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College of Liberal Arts and Sciences University of Florida

Spicing Up Science: Chemathon 2026 Draws Record Crowds

May 20, 2026

The University of Florida Chemathon competition on April 24, 2026 was a historic event, with a record 30 schools in attendance. The 206 high school students, accompanied by 61 fabulous teachers and chaperones, spent the day buzzing between classrooms, teaching labs, and research labs across all four chemistry buildings. This year’s event was inspired by the 2025 National Chemistry Week theme from the American Chemical Society about “The Hidden Life of Spices” and food chemistry. The attendees answered questions during the written exam probing concepts related to food science. In the state-of-the-art teaching labs, the students basked in the colors of the rainbow while performing a new hands-on lab activity designed by Professor Maria Korolev and Candace Biggerstaff. The activity used spectroscopy to characterize the dyes found in skittles. Before the closing ceremony announcing the winners of this year’s competition, Professor Steven Harris and graduate student Amelia Figueroa performed exciting demonstrations to spark awe and wonder in the bright young minds in the audience, introducing a new level of engagement to the fan-favorite spectacle.

Scenes from CHEMATHON at the University of Florida, including lab work, science demonstrations with fire and vapor, and an auditorium audience

The Director of the event, Professor Ashlyn Hale, is grateful to the record 94 graduate and undergraduate student volunteers for their efforts, without which this grand event would not be possible. Additionally, an event of this scale requires a year of pre-planning amongst a team of 20 faculty, staff, and leadership from the Student Chapter of the American Chemical Society listed here in no particular order: Laura Bailey, Stacey-Ann Benjamin, Candace Biggerstaff, Matthew Eddy,  Ethan Good, Kelly Feitel, Amelia Figueroa, Stefanie Habenicht, Ashlyn Hale, Steven Harris, Leah Kessler, Maria Korolev, Simon Lopez, Alix Rexford, Jon Stewart, Martina Sumner, Daniel Talham, Namodhi Wijerathne, and Julia Zavala. We are also grateful for the support from our partners across campus including Environmental Health and Safety (Nicholas Cavallaro, Gabriella Chester, Dylan Miller), Youth Compliance (Sophia Andrews), Business Affairs (Christina Ramos), UF Advancement (Christy Popwell), and CLAS Communications Support (Tricia Lopez and Kathleen Martin).

We would like to thank the following organizations for their support for this year’s event: Macmillan Learning, Florida Local Section of the American Chemical Society (FLACS), UF CLAS, UF Department of Chemistry, UF Center for Catalysis, UF Center for Macromolecular Science and Engineering, and Florida Center for Heterocyclic Compounds.