International Physics Olympiad

The International Physics Olympiad (IPhO) is an annual physics competition for high school students. It is one of the International Science Olympiads. The first IPhO was held in Warsaw, Poland in 1967.

Each national delegation is made up of at most five student competitors plus two leaders, selected on a national level. Observers may also accompany a national team. The students compete as individuals, and must sit for intensive theoretical and laboratory examinations. For their efforts the students can be awarded gold, silver, or bronze medals or an honourable mention.

The theoretical examination lasts 5 hours and consists of three questions. Usually these questions involve more than one part. The practical examination may consist of one laboratory examination of five hours, or two, which together take up the full five hours.

History

Students at the opening ceremony of the 2018 IPhO in Portugal

Singaporean IPhO team with the current IPhO president Rajdeep Singh Rawat

Several months before the first IPhO took place in 1967, invitations were sent to all the Central European countries. The invitations were accepted by Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Romania (five countries including Poland, the organiser of the competition). Each team consisted of three secondary school students accompanied by one supervisor. The competition was arranged along the lines of the final stage of the Polish Physics Olympiad: one day for theoretical problems and one day for carrying out an experiment. One obvious difference was that the participants had to wait for the scripts to be marked. During the waiting period the organisers arranged two excursions by plane to Kraków and to Gdańsk. At the first IPhO the students had to solve four theoretical problems and one experimental problem.

The second Olympiad was organised by Prof. Rezső Kunfalvi in Budapest, Hungary, in 1968. Eight countries took part in that competition. The German Democratic Republic, the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia joined the participating countries. Again, each country was represented by three secondary school students and one supervisor. Some time before the second IPhO a preliminary version of the Statutes and the Syllabus were produced. Later these documents were officially accepted by the International Board consisting of the supervisors of the teams that participated in the competition. This took place during a special meeting organised in Brno, Czechoslovakia, several months after the second IPhO.

The third IPhO was arranged by Prof. Rostislav Kostial in Brno, Czechoslovakia, in 1969. On that occasion each team consisted of five students and two supervisors. The competition in Brno was organised according to the official Statutes accepted earlier.

The next Olympiad took place in Moscow, Soviet Union, in 1970. Each country was represented by six students and two supervisors. During that Olympiad several small changes were introduced into the Statutes.

Since the fifth IPhO, held in Sofia, Bulgaria, in 1971, each team has consisted of five pupils and two supervisors. In 1978 and 1980, the IPhO was not organized. This was due to the accession of the Western countries. The first western country to participate was France. At first, the few Western countries participating declined to accept the principle that the IPhO be organized every second year in a Western and Eastern bloc country. Thus the Eastern block countries declined from organising the 1978 and 1980 olympiads. From 1982 onwards, the yearly competition was resumed as there were enough participating Western countries to share the load. At present, the venue of the Olympiad is decided for years ahead. After accession into IPhO, every country must notify the others within three years about its willingness to host the IPhO. After this, the country is placed on a waiting list which as of 2006 stretches well into the 2050s. The failure to organize the IPhO on turn will lead to temporary expulsion from the IPhO. This happened to France in 1986.

Structure of the competition

The competition lasts for two days. One day is devoted to theoretical problems (three problems involving at least four areas of physics taught in secondary schools, total number of marks is 30). Another day is devoted to experimental problems (one or two problems, total number of marks 20). These two days are separated by at least one day of rest. On both occasions the time allotted for solving the problems is five hours. Each team consists of students from general or technical secondary schools (not colleges or universities) or have graduated but are yet to enter university, and must be under the age of 20. Typically each team consists of five students (pupils) and two supervisors. Smaller teams may also participate(consisting 4 or less students with 1 supervisors).

Distribution of medals

The minimal scores required for Olympiad medals and honourable mentions are chosen by the organizers according to the following rules: A gold medal should be awarded to the top 8% of the participants. A silver medal or better should be awarded to the top 25%. A bronze medal or better should be awarded to the top 50%. An honourable mention or better should be awarded to the top 67%. All other participants receive certificates of participation. The participant with the highest score (absolute winner) receives a special prize, in addition to a gold medal.

