School Scientists' Olympiads Success

The summer holiday saw Olympiad success for two Winchester College pupils.

Top year, Richard won a gold medal in the International Chemistry Olympiad, an astonishing achievement. He was the top-performing member of the UK team. The competition, in Paris, required each of the four team members from the 80 participating countries to complete a 5-hour theory exam and a 5-hour laboratory practical exam. The skills being assessed are very much undergraduate level, which means that a great deal of preparation time is required of the competitors, who are all current sixth formers. Richard has now gone on to read Natural Sciences at St Catharine’s College, Cambridge.

Current upper-sixth pupil, Max was called up to represent the UK at the International Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics. The competition was held in Hungary from 2nd to 10th August. Teams of five sixth-formers from 47 countries took part in the competition. There were four tests involved: a theory exam, data analysis, night observation and a planetarium task. Max won a silver medal for the UK – an excellent achievement.