Mexican students win bronze at the 2018 International Physics Olympiad

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Victor Romero Rochin

, a researcher at the Physics Institute (IF) from the UNAM coordinated the Mexican delegation that participated in the 2018 International Physics Olympiad ( IPhO ), who won four bronze medals and an honorable mention.

The IPhO , held in Lisbon, Portugal , is a physics contest, aimed at high school students, where they must solve individual, theoretical and experimental tests.

Romero Rochin emphasized that the international meeting is the final phase of a process that requires one to three years of preparation. The state's Olympics are the first step to integrate the selection; each federal entity chooses its best competitors.

The group is trained both virtually and face-to-face, in two selections, one trains in the Center for Research in Mathematics in Guanajuato , and the other group is trained inside the laboratories of the Department of Physics of the Faculty of Sciences (FC) , from the UNAM , in areas such as optics, electronics, fluids, electricity and modern physics.

On the last stage, there are only nine students left. This time, five participated in the IPhO and the rest will be participating in the Ibero-American edition , that will be held in Puerto Rico in October .

For a young student to succeed , Rochin considers that talent, technique, and discipline are required : "Denying that we have talent is absurd, we have it, and technique is taught by teachers; however, we need more discipline."

Eleazar Neri and Rodrigo Pelayo Ramos, members of the Mexican Society of Physics, are the academics who supported the students.

The members of the Mexican delegation are: Oliver Vicente Garcia Esparza and Oscar Guardado Chacon, from Nuevo León; Daniel Martin Marin Quiróz, from the State of Mexico, and Rubén Ulises Rodríguez González, from Baja California, who obtained the bronze, as well as Valeria García Hernandez, from Sinaloa, who deserved an honorable mention.