The best of the best

Lisbon was, for the first time, the stage of the International Physics Olympiad. 396 secondary education students from 86 countries took part in the 49th edition of the event.

Organised by the Portuguese Physics Society within the scope of the Ministry of Education, IPhO 2018 took place between 21 and 29 July and was backed by several Portuguese universities, the Ciência Viva Agency, the Gulbenkian Foundation, a number of local authorities and companies such as Galp.

The first edition of IPhO was held in Warsaw, Poland, in 1967, and was attended by 15 students from 5 countries. Portugal took part for the first time in 1993, as an observer, and has been entering a team since 1994. The Portuguese government applied to host IPhO in 2000, and was awarded the event for the first time this year.

THE MECHANICS OF THE FINAL

The young people present at the Portuguese edition competed at individual level, taking two tests, one theoretical and one experimental, each of which lasted for five hours. They were required to study the properties of transistors, both conventional and paper, which was invented in Portugal, and the characteristics of elastic wire, explained José António Paixão, vice-president of the Portuguese Physics Society and president of the Portuguese edition of the event. In the opinion of many students, this was one of the most difficult tests in this competition in recent years.

All the members of the teams of students representing Portugal at this 49th edition of IPhO received awards, having obtained a bronze medal and four honourable mentions. The outright winner was a student from the People´s Republic of China, Yang Tianhua, who was awarded his prize by the Minister of Education, Tiago Brandão Rodrigues.

PHYSICS AND JAZZ

The prizewinning ceremony for the winners of the competition was held on 29 July at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon.

The event was long due to the large number of prizewinners, and honourable mentions and bronze, silver and gold medals were handed out. The final prizes were awarded by Tiago Brandão Rodrigues, Hans Jordens, president of IPhO, Conceição Abreu, president of the Portuguese Physics Society, and Carlos Martins de Andrade, director of the research and technology department at Galp.

There was also a place for jazz, due to the fact, as was explained in one of the films shown at the event, this type of music is undeniably connected to physics. In a message read out to those in attendance, the president of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, emphasised that “solving problems related to physics involves intuition, improvisation and a little rigour that jazz also has”.

The elections for IPhO were also held in Portugal at the same time as the 49th edition of the event, the name of the Singaporean Rajdeep Singh Rawat being announced as the new director. The host city of the 50th edition of the International Physics Olympiad was also presented: Tel Aviv, Israel.

What is IPhO?

IPhO is an annual competition between secondary school students, designed to promote physics and the development of international contacts in the teaching of the discipline. It rewards the best students from the nations involved with a place in the final, disputed in a different country every year, and consists of a test to find the best of the best prior to going to university.
The selection process is entrusted to the participating countries and consists, as a general rule, of the holding of domestic competitions, as happens in Portugal.
The teams are composed of a maximum of five students and two teachers.