17.04.2015

From April 7th to 12th, the top 16 physics students in Germany met for the last national round of the International Physics Olympiad at the research campus in Garching. The aim of the competition is to encourage gifted students in physics and to bring them early in contact to international science. This contact they got among others by visiting the FRM II. Contest Director Dr. Stefan Petersen enjoyed the response. "The students commented consistently positive on the very interesting visit at FRM II in their view.”

The participants in the final round have prevailed already in the preliminary round against about 500 physics students. Nine of them are not yet of full age, two of which are not yet 16 years old – a special challenge for the visit at FRM II. In the "Year of Light", it was obvious that the final round was organized in cooperation with the MPQ and the Nobel Laureate Theodor Hänsch gave the top five their appointment to the national team in person. They will represent Germany at the finals in Mumbai.

At the International Physics Olympiad students from all over the world compete with each other to solve physical tasks. In Germany all students may participate who have not yet reached the age of 20 at June 30 of the year and are not enrolled at a university. There are several national selection rounds, which consist of a theoretical and a practical part of five hours each. The final round is held every year in July in one of the participating countries, but the members of the national teams compete individually. Details can be found at Physics Olympiad’s homepage: www.ipho.info.