Five Indian students selected for Intl Physics Olympiad

Mumbai, May 23 (PTI) Five meritorious Indian students
including a girl were selected Monday to represent the country
at the International Physics Olympiad (IPhO) to be held at
Bangkok from July 10-18, a top official said here.
Sumegha Garg from Bathinda in Punjab is the third girl
to be representing India at IPhO in the last 14 years of
participation, National Science Olympiad Coordinator Dr Vijay
Singh told PTI.
Prudhvi Tej (16), hailing from Dwaraka Tirumala, a
rural locality of coastal Andhra Pradesh is the youngest among
the five students selected Monday by the National Physics
Olympiad here, he said.
The other three bright students comprise Burle Sai
Kiran from Hyderabad, Nisheeth Lahoti from Jaipur, Rajasthan
and Shubham Mehtra from Kota, Rajasthan. All of them were
felicitated by the Director, Indian Institute of Geomagnetism
Prof Mita Rajaram in Mumbai.
The team will be accompanied by two leaders---Prof
Charudatt Kadolkar, College of Engineering, Pune and Dr M K
Raghavendra, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. The
scientific observer, Praveen Pathak is from Homi Bhabha
Centre for Science Education (HBCSE), Mumbai.
Indian teams in the past have done extremely well
bagging several gold and silver medals and also bronze medals,
Singh said. "We are optimistic that the current team will
continue this glorious tradition," he said.
Singh said the IPhO is a unique event designed to
discover, to encourage and challenge exceptionally gifted
young students from all over the world. The event represents a "celebration" of the best in
higher secondary school physics and over 80 countries are
expected to participate this year.
IPhO was initiated in 1967 and India started
participating in it since 1998. The HBCSE has been a nodal
centre for training and selecting students for the Physics
Olympiad since 1998.
HBCSE collaborates with the Indian Association of
Physics Teacher (IAPT) for implementing the programme. The
Science Olympiad Programmes are funded by the Department of
Atomic Energy, Department of Science and Technology and
Ministry of Human Resource Development.
The preparations for selecting the team began in
November, 2010. About 38,000 students from across the nation
participated in the first level examination conducted by IAPT.
In the second level examinations, the National Physics
Olympiad (INPhO) ---308 students were selected.
The examination was conducted in 16 centres across the
nation and 38 students were selected to participate in an
intensive training camp, namely, the orientation cum selection
camp for Physics Olympiad at HBCSE from May 11-23.