SwissPhO | Swiss Physics Olympiad

Registration 2014 now open

You can now register here for the preliminary round of the Swiss Physics Olympiad which is going to take place on 15 January 2014. Registration deadline is 31 December 2013.

All important dates for this year's physics olympiad can be found here.

The 44th International Physics Olympiad took place in Copenhagen, Danemark, a country which provided to the scientific world many great physicists such as Hans Christan Ørsted, Tycho Brahe, Ole Rømer or Niels Bohr.

As usual, the competition was divided into two parts : five hours of theory, as well as five hours for the experiments. The three theoretical tasks involved many different fields of physics, often with a link to Danemark; the students had for instance to study some properties of a meteorite, and were asked to use their knowledge in order to understand how a plasmonic steam generator work, as well as the evolution of the Greenland ice sheet.

The experimental task was split into two experiments. The first one dealt with the velocity of light in different media (water, optic fiber), whereas the second one let them study the properties of solar cells under various conditions.

The following five candidates represented Switzerland (left to right):

Sven Pfeiffer, from Münsingen (Freies Gymnasium Bern, BE)
Alain Rossier, from Le Châble (Lycée-Collège de l'Abbaye, VS)
William Borgeaud, from Grandvaux (Gymnase de la Cité, VD)
Quentin Wenger, from Tramelan (Seeland Gymnasium Biel, BE)
Rafael Winkler, from Mettauertal (Alte Kantonsschule Aarau, AG)

Alain Rossier and William Borgeaud were both awarded with a bronze medal, Sven Pfeiffer, Rafael Winkler and Quentin Wenger each won an honourable mention. Great results for Switzerland !

Congratulations to the team for the extraordinary performance!

Press release (French and German)
Problems, complete results and videos of the ceremonies are available on the official IPhO 2013 website

Results SwissPhO 2013

Aarau - The final round of the Swiss Physics Olympiad took place on March 23/24 in Aarau at Neue Kantonsschule. The competition was held between twenty-four students from Switzerland and two from Liechtenstein.

The selection process began in January with a prelimary round, at which a record number of over 100 students participated. The students had the chance to prepare for the final round at a three day training session at EPFL. The final round consisted of two challenging days, totalling no less than six and a half hours of theoretical and experimental exams. The top five participants will have the unique opportunity to travel to Denmark to represent Switzerland at the International Physics Olympiad in July.

The final rankings of the SwissPho 2013 are shown below.

Rank	Name	Region	Marks (out of 120)	Distinction	Special Prize
1	Pfeiffer Sven	d	64.85	Gold	SPS-Award ¹⁾
2	Winkler Rafael	d	60.45	Gold	SPS-Award ²⁾
3	Wenger Quentin	f	57.45	Gold
4	Rossier Alain	f	57.35	Gold
5	Borgeaud William	f	57.3	Gold

6	Stas Pieter	f	55.65	Silver
7	Maret Arnaud	f	55.05	Silver
8	Keller Fabian	d	53.85	Silver
9	Schroeder Florian	d	53.65	Silver
10	Kehl Viviane	d	53.15	Silver	SPS-Award ³⁾

11	Komagata Kenichi	f	52.25	Bronze
12	Stengele Sebastian	d	51.1	Bronze
13	Roos Barbara	d	50.8	Bronze
14	Burgener Cyrill	d	46.9	Bronze
15	Haag Jürg	d	43.95	Bronze

16	Quan Guanzhong	d	43.7
17	Huguenin-Dumittan Kevin	d	43.65
18	Blöchlinger Pascal	d	41.15
19	Suter-Dörig Benjamin Andris	d	40.7
20	Guyer Gian	d	40.45
21	Walter Moritz	d	39.7
22	Weber Stefan	d	36.85
23	Leyvraz Frederik	d	34.5
24	Novotny Timothy	d	25.95

	Non-competitive (Liechtenstein):
	Lang Lukas	FL	67.75		SPS-Award ⁴⁾
	Hälg David	FL	36.85

1) Best Swiss Participant (Swiss Physical Society Prize)
2) Runner-up Swiss Participant (Swiss Physical Society Prize)
3) Best female participant (Swiss Physical Society Prize)
4) Heighest score (Swiss Physical Society Prize)

More detailed scores are available here.

Press release by the ASSO: French, German

Photos of the closing ceremony can be found on the website of the ASSO.