Physicists from BiH Win Bronze Medals at International Olympiad in Indonesia

New success of young physicists from Bosnia and Herzegovina at the International Physics Olympiad

Dženan Devedžić and Edvin Đapo won bronze medals at the 48th International Physics Olympiad (IPhO 2017), held this year in Indonesia, in the city of Yogyakarta from July 16 to July 24, while Ajla Karišik and Dinno Koluh received honorable mentions.

The representatives of Bosnia and Herzegovina at the 48th International Physics Olympiad return with two bronze medals and two honorable mentions. This is the third consecutive International Physics Olympiad where our top students have won two medals.

The International Physics Olympiad is held annually and gathers the best high school students from around the world. Students compete in solving experimental and theoretical tasks over two days, each lasting five hours, and this year's Olympiad featured 88 countries with 424 students.

- The Society of Physicists in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in cooperation with the Department of Physics at the Faculty of Science in Sarajevo and the International High School in Sarajevo, organizes multi-week preparations for our representatives each year, during which students attend lectures in physics topics they do not have the opportunity to study in regular school classes. The preparations also include solving experimental tasks from previous Olympiads. So far, the biggest challenges for our students have been experimental tasks because regular classes mostly cover theory, while experiments are rarely or never conducted - Benjamin Fetić, president of the Society of Physicists in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, told us.

Our interlocutor also explained that participation in this year's Olympiad was uncertain because, for the first time in 22 years since our country has been participating in international physics Olympiads, students had to cover part of their travel costs themselves due to a lack of full support from BiH authorities, except for a student from Tuzla Canton whose government fully financed the travel expenses. 

The members of the BiH Olympic team for the 48th International Physics Olympiad were selected based on the results of the national physics competition held on April 29 in Banja Luka and consist of Dženan Devedžić (Gimnazija “Dr Mustafa Kamarić”, Gračanica), Dinno Koluh (Unsko-sanski Koledž, Bihać), Edvin Đapo (Treća gimnazija, Sarajevo), Ajla Karišik (International High School, Sarajevo), and Arman Dupanović (Unsko-sanski koledž, Bihać). The leaders of our team are Senad Isaković and Mirsad Tunja, fourth-year students at the Department of Physics in Sarajevo.

The departure of the BiH Olympic team to the 48th International Physics Olympiad was supported by the Government of Tuzla Canton, the Government of Sarajevo Canton, AS Holding doo Tešanj, Amix doo Doboj Jug, EN projekt doo Tešanj, Emir Comerc Kurbegović doo Sanski Most, the City of Bihać, Terme doo Gračanica, the Isa-beg Ishaković Association, and EGE Komerc Doboj Jug.