Thomasson, Kalinin val, sal: Webb Class of 2023
Webb School of Knoxville’s top two students from the Class of 2023 were heavily involved in the school’s highly successful FIRST Robotics team in 2022-23: valedictorian Noah Thomasson and salutatorian Dmitri Kalinin.
Thomasson, son of Douglas and Hiromi Thomasson, was software lead of Webb Robotics, which earlier this spring participated in the international competition in Houston.
“I also love to volunteer at the Boys and Girls Club and helped organize a group of Robotics students to also go over and teach mini-STEM activities,” he said.
“I’ve enjoyed my time here,” Thomasson added about Webb. “… There’re countless people that have inspired me over high school, so it’s super hard to pick one.”
However, “One example is my history teacher, Mrs. Berube,” the valedictorian said. “She’s an amazing, enthusiastic person who taught me much more than just the basics of world history. She taught critical thinking and a process of connecting concepts that I still use to this day.”
After high school, Thomasson plans to attend Rice University and study neuroscience and computer science.
“I’m planning on going to grad school before either going into academia and research or industry,” he said. “I’m really interested in the combination of neuroscience and computer science through technologies, like BCIs (brain computer interfaces) that connect computers and minds.”
As for Kalinin, “the designation of being chosen salutatorian gives me comfort in college … being able to succeed in classes to an extreme degree while having time to do extracurriculars and other out of school activities,” he said.
Kalinin was co-captain of the robotics team, co-founder and lead of his school’s computer science club and participated in Webb’s Scholar’s Bowl and Science Olympiad teams.
Outside of school, he also does taekwondo.
“In my four years at school, I’ve rarely overworked myself with schoolwork and homework,” Kalinin said. “And I feel with all the available out-of-school and extracurriculars provided, one is encouraged to balance their efforts between school, their extracurriculars and their life.
“My greatest inspirations have been all the teachers and mentors in my life that have helped me realize the importance of not only obtaining knowledge, but also passing it down to others,” he added. “Primarily my physics teacher and robotics coach Dr. Lawrie and my lead taekwondo instructor Master Bailey.”
Kalinin plans to attend Georgia Institute of Technology in the fall and major in physics, as well as pursuing minors in computer science, “most likely computing and intelligence minor,” and an engineering discipline.
“I don’t have too specific of plans at the moment, but I want to be a researcher applying machine learning to studies in the physical sciences,” added Kalinin, son of Sergei Kalinin and Albina Borisevich and Mahshid Ahmadi.
