About

USESO Guide is a student-led organization dedicated to promoting higher education in the earth sciences by providing free, high-quality learning resources. We pride ourselves in the quality of our expert-written handouts, which cover 18 separate topics ranging from mineralogy to astrophysics. Our goal is to provide quality learning materials to aspiring students around the world interested in the Earth Science Olympiad, filling the gap created by the lack of advanced preparatory resources online for the competition, and instilling interest in the earth sciences for a lifetime. 

Meet the Team

Yida Pan

Great Neck South High School, NY '24

Yida qualified for the USESO national training camp '23 and attended the USAAAO Astronomy & Astrophysics introductory camp in 2022. He founded USESO Guide hoping to encourage learning in fields of advanced earth sciences.

Katherine Yi

Syosset High School, NY '25

Katherine attended the USESO national training camp in 2022 and was an alternate for the USA IESO team that year. She likes creating art, playing the piano, and playing video games in her spare time.

Leo Li

Brown University, USA '28

Leo was a member of the U.S. IESO team in 2022 and currently volunteers as an exam writer. He loves everything related to earth science but particularly enjoys petrology and mineralogy.

Logan Reich

MIT, USA '28

Logan attend the USESO national training camp twice in '21 and '22 and was an alternate for the USA IESO team in 2022. He is also a 3-time USAAAO NAC qualifier. He especially enjoys astronomy and oceanography.

Michael Chen

Caltech, USA '27

Michael is a USESO Training Camp alumnus, USAAAO NAC qualifier, AIME qualifier, Science Olympiad National Tournament competitor, NSB National Finals competitor, and Regeneron STS Scholar. 

Tzu-Hsiang "Eric" Lin

Kaohsiung Senior High School, Taiwan '23

Eric won the Gold Prize in IESO 2022 as a Taiwan representative and the second prize in the National Earth Science Contest later that year. He enjoys geology and hydrology and has conducted several research on these topics in high school.

Vedang Singhal

UNC Chapel Hill, USA '27

Vedang is a 2022 USESO Camper who loves to learn about volcanology and orogeny. He also achieved USABO T125 and loves competing in Scioly, Science Bowl, and NOSB. 

Rebecca Ives

Harriton High School, PA '25

Rebecca attended the USESO LEES Program in '21, medaled 4th at Science Olympiad Nationals '22, 1st at SOUP '23, and 2nd at MIT '23 in Rocks & Minerals, and attended the USAAAO summer training camp in '22. She enjoys geology and astronomy. 

Sylvie Kang

Princeton University, USA '28

Sylvie placed 11th in Rocks and Mineral during the Science Olympiad 2022 National Tournament. She recently founded her school's earth science club. She enjoys geology and mineralogy while also being an amateur rockhounder.

Rishabh Vakil

Interlake High School, WA '26

Rishabh had USESO training camp qualifying scores twice in '21 and '22, as a middle schooler. He also does and has won awards in SciOly DP and Rocks and Minerals. He knows more stratigraphy than he should and enjoys it to an unhealthy level.

Emmanuel Zheng

Stanford University, USA '28

Emmanuel was a member of the 2023 US IESO team and medaled in Dynamic Planet at Science Olympiad Nationals. He is a part of his school's science team and likes geology-related things.

Emily Zhao

Manhasset High School, NY '25

Emily attended the 2023 USESO national training camp and has been a participant in SciOly since 2019. She especially enjoys oceanography, and conducts research related to environmental climate sciences.

Brian Amaro

Stanford University, USA '24

Brian competed for the USA IESO team in South Korea in 2019. He is pursuing a Geophysics bachelor's and a Computer Science master's degree. His research interests lie in applying computer vision techniques to the geosciences.

Aashray Chegu

Stanford University, USA '28

Aashray attended the USESO National Training camp in 2021 and 2022, was selected for the USA IESO team for 2022 in Virtual Italy, and competed at SciOly Nats. He greatly enjoys oceanography, doing Ocean Bowl, and rocks and minerals.

Surya Donath

Walnut High School, CA '25

Surya attended USESO training camp in 2023 and medaled at BirdSO ‘23 in Astronomy. He loves learning Earth Science for Science Bowl. Surya is fascinated by climatology, though he knows very little on the subject and hopes to learn more in the future.

Blaise Mo

University of Cambridge, UK '25

Blaise was on the Australian IESO team in 2020, and now studies Earth Science in university. He loves mineralogy and has a slowly growing rock and mineral collection (and a rapidly shrinking wallet!)

Sara Lia

International Computer High School of Bucharest, Romania '23

Sara is a Romanian student who achieved 3 medals in this year's IESO (gold in ESP, silver in DMT and bronze in NTFI) and has qualified for Romania's IJSO (2019) and ICHO (2022) shortlist. She particularly enjoys tectonics and geology.