVPY rank the following year, achieving AIR 68 in KVPY SX (class 12)
Unlike most of his peers, Shreyas wasn’t one to follow firmly established paths into engineering or medicine; instead, he found his calling in life sciences and research. On the way to this dream came his turning point – the biology Olympiad in class 11 itself, Shreyas cleared both national level exams,
The National Standard Examination in Biology (NSEB)
The Indian National Biology Olympiad (INBO), becoming one among the top 36 in the nation to attend the Orientation-cum-Selection Camp (OCSC) for the International Biology Olympiad.
In class 12, he took this to a new level: topping Karnataka state in NSEB and making it through INBO, he was determined to make a mark on the camp.
With dedication to match his tenacity, Shreyas came first in the 2019 All India Camp and won the Special Award for ‘Best Performance in Experimental Component’.
Over the years that he was at CFAL, Shreyas didn’t just limit himself to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Medicine). An avid reader, he instantly fell in love with quizzing and won multiple regional and national level quizzes. He also secured prizes in debate competitions and Model United Nations conferences. Pushing the boundaries, he grabbed a bronze medal in the Panini Linguistics Olympiad (PLO) Camp 2019 and was part of the winning team in the Team Challenge Contest.
Having secured a place in IISc in 11th itself, Shreyas wanted more.
With a score of 1590/1600 on the SAT and
Scores of 800/800 in four SAT Subject Tests (Biology, Physics, Chemistry, & Mathematics Level 2)
Shreyas applied to multiple universities in the USA and UK. Due to the combination of these scores, his extra-curricular activities, and several essays, he was offered a place by several of the world’s best colleges:

Trinity College – University of Cambridge
University of Pennsylvania (part of the Ivy League)
University College London (UCL)
Imperial College London
University of Edinburgh
University of California Los Angeles (UCLA)
University of California San Diego (UCSD)
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Boston University
Pursuing the Natural Sciences Tripos at Cambridge, Shreyas hopes to one day be a prominent biologist and contribute to the human kind.