At the 2026 California Science and Engineering Fair in Thousand Oaks, Calif., 13 Harker middle and upper school students earned top spots in an event that included nearly 900 participants presenting more than 700 projects. Junior Elizabeth Zhang was awarded Project of the Year in the senior division, while classmates Trisha Shivakumar and Claire Xu, along with Zhang, placed first in Environmental Engineering, Medicine and Physiology and Physics and Astronomy, respectively. Sophomore Siddhant Gaur took second place in Behavioral and Social Sciences, and junior Rohan Goyal and sophomore Saria Lum each placed third in Physics and Astronomy and Biochemistry/Molecular Biology, respectively. Placing fourth were junior Anish Kosaraju in Computational Science and junior Andrew Shin in Medicine and Physiology. Junior Ethan Liang placed fifth in Zoology to bring the number of senior division placers to nine.

Eighth graders Ari Siamwalla and Fiona Yan were the top-placing Harker students in the junior division, with Siamwalla placing second in Environmental Engineering and Yan taking second in Environmental Engineering. Two additional eighth graders, Joseph Long and Tien Yen, both placed fifth in Environmental Engineering.