High schoolers compete in European and International Physics Olympiads
Nearly 400 high school students from 84 countries gathered from 4 to 12 July in Bucaramanga, Colombia, to compete in the 56th International Physics Olympiad (IPhO). The annual event challenges students to solve complex theoretical and experimental physics problems.
The US team visited the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark before continuing to Sweden. Students participating in the European and international olympiads often take field trips in or around the host country. Pictured from left to right are Yijia Xuan, Jason Liu, Owen Zhou, Raymond Feng, and Bryant Yu.
(Photo courtesy of Tengiz Bibilashvili.)
For the second time in three years, the US did not attend IPhO. Instead, the US team competed in the European Physics Olympiad (EuPhO) in June in Göteborg, Sweden, because of the US State Department advisory to reconsider travel to Colombia. (The US team attended EuPhO in 2024 because of a State Department advisory regarding travel to Iran, that year’s IPhO host.) According to Paul Stanley, secretary for IPhO, the US was the only team to cite safety concerns as a reason for declining participation.
This year’s IPhO competitors solved theoretical questions on hydrostatics, solar cookers, and paramagnetic materials and an experimental problem about gas laws and vapor pressure. Some students were unable to complete all the problems because of flawed experimental kits. The IPhO board decided to use a revised scoring system to accommodate those students.
Bryant Yu of the US received the top score of the 199 participants in the European competition. Of the five US competitors, Bryant Yu, Raymond Feng, and Owen Zhou brought home gold medals, Yijia Xuan earned silver, and Jason Liu was awarded an honorable mention.
The EuPhO competitors solved theoretical problems about torsion springs, hysteresis, and a hockey puck partially made of dry ice, and they solved an experimental problem on acoustic levitation. According to Jaan Kalda, president of EuPhO, interest was so high this year that EuPhO organizers had to turn away teams because of venue limitations.
The US team is sponsored by the American Association of Physics Teachers, the American Institute of Physics (publisher of Physics Today), and other companies and organizations. The traveling team is typically selected from roughly 20 students during a camp at the University of Maryland before the event. Because EuPhO was held shortly after this year’s training camp, the coaches had to preselect five representatives, who were then among the 17 students invited to the camp.
Next year’s IPhO will be held in Saudi Arabia.
