This year, 400 students from 76 countries participated in the Olympiad. Team Bangladesh bagged one silver, three bronze medals and an honourable mention. The silver medalist, Rashed Islam is a student of Notre Dame College. The bronze medalists are Imtiaz Tanweer Rahim and Absur Khan Siam from Notre Dame College and Md Fahim Abrar from Rajshahi New Government Degree College. Lastly, Golam Ishtiak from Kushtia Government College won the honourable mention. It is also to be noted that this has been the country's best performance at IPhO so far, with Rashed scoring way above the required threshold to secure the silver medal.

This year, the experimental questions dealt with the dependence of capacitance on temperature and certain characteristics of light emitting diodes. The theoretical questions tested the participant's knowledge of physics concepts and problem-solving skills. The first question was on the structure of planets and propagation of waves in the interior of planets. The second one was based on electrical lensing and the third one was about quantising the energy level of a particular molecule and using lasers to study their structures.

The event was conducted online and was coordinated by the Lithuanian and Bangladesh Physics Olympiad committees. "We were asked to gather at one location for the exams. The entire exam was live streamed over Zoom and the questions and experimental kits were sent by the Lithuanian organising committee," Rashed explained. The results were announced during a virtual closing ceremony streamed on YouTube.

The selection process for the national team began in the last week of April. The initial selection round was followed by the regional and national Olympiads and around 50 students were shortlisted to attend the national camp. "20 students attended the extended camp and after several exams, the final team was selected," Golam shared.

While the team is proud of their performance, they regret missing out on the real-life interactions. "Usually, we travel to the actual venue, meet new people from different parts of the world, and take part in exciting activities. While the organisers tried their best to arrange some fun activities over Zoom, we missed out on the tours and making new friends," Absur said.

The next edition of the Olympiad will be held at Belarus in 2022.

The author is a freelance journalist who likes reading, planning, and scribbling. Email: mislammonamee@gmail.com.