Results SwissPhO 2012

Aarau - The final round of the Swiss Physics Olympiad 2012 took place from 21 to 22 April at Neue Kantonsschule in Aarau. Twenty high school students from all across Switzerland participated after having qualified at the preliminary round in January. The participants had already had the chance to get to know each other at the training camp at EPFL in February. The training camp was a great opportunity for the students to not only improve their experimental and theoretical skills but also to meet people who shared their passion for physics.

However, the final round also meant that all the participants had to sit an exam in order to select the five who would get the chance to represent Switzerland at the International Physics Olympiad (IPhO) 2012. This year's IPhO is going to take place in Estonia. The exam was composed of each an experiment in mechanics and electromagnetism and several theoretical questions. The results are shown in the table below. Congratulations to everyone who took part and we hope that you enjoyed it as much as we did.

Rank Name Region Marks (out of 104) Distinction Special Prize
1 Lê Thanh Phong fr 79.25 Gold SPG-Award 1)
2 Käser Sebastian de 66.00 Gold
3 Schwarz Dominic de 54.50 Gold
4 Gremion Laura fr 53.75 Gold SPG-Award 2)
5 Schildknecht Christoph de 42.25 Gold
6 Inglin Raphael de 41.25 Silver
7 Kehl Viviane de 36.00 Silver
8 Mordig Maximilian de 35.90 Silver
9 Zuidema Christoph de 34.50 Silver
10 Wenger Quentin fr 33.75 Silver
11 Loris Michel fr 32.50 Bronze
12 Komagata Kenichi fr 31.88 Bronze
13 Giron Tristan fr 30.50 Bronze
14 Blaser Daniel de 28.50 Bronze
15 Dermelj James de 28.00 Bronze
16 Py Valentin fr 27.00
17 Erhart Luca de 21.35
18 Koller Levin de 14.75
Non-competitive
Frei Cyril de 53.75
Kratochwil Benedikt fl 33.50

1) Best Young Physicist
2) Best Young Woman Physicist

A more detailed ranking with the complete scores can be found here.



The five gold medal winners (from left to right): Thanh Phong Lê, Christoph Schildknecht, Laura Gremion, Sebastian Käser and Dominic Schwarz.


Johanna NyffelerDr. Christophe Rossel
Presenter Johanna Nyffeler and Dr. Christophe Rossel, President of the Swiss Physical Society at the award ceremony


Thanh Phong LeLaura Gremion
SPG-Award winners: Thanh Phong Lê (Best Young Physicist) and Laura Gremion (Best Young Women Physicist)

A few impressions from the exams:

Theoretical Exam1

Experimental Exam1Experimental Exam2
Theoretical Exam1

© Images: VSWO, Lionel Philippoz, Markus Meier

Press release by the Association of Swiss Scientific Olympiads (VSWO): german, french

Preliminary Round 2012: Results

The preliminary round of the Swiss Physics Olympiad 2012 took place on Saturday, 21 January 2012. 58 students from all around Switzerland and Liechtenstein participated at at one of the four different venues: Zurich, Lausanne and Lugano.

The following 24 participants qualified for the SwissPhO 2012:

  1. Lê Thanh Phong
  2. Käser Sebastian
  3. Schwarz Dominic
  4. Francfort Jérémie
  5. Gnap Stan
  6. Mordig Maximilian
  7. Py Valentin
  8. Schildknecht Christoph
  9. Erhart Luca
  10. Zuidema Christoph
  11. Inglin Raphael
  12. Loris Michel
  13. Zurbuchen Yves
  14. Wenger Quentin
  15. Kaufmann Tim
  16. Kehl Viviane
  17. Gremion Laura
  18. Roy Valentin
  19. Dermelj James
  20. Giron Tristan
  21. Komagata Kenichi
  22. Koller Levin
  23. Blaser Daniel
  24. Kreis Carla

Congratulations to those who qualified and good luck at the SwissPhO! The SwissPhO is going to take place on 21/22 April at the Neue Kantonsschule in Aarau. The top five will get the great opportunity to represent Switzerland at the International Physics Olympiad 2012 in Tallinn, Estonia in July.

We thank all other students for their participation and hope to see them at next year's SwissPhO.

The complete ranking with including scores is available here.

Pictures from the different venues:

Zurich (ETH):


Lausanne (EPFL):

© Images: Simon Birrer, Markus Meier, Roland Diggelmann

SwissPhO 2012

The International Physics Olympiad IPhO 2012 is going to take place between 15 July and 24 July in Estonia. The leaders will be accommodated in Tallinn while the participants will be staying in Tartu, home to the oldest university of Estonia.

We would like to use this opportunity to thank Alfredo Mastrocola for his involvement in the SwissPhO over many years. We congratulate to the well-deserved prize which he was awarded by the VSWO at the 7th Swiss Scientific Olympiads Day 2011 for his long-standing commitment.
Alfredo passed on his positions of Coordinator and Treasurer this year with Simon Birrer taking over as Coordinator; Matthias Treier is Alfredo's successor as Treasurer. We are very grateful that we will still be able to benefit from Alfredo's invaluable advice and hands-on support.

We would further like to express our gratitude to Harald Sprenger. His service as Secretary has been of great value. He is passing on his position to Simon Birrer for professional reasons.


Alfredo Mastrocola
Alfredo Mastrocola

© Image: Hannes Suter, VSWO

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