Pakistan team won three Bronze medals in 54th International Physics Olympiad (IPhO), held in Isfahan, Iran July 21-28, 2024.
Pakistani students Talha Ashraf (Nixor College, Karachi), Huzaifa Altamash(Lahore Grammar School, Senior Boys Campus, Johar Town, Lahore) and Muhammad Salman Tarar (The Science School, H-9/1, Islamabad) won Bronze Medals while Muhammad Saad Bilal (Siddeeq Public School and College, Rawalpindi) received an Honorable Mention for Pakistan, said a news release.
The Pakistan team participated in the Physics Olympiad under the sponsorship of the STEM Careers program, which is a joint venture of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) and Pakistan Institute of Engineering and Applied Science (PIEAS).
The Physics team was trained at PIEAS, Islamabad by Dr. Muhammad Irfan and Prof. Dr. Aman-ur-Rehman and was led in the competition by Prof. Dr. Najeeb-ur-Rehman, COMSATS, Islamabad and Dr. Rahmat Ullah COMSATS, Islamabad.
This is the first time that all four team members trained at PIEAS got medals and certificates.
PIEAS working under the auspices of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission(PAEC) conducts a National Science Talent Contest (NSTC) in four subjects Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Mathematics each year. NSTC is an extension of the National Physics Talent Contest (NPTC), which was initiated by PIEAS in 1995 and it has been a regular annual event since 2003.
It strives to vitalize science education at the intermediate level (in 9th, 10th, O level, FSc (Part-I), A Level (Part-I)), a crucial stage for professional career choices.
Under the umbrella of the STEM careers program, the students selected under NSTC, which is conducted in 19 cities across Pakistan, are further trained for participation in the International Science Olympiads (ISOs) at four Home Institutes (HI).
The top 50 students from the screening test are initially invited to residential training camps at the Home Institutes (HIs) for each subject. Through a series of training camps, this number is gradually reduced to the 4-6 best students in each subject who will participate in the ISOs.
The STEM Careers program office in HEC manages the activities of these training camps and their subsequent traveling to ISOs. NIBGE-C (PIEAS) serves as the HI for Biology, the HEJ Research Institute of Chemistry at the University of Karachi for Chemistry, COMSATS-Lahore for Mathematics, and PIEAS for Physics. Pakistan has been participating in the International Physics Olympiad since 2001, the Mathematics Olympiad since 2005, and the Biology and Chemistry Olympiads since 2006.
Since the program’s inception, over 365 students have participated in the ISOs, winning 139 medals. With more than 240 training camps, 4,000 students have received training at the HIs through this program.
