By Prarthana Mitra
On July 28, five students from India made history by winning a gold medal each at the International Physics Olympiad (IPhO) 2018. An annual competition held among higher secondary school students from 85 countries, the IPhO aims to promote physics learning and recognize young wizards.
Here’s what happened
“If you talk in terms of cricket, India’s strike rate in the International Physics Olympiad since 1998 has been 100 percent, where every student has won at least one medal — be it gold, silver, or bronze,” told an elated Shirish Pathare, chief scientific officer at the Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education (HBCSE), TIFR.
This year at the 49th IPhO, all the five participating students from India won gold medals, registering the country’s best performance in the Science Olympiads so far. Lay Jain and Pawan Goyal from Kota, Bhaskar Gupta from Mumbai, Nishant Abhangi from Rajkot and Siddharth Tiwary from Kolkata represented India in Lisbon, Portugal, after a rigorous fortnight-long selection process conducted by the Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education.
“It felt amazing that the five of us who came together at the event returned to India with a gold medal. It is a matter of pride for us to win a gold medal for our country,” said Lay Jain, who has already received an offer from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), US.
This edition of the IPhO saw 396 students from 86 countries, of which 42 won gold medals. The final event includes a 5-hour-long theoretical and experimental examination after a national-level competition to select the representatives from each country.
Speaking to the Times of India, Pawan Goyal said, “The experimental component was difficult, but the theoretical exam was easier, and the three of us scored between 29 and 30 out of 30 marks.” Goyal will join the Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai this year.
Why it matters
According to both Jain and Goyal, there is a paradigmatic difference in the conduction of experiments at school-level and in premier institutes. In the Indian classroom, there is more focus on theory than experiments, they told FirstPost. That is why “we hesitate when it comes to experiments,” said Goyal, adding, “When we came to the HBCSE labs, it interested us and gave us the confidence that we could also discover something. It was challenging, but worth it.” Jain too agreed, observing that schools teach students standard experiments that are not innovative.
Some of the topics covered by their instructors at HBCSE included modern physics, quantum mechanics, and Relativity. Pathare also encouraged them to update themselves with contemporary research papers from national and international journals, besides formulating new and challenging problems to prepare them.
Goyal who aspires to be an entrepreneur and Jain aiming for a career in research, along with the other gold medallists, have a bright future ahead of them. As they continue to make India proud on many more occasions to come, their IPhO experience won’t only serve as a proud and fond memory for them, but also encourage millions of gifted students around the country.
Prarthana Mitra is a staff writer at Qrius
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