Washington, DC: Even as Donald Trump tightens the screws on skilled immigration with a $100,000 H-1B visa fee aimed at curbing Indian tech workers, the President posed for a photo-op with Indian-origin prodigy Agastya Goel, who helped the U.S. Physics Team pull off a historic five-gold sweep at the 2025 International Physics Olympiad. 

Apart from Agastya Goel, the U.S. Physics Team comprised Allen Li, Joshua Wang, Feodor Yevtushenko, and Brian Zhang.

Soon after their triumph, the five gold medallists were hosted at the White House by President Donald Trump.

His aide Michael Kratsios posted a celebratory message on X, saying: “Today POTUS & WHOSTP47 were proud to welcome the 2025 World Champion USA Physics Team to the White House! These incredible geniuses DOMINATED at the International Physics Olympiad in July, bringing home a record FIVE gold medals, the greatest performance in team history.”

Spotlight on Agastya Goel

Among the standout performers was Agastya Goel, an Indian-origin prodigy and son of Stanford professor Ashish Goel.

Currently a junior at Henry M. Gunn High School in Palo Alto, California, Agastya has already built an exceptional record across competitive programming and physics.

He won gold medals at the 2023 and 2024 International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI), ranking fourth worldwide in the Egypt edition, where China’s Kangyang Zhou achieved a perfect score.

His consistent achievements have often been compared with those of his father, who topped the IIT-JEE in 1990 before pursuing an academic career at Stanford.

A versatile student

Beyond academics, Agastya’s interests stretch across tennis, hiking, stargazing, singing, and playing both guitar and piano.

At school, he participates in the varsity tennis team, the choir, and clubs dedicated to programming and board games.

He has also been a USACO Finalist multiple times, secured a silver medal at USAPhO 2023, and contributed to PRIMES-USA in 2023.

Between 2021 and 2024, he worked as a part-time researcher at Euler Circle in Palo Alto, co-authoring a mathematics paper published in The Australasian Journal of Combinatorics.

Physics takes centre stage

Agastya’s passion for physics began during long car rides and hikes with his father but grew deeper in 2023.

While visiting India, he spent his winter break immersed in Kevin Zhou’s physics handouts—even studying in front of the Taj Mahal.

That moment marked a turning point, leading him from computer science toward physics excellence.

His father’s legacy

Ashish Goel, originally from Uttar Pradesh, studied computer science at IIT Kanpur before completing his PhD at Stanford.

Today, he is a professor of Management Science and Engineering, with contributions in algorithmic game theory, computational social science, and early monetisation strategies at Twitter.