John P Stevens High School

John P. Stevens High School

Gary DiFilippo, Coach
Coach Gary DiFilippo is a chemistry teacher who has been teaching for the past nine years.  He enjoys opening students up to the wonders of science and showing them how science is an integral part of their everyday lives.  In addition to Science Bowl, Coach DiFilippo is also the advisor for his school’s chapter of Science League as well as a co-advisor for Science National Honors Society.  Coach DiFilippo has a B.S. from The University of Delaware.

Yash Sakharkar
Yash Sakharkar is a senior whose favorite subjects are chemistry and calculus. In his free time, you will find him singing while playing the guitar in his room, playing a basketball or trivia game with his friends, or watching one of many sports even though he supports none of the teams in any of them. A few interesting facts about Yash are that he is fluent in three languages and intermediate at one language, has a large freckle in his right eye, and is a workaholic.

Yudhiishbala Senthilkumar
Yudhiishbala Senthilkumar is a freshman who is interested in energy and biology. He has participated in many science fairs since he was young, and now is part of the John P. Stevens High School Science Bowl team. One thing that he really enjoys learning about is electric cars. He loves to ride his bike and play video games. He also likes to learn as much as he can about artificial intelligence. He recently discovered that he is amazing at bowling and hopes to practice more to improve. .

Tijil Kiran
Tijil Kiran is a senior who likes to study astronomy, physics, math, and computer science. His favorite season is summer because it is when the fireflies come out and when he gets to ride his bike all across town, especially on a shaded trail nearby. He loves to play Wordle and most of its spinoffs, especially head-to-head lightning rounds, and enjoys listening to YOASOBI (favorite song: Moshimo Inochi ga Egaketara). He is also a nerd on the subjects of Genshin (he mains Hu Tao and Ganyu) and Pokemon (favorite Pokemon: Shiny Mega Altaria).

Justin Tam
Justin Tam is a junior who is interested in environmental science and math. He has competed in the Science Olympiad since the ninth grade, now serving as one of the team’s captains. His favorite events are geologic mapping and environmental chemistry. He also has participated in a variety of math and programming competitions. In his free time, he enjoys playing the cello and playing basketball with his friends. Justin hopes to continue studying environmental science in college.

Kushal Aluru
Kushal Aluru is a junior whose favorite subject is biology, though he also loves every other science. He enjoys spending much of his time practicing for Science Bowl, Quizbowl and History Bowl, all of which he is a captain for. In his free time, he loves to play the violin and read. His favorite book is Alberts Molecular Biology of the Cell and his second favorite is The Good Earth. He wants to study molecular biology in college.