Summary

Number	Year	Host Country	Host City	Absolute Winner	Score
1	1967	Poland	Warsaw	HUN Sándor Szalay	39/40
2	1968	Hungary	Budapest	POL Tomasz Kręglewski TCH Mojmír Simerský	35/40
3	1969	Czechoslovakia	Brno	TCH Mojmír Šob	48/48
4	1970	Soviet Union	Moscow	URS Mikhaïl Volochine	57/60
5	1971	Bulgaria	Sofia	TCH Karel Šafařík HUN Ádám Tichy-Rács	48.6/60
6	1972	Romania	Bucharest	HUN Zoltán Szabó	57/60
	1973	Not held
7	1974	Poland	Warsaw	POL Jarosław Deminet POL Jerzy Tarasiuk	46/50
8	1975	East Germany	Güstrow	URS Sergey Korshunov	43/50
9	1976	Hungary	Budapest	POL Rafał Łubis	47.5/50
10	1977	Czechoslovakia	Hradec Králové	TCH Jiří Svoboda	49/50
	1978	Not held
11	1979	Soviet Union	Moscow	URS Maksim Tsipine	43/50
	1980	Not held
12	1981	Bulgaria	Varna	URS Aleksandr Goutine	47/50
13	1982	West Germany	Malente	FRG Manfred Lehn	43/50
14	1983	Romania	Bucharest	BUL Ivan Ivanov	43.75/50
15	1984	Sweden	Sigtuna	NED Jan de Boer ROM Sorin Spânoche	43/50
16	1985	SFR Yugoslavia	Portorož	TCH Patrik Španĕl	42.5/50
17	1986	United Kingdom	London-Harrow	URS Oleg Volkov	37.9/50
18	1987	East Germany	Jena	ROM Catalin Malureanu	49/50
19	1988	Austria	Bad Ischl	GBR Conrad McDonnell	39.38/50
20	1989	Poland	Warsaw	USA Steven Gubser	46.33/50
21	1990	Netherlands	Groningen	GBR Alexander H. Barnett	45.7/50
22	1991	Cuba	Havana	URS Timour Tchoutenko	48.2/50
23	1992	Finland	Helsinki	CHN Chen Han	44/50
24	1993	USA	Williamsburg	CHN Zhang Junan GER Harald Pfeiffer	40.65/50
25	1994	China	Beijing	CHN Yang Liang	44.3/50
26	1995	Australia	Canberra	CHN Yu Haitao	95/100
27	1996	Norway	Oslo	CHN Liu Yurun	47.5/50
28	1997	Canada	Sudbury	IRN Sayed Mehdi Anvari	47.25/50
29	1998	Iceland	Reykjavík	CHN Chen Yuao	47.5/50
30	1999	Italy	Padova	RUS Konstantin Kravtsov	49.8/50
31	2000	United Kingdom	Leicester	CHN Lu Ying	43.4/50
32	2001	Turkey	Antalya	RUS Daniyar Nourgaliev	47.55/50
33	2002	Indonesia	Bali	VIE Ngoc Duong Dang	45.40/50
34	2003	Taiwan	Taipei	USA Pavel Batrachenko	42.30/50
35	2004	South Korea	Pohang	BLR Alexander Mikhalychev	47.70/50
36	2005	Spain	Salamanca	HUN Gábor Halász TWN Lin Ying-hsuan	49.50/50
37	2006	Singapore	Singapore	INA Jonathan Pradana Mailoa	47.20/50
38	2007	Iran	Isfahan	KOR Choi Youngjoon	48.80/50
39	2008	Vietnam	Hanoi	CHN Tan Longzhi	44.60/50
40	2009	Mexico	Mérida	CHN Shi Handuo	48.20/50
41	2010	Croatia	Zagreb	CHN Yu Yichao	48.65/50
42	2011	Thailand	Bangkok	TWN Hsu Tzu-ming	48.50/50
43	2012	Estonia	Tartu and Tallinn	HUN Attila Szabó	45.80/50
44	2013	Denmark	Copenhagen	HUN Attila Szabó	47/50
45	2014	Kazakhstan	Astana	CHN Xiaoyu Xu	41.20/50
46	2015	India	Mumbai	KOR Taehyoung Kim	48.30/50
47	2016	Switzerland and Liechtenstein	Zurich	CHN Mao Chenkai	48.10/50
48	2017	Indonesia	Yogyakarta	Uncertain CHN Haoyang Gao (Theory) JPN Akihiro Watanabe (Experiment)	Not published (under 40)
49	2018	Portugal	Lisbon	CHN Yang Tianhua	46.8/50
50	2019	Israel	Tel Aviv	TBD	TBD
51	2020	Lithuania	TBD	TBD	TBD
52	2021	Belarus	TBD	TBD	TBD
53	2022	Japan	Tokyo	TBD	TBD
54	2023	Iran	TBD	TBD	TBD
55	2024	France	TBD	TBD	TBD
56	2025	Colombia	TBD	TBD	TBD
57	2026	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD
58	2027	South Korea	TBD	TBD	TBD
59	2028	Ecuador	TBD	TBD	TBD

• In some of contests, Taiwan uses Chinese Taipei as their team name to join the contest.

See also

• Asian Physics Olympiad

External links

• Official website

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