A Palo Alto High School senior will join the 2013 United States Physics Team as one of the five returning members of the 2012 team.

Senior Jeffrey Yan will join the 19 other US students, who together comprise the 2013 and includes junior Grace Lin, after passing both the rigorous preliminary multiple choice test and the free response semifinal rounds leading up to the formation of the team.

For Yan and Lin, the next step involves competing with the other team members throughout the training camp in College Park, Maryland starting May 28. These students will compete for a spot on the five member plus alternative US “traveling team” for the 44th International Physics Olympics in Copenhagen from July 7 to 15.

Yan expressed his excitement for a second year on the team.

“I am excited,” he said. “It’ll be a lot of fun going with Grace [Lin] this year. … Although I was kind of expecting senior year to be a little more relaxing, I’m excited to go to the camp again.”

Yan, who will be attending Harvard College in the fall, hasn’t decided whether he will pursue a career in physics, but it remains a possibility for the Paly Math Club co-President and one of the Science Olympiad members headed to Nationals.

“I like physics because it’s really cool to understand that everything in the world works according to a simple laws, but there are enough nuances and failures in every theory that there’s always something more to dig up,” Yan said.

“I’m not sure [what I’ll major in], but I’m definitely considering studying physics,” he added. “I’m also interested in math and maybe computer science. I guess I’ll decide based on my first year in college.”

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