Three cheers for local talent
Pune Mirror: A Pune student has shone again in the third International Olympiad in Astronomy & Astrophysics (IOAA) held in Iran.
A five-member Indian team scored the highest and the team got a second position in the medal list. Pune’s Aniruddha Bapat fetched a silver medal whereas Nitin Jain from Faridabad and Kadar Tatwawadi from Nashik got a gold medal each.
The olympiad was held in Tehran from October 17 to 26. The Indian team won five medals consisting two gold, two silver and a bronze.
The team was lead by professor Mayank Vahia of Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai and Dr Aniket Sule of Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education, TIFR. Prof Vahia, while interacting with Pune Mirror, said, “The Indian team did well in the international competition.”
Dr Aniket Sule, co-ordinator said, “Our team beat international competitors like China, Korea, Brazil, Greece, Poland and Indonesia. In total, there were 20 countries participating.”
Aniruddha is pursuing Science in class XII from Army Public School, Camp. He said, “We had to submit a written test about astrophysics theory first.
The other tasks included astronomical data analysis and night sky observation.” Elaborating on his experience, he said, “I got to learn from others. Indian students are good at theory, but lag slightly behind when it comes to practical application. Still our team did well.”
For Aniruddha, it is not his first international achievement. He had represented India in the Senior Group at the XIIIth International Astronomy Olympiad (IAO) at Trieste, Italy in October 2008 and won a bronze.
In 2007 IAO, he won a gold medal in the Junior group. He represented India as a ‘Young Physics Ambassador’ at the World Year of Physics (WYP) 2005 Symposium at Taiwan in Dec 2005.
He was also the youngest participant at the International Summer School for Young Physicists in Canada in Aug 2007.
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