MADISON – Praneel Avula at Liberty Middle School has earned the Mayor’s Award for Scholastic Excellence for the 2022-2023 school year.

Teachers and the principal at Liberty nominated Avula. Madison Mayor Paul Finley presents this award to a deserving student each year.

The Mayor’s Award recognizes a student who is extremely talented in all academic areas, but the award’s stipulations state that the recipient must have one area of exceptionality. For Avula, the specialty area is science.

Avula is passionate about space and all components related to the field, including physics, chemistry, math and biology.

As captain of the Science Bowl Team, Avula is the team expert in the areas of physics, chemistry, earth space/science and energy. Avula led his team to a state championship, in which they were undefeated. His team advanced to the National Science Bowl competition in Washington D.C. and placed 24 out of 47 schools.

He has been a leader on the Science Olympiad team, due to his extensive knowledge in science content areas. With Avula’s lead, the team competed in the “Solar System,” “Circuit Lab,” “Reach for the Stars,” “Dynamic Planet” and “Fast Facts” events. He and his partner won first place in the state in “Crave and Wave” and “Solar System.”

He was a member of Liberty’s state champion team in 2021 and 2023. Avula earned the Gold Medal in divisions for “Solar System,” “Crave The Wave,” “Dynamic Planet” and “Fast Facts.” In nationals at Wichita, Kan., he competed in three of these events and placed 11, 21 and 26 out of 60 schools.

Avula also earned second place in “Anatomy and Physiology.” He will compete in his third state championship.

He also participated in the Science Bee this year. He placed second in the regional bee at Hoover High School, which qualified him for the National Science Bee in Arlington, Va. and International Science Bee in Quito, Ecuador.

Because he attended the Science Olympiad nationals, Avula missed the bridging ceremony, so the award was presented to him at school.