The United States team achieved a historic milestone at the 2025 International Physics Olympiad (IPhO) held in Paris, winning all five gold medals. Among the winners was 17-year-old Indian-origin student Agastya Goyal, who was part of the team that secured the country’s best performance in the competition’s history.

A photo of the victorious team meeting President Donald Trump recently went viral. Senior Trump aide Michael Kratsios shared the moment, writing, “Today, POTUS and WHOSTP47 were proud to welcome the 2025 World Champion USA Physics Team to the White House! They dominated the International Physics Olympiad in July, winning a record five gold medals, the highest total in team history.”

About Agastya Goyal

Agastya Goyal, born to Stanford professor Ashish Goyal, is a student at Henry M. Gunn High School in Palo Alto, California. He has already made a mark in the world of science and technology:

• Two-time gold medalist at the International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI), ranking 4th globally in 2024.

• Finalist at the USA Computing Olympiad (USACO) for three consecutive years (2022–2024).

• Silver medalist at the USA Physics Olympiad 2023 and participant in the Mathematical Olympiad program.

• Contributed to PRIMES-USA and co-authored a mathematics research paper published in the Australasian Journal of Combinatorics.

Interests and Hobbies

Beyond academics, Agastya enjoys tennis, hiking, music, and plays both guitar and piano. He is a member of his school’s varsity tennis team, the Competitive Programming Club, and the Board Game Club. In his free time, he enjoys science, economics, international affairs, and playing board games and Frisbee with friends.

Connection to India

Agastya’s father, Ashish Goyal, hails from Uttar Pradesh, India. He studied computer science at IIT Kanpur before completing his PhD at Stanford University. Ashish has made significant contributions to algorithmic game theory, computational social science, and computer networks, and played a role in developing Twitter’s early monetization model. Agastya’s interest in science was nurtured during trips with his father to India, including moments spent studying physics in front of the Taj Mahal.

With his exceptional achievements at such a young age, Agastya Goyal is emerging as one of the most promising young scientists in the world.