Kazakhstan hosts 2014 physics competition

Xiaoyu Xu of China earned the top score at this year’s International Physics Olympiad, which was held in Astana, Kazakhstan, from 13–21 July. Some 383 high school students from 85 countries competed.

The five-member teams from China, South Korea, and Taiwan each took home all gold medals. The top scores in theory and experiment went, respectively, to Cyuan-Han Chang of Taiwan (5th place overall) and Fan Francis Wang of Singapore (9th place overall). Do Thi Bich Hue from Vietnam was the top-scoring female competitor (16th place overall). The 44 gold medalists came from 17 countries. With three golds and two silvers, all US participants earned medals—as they have every year since 1999, except for 2002 when the team did not travel to the event in Indonesia.

On the US team, Calvin Huang of Palo Alto, California, earned a gold for the second year running; he is at the far left in the top photo, which shows competitors waiting to join the opening ceremony. Also taking golds were Kevin Fei (at right in photo) of Carmel, Indiana, and Vikram Sundar (center) of San Jose, California. Alexander Bourzutschky (second from left) and Michael Winer (second from right), both of Silver Spring, Maryland, garnered silvers. The awards ceremony for the silver medal winners is shown in the bottom photo. The US team is sponsored by the American Association of Physics Teachers and the American Institute of Physics.

The experimental part of the competition involved measuring the transmission of light through liquid crystals and other birefringent materials. The theoretical problems included calculating properties of plasmas; applying the van der Waals equation to deduce bulk properties of water; and analyzing an inductor–resistor circuit, a bubble oscillating in a vacuum, and a particle sliding in a frictionless cylindrical hoop.

When they weren’t sweating the exams, competitors enjoyed sightseeing, music, dancing, and tasting local delicacies such as horse meat and fermented milk from horses and camels.

Next year’s olympiad will be held in New Delhi, India.