Physics Students Bring Home Gold

July 17, 2006

Every U.S. student sent to the 2006 International Physics Olympiad held this year in Nanyang University in Singapore, will bring home a medal, and four of those are gold.

Menyoung Lee, a senior at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, Alexandria, VA won a gold medal for the second year in a row.

The other gold medalists are:
-- William Throwe, a senior at Shoreham-Wading River High School, Shoreham, NY. Last year Throwe served as an alternate to the team.
-- Henry Tung, a junior at Torrey Pines High School in San Diego.
-- Otis A Chodosh, a senior at the Oklahoma School of Science and Mathematics in Oklahoma City.

Bringing home a silver medal:
-- Sherry Gong, a junior at Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, NH.

“The US team met with great success,” head coach Robert Shurtz said. “In an unofficial ranking of countries based on total score of the five team members, the US ranked second.” China’s students had the highest overall total scores.” This was largest International Physics Olympiad to date with 86 nations participating with a total of 383 competitors. Last year, the team brought home two golds, two silvers and a bronze medal.

Shurtz, a physics teacher at the Hawkins School in Gates Mills, OH, and assistant coach Paul Stanley, a physics and astronomy associate professor at Beloit College in Wisconsin, accompanied the team to the nine-day competition.

The U.S. Physics Olympiad Program was started in 1986 to promote and demonstrate academic excellence and prepare students to compete in the International Physics Olympiad. The U.S. Physics Team is co-sponsored by the American Association of Physics Teachers and the American Institute of Physics.

MORE ON THE WEB

• Main website of the U.S. Physics Team: http://www.aapt.org/olympiad2006/
• Bios of each student are available online at: http://www.aapt.org/olympiad2006/team.cfm
• The official website of the International Physics Olympiad, hosted by the Singaporean team: http://www.ipho2006.org/
• Screening Exams the students had to pass to place on the U.S. Physics Team: http://www.compadre.org/psrc/evals/olympiad.cfm

Source: American Institute of Physics (AIP)