About

USAAAO Guide is a student-led organization dedicated to promoting higher education in astronomy and astrophysics by providing free, high-quality learning resources. We pride ourselves in the quality of our expert-written handouts, which cover 17 separate topics ranging from celestial mechanics to instrumentation. Our goal is to provide quality learning materials to aspiring students around the world interested in the Astronomy & Astrophysics Olympiad, filling the gap created by the lack of advanced preparatory resources online for the competition, and instilling interest in astronomy for a lifetime. 

Meet the Team

Logan Reich

MIT, USA '28

Logan is a USAAAO Gold Medalist (top 10 on NAC) and attended the USESO national training camp twice in '21 and '22 and was an alternate for the USA IESO team in 2022. He is the head handout writer for USAAAO Guide.

Faraz Ahmed Siddiqui

IIT Kanpur, India '28

Faraz has qualified for the Indian IOAA Training Camp thrice and also won the USAAAO Silver Medal. He also enjoys Linguistics and has represented India at the IOL twice. His love for star-gazing makes sure he never gets lost on a clear night-sky!

Harsh Ambardekar

UC Berkeley, USA '28

Harsh placed top 30 nationally on the NAC, 1st place in the Astronomy event at the NC State Science Olympiad competition, and is an AIME qualifier. He loves all areas of astrophysics but his favorites are cosmology and galaxies.

Andrey Nikitin

University of Florida, USA '27

Andrey only recently discovered USAAAO and USESO, qualifying for NAC and the USESO 23' camp. His love for Science Bowl is rivaled only by his fascination with using Kerr black holes as a means for time travel.

Austin Chen

MIT, USA '27

Austin is a two-time USA IOAA Team qualifier, IOAA bronze medalist, four-time NAC qualifier, three-time USAAAO camper, USAPhO bronze medalist, three-time National Science Bowl competitor, and three-time AIME qualifier. He enjoys stargazing and cosmo.

Nijat Abbasov

KAIST, Korea '27

Nijat is a student studying EE at KAIST University. He has won a bronze medal in IZhO, an honorable mention in both IOAA and EuPhO and 3 gold medals in the National Physics Olympiad of Azerbaijan. His favorite astronomy topics are ISM and cosmology.

Abheek Dhawan

Yale University, USA '28

Abheek is a 2x NAC qualifier and 2023 bronze medalist. He has also competed in the National Science Bowl 3x, and Science Olympiad, ranking first in Astronomy in Missouri. His favorite astronomical topics are cosmology and high-energy phenomena.

Ronit Kapur

Duke University, USA '28

Ronit is an NAC qualifier, AIME qualifier, ISEF finalist, and SciOly national medalist. Co-captain of his SciOly and astronomy teams, Ronit adores theory—especially celestial mechanics—yet loves to develop practical skills in astrophotography.

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 and directs USAAAO Guide hoping to encourage learning in fields of advanced astrophysics.