About 14,000 top high school chemistry students participate in the local level of the Chemistry Olympiad every year. Of those, 900 advance to the national level test. Twenty are selected to spend two rigorous weeks at a study camp in Colorado Springs, Colorado. And four of those top students are chosen to compete internationally. In 2006, one of them was Mike Blaisse, and he credits Penn State Harrisburg Associate Professor of Chemistry Tom Eberlein with helping him get there.
