In last-minute shuffle, Switzerland hosts virtual International Physics Olympiad

Four hundred high school students from 75 countries participated in the 52nd International Physics Olympiad (IPhO), which took place 10–17 July. Belarus was supposed to host the event, but many national team organizers had planned to boycott the competition because of the country’s support for the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The event was nearly canceled until Switzerland stepped in to host the competition virtually by coordinating a series of online tests.

Guowei Xu of China had the best overall score, and his teammates Mingxuan Yang and Qiancheng Li received the highest scores in experiment and theory, respectively. All five members of the Chinese team won gold medals. The teams from Romania and South Korea were the next highest achievers, with four members from each nation claiming golds and one from each winning a silver. The Ukrainian team ended up with a silver medal, three bronzes, and an honorable mention.

Countries take pride in their teams’ performances, but officially, participants compete as individuals, not as teams. The international board of IPhO welcomed high schoolers from Russia and Belarus, but they were not allowed to represent their countries. Students from both countries claimed gold, and a few others earned a silver or bronze medal or an honorable mention. In an interview, the US team academic director, Tengiz Bibilashvili, emphasized the apolitical nature of the international competition and its necessity in setting the standards for high school physics education.

The US team brought home three gold and two silver medals. Rishab Parthasarathy of San Jose, California, came in sixth overall. He won a gold medal, as did his teammates Alex Gu of San Jose and Evan Erickson of Lake Elmo, Minnesota. Collin Fan of Lincolnshire, Illinois, and Rowechen Zhong of Austin, Texas, garnered silvers. The five were selected to represent the US from a group of 20 team members trained in June at the University of Maryland in College Park. The US team is sponsored by the American Association of Physics Teachers, the American Institute of Physics (which also publishes Physics Today), and other AIP member societies.

For this year’s experimental exam, organizers challenged the students with simulation programs on planetary and atmospheric properties and on cylindrical diodes. The program used in the cylindrical diode question allowed students to simulate an unlimited number of current measurements for different sets of input parameters, such as radius and length. For the theoretical exam, question topics included the interactions between different kinds of magnets.

The 53rd International Physics Olympiad will be held in Tokyo next summer.