#SoCaltech: Kellan Colburn

“I jokingly say that the reason I got added to the Physics Olympiad as a coach was because the head administrator, [UCSB's] Tengiz Bibilashvili, was the first professor who ever gave me an F in an undergraduate class. I would like to think that going from failing a physics class under him to studying physics at Caltech ingratiated me in his eyes, and he added me to the Olympiad team as somebody who can represent all types of students.

“As a coach, I took part in the selection of the team, which is a process that includes two exams and a 10-day training camp, after which we determine who will be the five members to travel and represent the U.S. At the camp, I helped to head the experimental side, which is a big distinguishing factor because most of the students do not have experience in labs, which makes up 40 percent of the scoring for the olympiad. They can study in advance for theory, but in terms of labs, you could have somebody who’s totally wicked smart, getting the top scores on every single written exam, but the moment you get them into a lab, they can have literally no idea what they’re doing. So, for 10 days, we very quickly bring them up to the point where they’re able to take an experimental setup and, with very little instruction, conduct the experiment, take data, make detailed graphs, and get whatever they’re asked to solve out within a very short time.

“I found out about the team’s win alongside everyone else. I was watching the award ceremony on the livestream from France at 7:30 in the morning, Pacific time. We already had an indication they were going to all place gold. The students were phenomenal. The real shocker was not that we got first; it was that we were the definitive first place team. That means it was a challenging olympiad, and we still won.”

Kellan Colburn is a fourth-year doctoral student studying photonic integrated circuits in the lab of Kerry J. Vahala, Caltech’s Ted and Ginger Jenkins Professor of Information Science and Technology and Applied Physics. He received his bachelor’s degree in physics from UC Santa Barbara. Colburn has served as a coach for the U.S. Physics team for three years and is preparing for a fourth. This summer, the 2025 U.S. Physics Team was the only team to achieve five gold medals at the International Physics Olympiad held in July in Paris, France. This was the first time the U.S. achieved such a feat in over 30 years of participating in the event.

#SoCaltech is an occasional series celebrating the diverse individuals who give Caltech its spirit of excellence, ambition, and ingenuity. Know someone we should profile? Send nominations to magazine@caltech.edu.