Physics Olympiad 2024: India shines in International Physics Olympiad, this time these bright students shone on foreign soil

Students from Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh won gold medals

Rhythm Kedia of Raipur, Chhattisgarh and Ved Lahoti of Indore, Madhya Pradesh won gold medals in the 54th Physics Olympiad held in Iran.

Akarsh Raj Sahay from Nagpur in Maharashtra, Bhavya Tiwari from Noida in Uttar Pradesh and Jaiveer Singh from Kota in Rajasthan won silver medals.

In the medal table by country, India finished joint fourth with Vietnam. China was first, Russia was second and Romania was third.

A total of 18 gold, 35 silver and 53 bronze medals were awarded here. A total of 193 students from 43 countries participated in the competition. This year western countries kept away from IPhO.

professor accompanying students

The Indian team was led by Prof. Deepak Garg (DAV College, Chandigarh) and Dr. Shirish Pathare (HBCSE, TIFR). Prof. A. C. Biyani (Retd., Government Nagarjuna Postgraduate Science College, Raipur) and Prof. Vivek Bhide (Gogte-Joglekar College, Ratnagiri) accompanied them as scientific observers.

The 5-hour theoretical competition had three questions based on a simple model of global warming due to greenhouse effect, trapping of ions using ‘Paul Trap’ and Doppler cooling techniques, and dynamics and stability of an accreting binary star system.

IPhO: When was the first Physics Olympiad held

The 5-hour practical contestants had two projects – one on heat conduction through a copper rod, and the other on diffraction from phase steps.

India’s consistent performance at IPhO, 41 per cent gold, 42 per cent silver, 11 per cent bronze over 25 years, reflects the country’s passion for excellence and talent in science education.

The International Physics Olympiad (IPhO) is the world championship physics competition for high school students and is held in a different country each year.

The first IPhO was held in Poland in 1967. It has gradually spread to more than 80 countries across 5 continents. This competition takes place every year and every host country follows the rules and traditions of IPhO.