City felicitates astronomy Olympiad winners Team of three bags one gold and two silver at the international competition held at gwangju in south korea

City felicitates astronomy Olympiad winners

Team of three bags one gold and two silver at the international competition held at gwangju in south korea

While the Indian team at the senior International Astronomy Olympiad did the country proud just recently, the junior team isn’t far behind either. Three students from India won one gold and two silver medals at the 17th International Astronomy Olympiad (IAO) held at Gwangju, the Republic of Korea. The team members are aged between 14 and 16. They will get direct entry to the second level of the senior astronomy Olympiad selection process. The students were felicitated on Friday at the Nehru Science Centre in Mumbai, which is the officially designated organisation on behalf of National Council of Science Museums (NCSM) to coordinate the event and select teams for IAO. Arindam Bhattacharya from AECS Magnolia Maaruti Public School, Bangalore, won the gold. Sheshansh Agarwal from Mahaveer Public School, Jaipur, and Ayush Kumar from Delhi Public School, Jodhpur, won the silver. Kumar, Std XI student, said “I like science. I keep reading about NASA missions and other astronomy-related reports in the media. This competition was a great experience. More than the academic part, it was a grand cultural collaboration. It was great to see how a subject like science is looked at with different perspectives in different parts of the world.” Jayant Ganguli, India team leader at the IAO, said, “Astronomy is not introduced at school level. Hence, for the first screening level of the theory exam, which is for all students, candidates are shortlisted on the basis of their knowledge on physics and mathematics, and basic knowledge of astronomy.” The IAO was held from October 16 to 24. A total of 18 teams participated from 17 countries, including China, Korea, Indonesia, Thailand, Armenia, Russia, Moscow land, Serbia, Cremia, Italy and Kazakhstan.