A city school boy has become one of the 35 students, shortlisted from a nation-wide pool of 37,837 students, selected for the final round of contest that could provide them an opportunity to take part in the International Physics Olympiad (IPhO).
M. Veeramakali Vignesh, a Class X student in Suguna PIP School here, has been selected to the Orientation-Cum-Selection Camp conducted by the Asian Physics Olympiad Cell.
The students were selected through contests conducted by the Board of Nuclear Sciences, which comes under the Department of Atomic Energy, the Departments of Science and Technology and Space besides the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development.
The IPhO is a keenly contested examination in physics open to pre-university students of all countries in the world. It serves as a bench-mark for study of physics at pre-university level.
Only five students can represent the country at the 46th IPhO, which will be held in Mumbai from July 5 to July 12.
According to A. Manivannnan, the boy's father and executive director of C.V. Raman School for IIT-JEE, the boy is the among first student from Class X to be selected for this event. Vignesh says his father and Prof. Syed Sadat of Hyderabad began tutoring him at an young age in physics
Expressing confidence of being one among the five students, who would be chosen to represent India in this international science event, he says his ambition is to make it to the IIT. Further, Vignesh has become one of the eight participants to represent India in the Asian Physics Olympiad ( an annual international physics competition for secondary school students.