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imilarly to the competitions in Korea, Indonesiaand Singapore, this year’s Olympiad in Vietnamwas quite clearly an event of primary importanceto the Vietnamese government and educational

authorities. The president of Vietnam, his ExcelleancyMr. Nguyen Phu Trong, and the Deputy Prime MinisterProf Nguyen Thien Nhan, participated in the opening cer-emony and stressed in their opening addresses the para-mount importance of science, technology and educationfor the development of Vietnam.

A Nobel Prize Laureate Prof. Jerome Friedman participat-ed in the Olympiad activities, gave a lecture to the partic-ipants, and socialized with them.

The social program was very entertaining and interesting,with visits to monuments, temples and historical sites, anexcursion to the spectacular Halong Bay, and the continu-ous “flow” of excellent Vietnamese food.

The academic part of thecompetition was organizedby the faculty members fromthe Hanoi NationalUniversity of Education andInstitute of Physics andElectronics, VietnameseAcademy of Science andTechnology.

The problems were veryinteresting and well pre-pared. One of the theoreticalproblems involved a model-ing of the ancient water-powered rice-pounding mor-tar. The other one involvedmodeling the air flow in theatmosphere and air pollution.

SUMMARY

The 38th International Physics Olympiad(IPhO) was held in Hanoi, Vietnam from 20thto 19th of July, 2008. A total of 82 countriesparticipated in the competition this year.Chile participated for the first time and Syriasent an observer, planning to participate nextyear. The team from Puerto Rico participatedunofficially as it does not represent an inde-pendent country.

SBY ANDRZEJ KOTLICKI AND NATALIA KRASNOPOLSKAIA

INTERNATIONAL PHYSICS OLYMPIAD, 2008

Dr Andrzej Kotlicki<kotlicki@phas.ubc.ca>, Department ofPhysics andAstronomy, Universityof British Columbia,

and

Dr NataliaKrasnopolskaia,Department ofPhysics, University ofToronto

In the experimental problem students had to measure theefficiency of a solar cell. So 3 out of 4 problems (the thirdtheoretical problem was about Cherenkov radiation) hadsomething to do with “a green life style”.

Marking by the academic committee was very thoroughand fair and, in most cases, agreed closely with the mark-ing of the leaders. The marking moderations (the processof establishing the final mark acceptable by both leadersand the local marking team) were performed in a good col-legial atmosphere with very few real controversies.

Canada was represented by the following students:

Bo Cheng Cui (Bob) from BCJingyuan Zhang (Lynda) from AlbertaJixuan Wang from OntarioKeith Kaichung Ng from OntarioJunjiajia Long (Bill) from Ontario

The team leaders were: DrAndrzej Kotlicki from theDepartment of Physics andAstronomy, University ofBritish Columbia, and DrNatalia Krasnopolskaia fromthe Department of Physics,University of Toronto.

The following 82 countrieswere present at the 39thInternational Olympiad:

Albania, Argentina, Armenia,Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan,Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia &Herzegovina, Brazil, Brunei,Bulgaria, Cambodia, Canada,Chile*, China, Colombia,Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech

Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia,Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary,Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan,Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Liechtenstein,Lithuania, Macau, Macedonia, Malaysia, Mexico, Moldova,Mongolia, Nepal, The Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway,Pakistan, The Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico**,Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia,

* new countries invited by the Organizing Committee to theOlympiad this year

** invited by the Organizing Committee as a guest team.

ENSEIGNEMENT

The opening ceremonies, with the Canadian team in the fore-ground.

PHYICS OLYMPIAD 2008AA

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Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Sweden,Switzerland, Syria*, Taiwan (Chinese Taipei), Tajikistan,Thailand, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, USA, Vietnam.

The best score (44.6 points) was achieved by Longzhi Tanfrom China (Absolute winner of the 39th IPhO). The fol-lowing limits for awarding the medals and the honorablementions were established according to the Statutes: GoldMedal - 33 points (out of 50), Silver Medal - 26 points,Bronze Medal - 21 points, and Honourable Mention -14 points. According to the limits, 46 Gold Medals,47 Silver Medals, 78 Bronze Medals and 87 HonorableMentions were awarded. The list of the scores of the win-ners and the students awarded with honorable mentionswere distributed among all the delegations.

In addition to the regular prizes, the following specialprizes were awarded:

- for the best score (Absolute winner): Longzhi Tan (China);

- for the best score in the theoretical part of the com-petition:

Longzhi Tan (China); - for the best score in the experimental part of the

competition; Yi-Shu Wei (Taiwan);

- for the best score among female participants: Andrada Ianus (Romania):

- Gorzkowski Prize (for the best participant amongthe countries that joined IPhO first in 2008):

Efraín Alfonso Pérez Argandoña (Chile); - for the best Vietnamese competitor:

Huynh Minh Toan

The Canadian team performed very well, winning onegold medal (Junjiajia Long) who was 6th in the world, twosilver medals (Jingyuan Zhang and Bo Cheng Cui) andtwo bronze medals (Keith Kaichung Ng and JixuanWang). It was the first time in the history of Canadian par-ticipation in the IPhO that all the Canadian team memberswere awarded medals.

At the meeting of the International Board, the presidentialelection was carried out according to a secret ballot.Dr. Hans Jordens (The Netherlands) was elected the newpresident.

At the end of the Olympiad, acting on behalf of the organ-izers of the next International Physics Olympiad, Dr. JoséLuis Morán López, announced that the 40th InternationalPhysics Olympiad will be held in Mérida, Mexico fromJuly 11th – 19th, 2009, and cordially invited all the parti-cipating countries to attend the competition.

The Canadian team receives their medals at the 2008 International Physics Olympiad held in Vietnam.