All seven Israeli participants in the Mathematics Olympiad in Bulgaria for students won prizes

Two weeks earlier, the Israeli team won five medals at the International Youth Physics Olympiad held in Thailand

Recently, seven students from Israel returned from the Mathematics Olympiad for students that was held at the American University of Bulgaria, in collaboration with University College London.

Each university that participated in the event sent one lecturer and several students and individual students also participated. The competition is intended for undergraduate students and included two competitions of five hours each. The problems that the students solved were from the fields of algebra, analytics (prime and complex numbers), engineering and combinatorics.

The head of the delegation, Lev Radzibulovski, says that seven students participated in the team and each of them received first or second prize.

The winners are:
Alexey Gladkich received a grand first prize, a prize awarded only to the best among the participants. Alexey Gladkich, Ofir Gorodetsky, Gal Dor and Shahar Pepini also won first prize in the various subjects. in the second prize in some subjects. Shahar Carmeli, Ohad Nir, Mark Shusterman won. As a team, the Israeli team won fifth place.

An achievement for Israel in physics as well

A great achievement for Israel and the Technion: the Israeli student team for the International Physics Olympiad held in Bangkok landed in Israel on July 19 with five medals, two gold, two silver and one bronze. At the end of the Olympics, Israel was ranked 13th among 84 countries that participated in an event that is considered one of the most important in the scientific field. This year, Israel advanced four places compared to last year's Olympics where it won only 17th place among over eighty countries.

The results of this year's competition are an unprecedented achievement for the team and the Technion in Haifa, which is the body that performs the sorting of the hundreds of participants who wish to reach the Olympics and the preparations for the team consisting of five students going to the Olympics, especially in light of the fact that for the first time each of the five members of the Israeli team won a medal.

Every year two Physics Olympiads are held in the world: one is the Asian Olympiad to which each country sends eight contestants and the second and most important is the international Olympiad which includes all the countries of the world and in which five contestants from each country compete.

The contestants are high school students who go through a rigorous screening and arduous preparation that lasts for many weeks at the Technion in Haifa, which is, as mentioned, the body that carries out the preparations and screenings for the Olympics. Dr. Eli Raz, a visiting physics lecturer at the Technion and the head of the physics and optical engineering unit at Ort Brauda College, who is responsible for preparing the delegation, said that "our uniqueness as the Israeli team was that we had the ability to solve questions in an unconventional approach and way. Our company used creativity, which is our weapon, and this is how one generation of gold medal winners managed to win the theoretical part with 29.5 points out of a possible 30, ahead of four Chinese in a competition where the Chinese usually win first place. Dor also got all five members of the American team and if you think that each team sends five contestants, try to imagine what a tremendous advantage the Chinese have who can choose the best five out of a billion and a half people, compared to us who only have seven million inhabitants from which to choose the five outstanding ones." .

Dr. Raz pointed out that "in the preparation process, we do not see the Olympics as a goal in itself, but as a means of professional advancement, therefore we pose questions to the team members during the preparation phase that will contribute to their continued professional advancement in the field of physics for the continuation of their studies and questions that require them to conceptually crack down on complex problems."

The two gold medals were won by Gal Dor, a student at Ahad Ha'am High School in Petah Tikva, and Assaf Rozen, a student at Urban 3, Mota Gur in Modi'in. The silver medals were won by Ben Finkelstein from Urban 2 Rabin in Modiin and Gor Peri, a student at Rabin High School in Mezherat Batia. The bronze medal was won by Aviv Frankel from Ort Yad Leibovitz in Netanya.

The members of the team went through long weeks of hard preparation and a strict selection that began with the exams to which 2,500 outstanding students who were selected by the physics teachers in the high schools entered. Of these, 350 students were selected who took the exams in regional centers, conducted by the Technion staff. For the third stage, 35 outstanding students came to the Technion for a two-week training camp, and then on Passover, another training camp was held at the Technion, after which eight students were selected to represent Israel in the Asian Physics Olympiad. Of the eight, the five were chosen to represent Israel in the International Physics Olympiad held in Bangkok. According to Dr. Raz "those who prepare the students at the camp are members of a professional team who have all previously participated in the Physics Olympiad and have extensive experience in the competition, led by Alex Finkelstein who is currently completing his master's degree in physics at the Technion."

The President of the country, Shimon Peres, and the Minister of Education, Gideon Sa'ar, held a meeting with the boys who won the Mathematics Olympiad, the Physics Olympiad and the "First Step to Nobel Prize in Physics" international competition on Sunday this week at the President's residence. The students won over 16 medals for Israel.

The President of the State addressed the medalists and said: "We attach great importance to the things you do. Excellence is not an end in itself. Today, excellence is a condition for Israel's existence. Continue to conquer new peaks both personally and for the sake of the country that is proud of you today."

The Minister of Education congratulated the students for their excellence in the Olympics and said: "We need to decide as a society what ethos we want to enshrine. For us as a small country that faces difficult challenges, excellence in the field of science helps the State of Israel maintain its comparative advantage. You represented the country with honor and you should be heroes Israel's culture, Israeli society should present you in the shop window."

It should be noted that this year the Israeli team reached an impressive achievement in the field of physics - to 13th place out of 84 participating countries, and in the field of mathematics to 23rd place out of 101 participating countries. (recorded an improvement of 30 places compared to last year's 53rd place).