Bangladesh team bags 2 silver and 1 bronze in the International Olympiad on Astronomy & Astrophysics

The Bangladesh team has won 2 Silver and 1 Bronze Medal at this year’s International Olympiad on Astronomy & Astrophysics (IOAA), held from 10th to 20th August in Chorzów, Poland.

Bangladesh team gave their best performance yet, as Hritom Sarker Oyon from Adamjee Cantonment School and Adnan Bin Alamgir from Dhaka Residential Model College bagged the Silver Medals for Bangladesh for the first time in IOAA. Also, Bayezid Bostami from Rajshahi College won the Bronze Medal. 

The team also included Adiba Amira Siddiqa from Mastermind English Medium School and Arnob Datta from Eton College UK. The team was led by Fahim Rajit Hossain, former IOAA participant and co-founder of the Bangladesh Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics (BDOAA). 

The IOAA is held in 3 exams over 10 days. These include the Theoretical, Observational, and Data Analysis Exam. Students are expected to get a required percentage of marks in all three of these exams to qualify for Bronze, Silver, Gold Medals, or Honorable Mentions. 

There was also a particular Poster Contest where each country’s team had to make a poster explaining a particular topic revolving around their country’s any mentionable astronomical achievement or any of their own research project. 

BDOAA conducts the selection process of the IOAA team for Bangladesh every year. They organise the regional and national Olympiads and host workshops, special events, camps, and selection tests. After passing through several nationwide selection Olympiads, camps, and the Team Selection Test (TST), the 5-membered IOAA team is finalized. 

International Olympiad on Astronomy & Astrophysics, known commonly as IOAA, is an annual astrophysics competition where high school students worldwide gather. 

The main goal of the IOAA is to promote the growing interest in Astronomy and related STEM subjects, primarily through the general education of young people, and to enhance the development of international contacts among different countries in promoting Astronomy and Astrophysics in schools.