Singapore teams impress at international science competitions

Lin Zhaowei

The Straits Times20 July 2011

SINGAPORE has scored its best-ever showing at two major science competitions for pre-university students, coming in joint-first in the International Physics Olympiad and third in the International Biology Olympiad.

In the nine-day physics competition that ended on Monday, the five-man Singapore team shared top spot with traditional powerhouses China and Taiwan as well as relative newcomer South Korea.

All four countries came away with five gold medals each.

Last year, the Singapore team came in seventh.

Almost 400 pre-university students from 84 countries took part in this year's event held in Bangkok. Winners had to score in both written and practical tests.

The Singapore team comprised Raffles Institution (RI) students Kang Zi Yang, Li Kewei, Lin Jiahuang and Lin Sen, and NUS High School of Mathematics and Science's Tan Zong Xuan. They are all in their final year of study.

It was led by Associate Professor Rajdeep Singh Rawat from the Natural Sciences and Science Education department of the National Institute of Education at Nanyang Technological University, and Associate Professor Chung Keng Yeow from National University of Singapore's physics department.

Mr Li, 19, said the victory showed that the team's hard work over the past seven months had paid off.

'We were very happy because we knew this had never been done before (by a Singapore team),' he said.

'Although the team spent the entire June holidays preparing for the competition and ended up lagging behind in our school work, it was worth it,' added the physics whiz who hopes to enrol in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for undergraduate studies.

Prof Rajdeep, involved in training the Singapore delegations for the past eight years, said this year's team was 'fantastic' because the members were very motivated.

In the International Biology Olympiad, held in Taipei from July 10 to 17, Singapore improved from its ninth placing last year.

Hwa Chong Institution's Javan Lee Tze Han, NUS High's Hong Xinyuan and RI's Jin Chentian came away with gold medals while Michael Sia Zhen Wei of Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) bagged a silver. They are all final year students at their schools.