The 39th International Physics Olympiad (IPhO 2008) opens today in Ha Noi with the biggest number of participants ever. Organizers said that there will be 390 contestants and experts from 85 countries and territories.
The event is being organized by the Ministry of Education and Training and the Vietnamese Physical Society. Ha Noi National University of Education has been selected as the event’s main site.
Vice Minister of the Ministry of Education and Training Banh Tien Long said that on the occasion of IPhO 2008, world famous physicians and overseas physicians have come to the country, help to translate and introduce exam questions.
Viet Nam also invited 1990 Nobel-Prize laureate Jerome Friedman to talk with Vietnamese students and physicists on nuclear physics and space physics.
Unlike International Mathematics Olympiad when Viet Nam selected exam questions from different countries, in the Physics Olympiad, Viet Nam must write the exam questions by itself.
Mr. Banh Tien Long said that IPhO 2008 applied strict requirements on practical and experiment abilities of contestants.
Writing exam questions for the Olympiad also expressed that Vietnamese education can overcome long-time weakness that Vietnamese students are good in theory, but bad in practices, he added.
According to the IPhO schedule, after the International Council on the IPhO voted for the exam questions today, team leaders will translate them into the languages of the various contestants, who will officially take part in the contest tomorrow.
IPhO 2008 provides a great opportunity for young people to demonstrate their abilities in physics, exchange knowledge and enhance cross-cultural contacts in high-school education.
IPhO is an annual competition for secondary school students. The first IPhO was held in Warsaw, Poland in 1967.
Vietnamese students won two gold and two silver medals in the 38th IPhO held in Iran last July.
