On 1 July 2021, 18 secondary school students who won the Luxembourg Biology Olympiad, the Luxembourg Chemistry Olympiad and the Luxembourg Physics Olympiad were congratulated during the award ceremony which took place at the lycée Athénée Luxembourg.
Every year, almost 1000 secondary school students participate in the national competition in biology, chemistry and physics. During these national competitions, the jury examines the skills in solving biological/chemical/physical problems as well as in performing and analysing practical experiments. The main objective of the Luxembourg Olympiads is to promote students’ interest in life sciences as well as to motivate them to become more involved in this field.
The ceremony was introduced by Prof. Jean-Marc Schlenker, Dean of the Faculty of Science, Technology and Medicine (FSTM) at the University of Luxembourg, who emphasized the role of science competitions to encourage young minds to fully engage into the study of the STEM fields which play such a central role in the Knowledge economy.”
Jeff Kohnen, president of the Ben Kasel, presented the concept and objectives of this initiative. Then each olympiad was explained in more details by Sam Hoffmann (Université du Luxembourg), Luxembourg Olympiads in natural sciences (lycée Atert Rédange) andAlex Salsmann (lycée des Arts et Métiers).
7th edition Luxembourg Biology Olympiad
This year, 240 participants from 21 high schools took part in the qualification process, which consisted in a 50-minutes test with multiple choice questions. The second step gathered 63 students for a 2-hours examination with different question types. 14 of them were then qualified for the national final round organised on 8 May 2021 at the University of Luxembourg. After taking theoretical and practical assessments on many different aspects (ecology, botany, physiology, neurobiology, anatomy, genetics, etc), the four best students, namely Laurent Bommertz (Athénée Luxembourg), Jean-Marc Furlano (Atert-lycée Rédange), Raffaël Marth (Lycée Ermesinde Mersch) and Siim Rausi (École Européenne Kirchberg) were selected to represent Luxembourg for the International Biology Olympiad (IBO). Ogranised virtually by Portugal, Laurent, Jean-Marc and Raffaël won bronze medals at IBO 2021.
3rd edition Luxembourg Chemistry Olympiad
This year’s edition saw 231 high school students compete in the 100-minute qualification test which was performed online. 52 students advanced to the semi-final, in which another 2-hours theoretical test had to be taken. Finally, 12 students qualified for the finals which were held on 24th of April at the University of Luxembourg. The final round consisted of a practical assessment. In 4 hours, the students had to solve three problems dealing with complexometric analysis of drinking water, functional organic analysis of unknown compounds and the development of an experimental approach to determine the concentration of hydrogen peroxide of a provided solution. Their performance in both the theoretical and practical tests was evaluated in order to determine this year’s winners. Laurent Bommertz (Athénée Luxembourg), Rafael Dux (Lycée de Garçons Luxembourg), Jean-Marc Furlano (Atert-Lycée Rédange) and Raphaël Menasce (Lycée de Garçons Luxembourg) were selected to represent Luxembourg at the International Chemistry Olympiad (IChO).
5th edition Luxembourg Physics Olympiad
The Luxembourgish physics olympiad took place for the fifth time in the academic year 2020/2021. 92 students from Luxembourgish high schools participated in the qualifying round, of which 25 advanced to the semifinals. The semifinals consisted of a theoretical exam covering aspects of the theories or gravity, electrodynamics, mechanics and thermodynamics. The 9 best students went on to take part in the national finals where they had to study oscillations of a saw blade. This task required skills both in experimental techniques as well as in the theory of elastic media. The five best students, Rafael Dux, Adam Hustava, Max Kimmlingen, Sijie Ma and Joé Weisgerber, subsequently took part in the International Physics Olympiad (IPhO). The IPhO 2021 was organised by Lithuania, but was held remotely this year due to the pandemic. It took place in mid-July and the finalists had to solve different experimental and theoretical exam questions from a wide variety of fields in physics. Two of the Luxembourgish students received “honorable mentions” by the organisers.
Thanks for the involvement of the University staff members in the Olympiads: Serge Haan, Roland Meyers, Alex Salsmann, Thomas Schmidt, Monique Wiesinger.