Dear AAPT Members, Colleagues, and Friends,
 Now the IPhO competition really is over. Our five-member team brought home five medals: four gold ones and a silver.
Congratulations -- and thanks again for all your hard work -- to Tucker Chan, Edward Gan, Joshua Oreman and Danny Zhu, who won the four gold medals, and to Rui Hu, who won the silver one and was just 0.2 points away from a gold. We’re immensely proud of you.
An enthusiastic round of applause goes to our academic directors and coaches – you can read about them at http://www.aapt.org/olympiad2008/coaches.cfm. A heartfelt vote of appreciation goes to our sponsors, listed at http://www.aapt.org/olympiad2008/sponsors.cfm.
Of course, we can’t really say the competition is over -- it’s only over for now. It’s like a harmonic motion with a period of one year. We observe an oscillation, but before we get the angular acceleration worked out, the next cycle begins.
Stay tuned.
About the Program Mission
 The U.S. Physics Team Program promotes and demonstrates academic excellence by preparing outstanding students to participate in the International Physics Olympiad. The U.S. Physics Team fulfills its mission by:
- expanding awareness of and participation in the program
- providing a meaningful scientific and cultural experience for team members,
including opportunities to network and meet new people
- learning in intellectual and experiential ways; and
- gaining international exposure
An insight into to the training camp through the eyes of '05 Team Member
Jenny Kwan: I have found that one of my favorite things about this training camp is the people. They are all so friendly and humorous. We crack jokes about physics that only we would understand and laugh at. For instance, when we were talking about the path we would take to get back to the hotel, one student stated that path was a state variable. Naturally, we all laughed, whereas a “normal” person would probably just stare blankly or laugh unknowingly. The coaches also share our odd sense of humor. One of the coaches, in particular, used puns on physics terms to spice up the lectures. |
History
 The Physics Olympiads began in 1967 with the first competition in Warsaw, Poland. Initially only Eastern European nations competed, but in the early 1980's, western countries began to participate, first through Germany, then the U.K., U.S.A. and Canada. The IPhOs now attract teams from all over the globe.
In 1986, AAPT and AIP organized, for the first time, the United States Physics Team. The team consisted of 20 talented high school physics students who had been nominated by their teachers. Following a rigorous and intense program in the physics department of the University of Maryland, five students were selected to represent the U.S. Team in London. The United States team brought home three Bronze Medals--the most medals any team had ever won in their first competition. Since that time, the United States team has consistently ranked near the top ten of all nations.
Selection Process
This year more than 2,000 students took the preliminary exam. From this group about 400 students were selected to take the quarter finalist exam, and about half of them successfully advanced to the semifinal exams.
It was from this semifinalist group that the 24 team members were selected for the US Physics Team. They attended training camp at the College Park campus of the University of Maryland, where they engaged in intense study, testing and problem solving.
 At the end of training camp, five students, plus an alternate, were selected as the Traveling Team that would go on to represent the United States at the Physics Olympiad in Hanoi.
The Traveling Team will meet again at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona for an extra three days of intense laboratory work before the international event.
The training camp experience is immensely valuable for the participants. The instruction provides an introduction to university-style teaching and equipment. Students become familiar with aspects of first year university curricula in physics; that process in turn accelerates their studies during their remaining time in high school.
Left to Right: Andy Lucas (alternate), Danny Zhu,
Joshua Oreman,
Edward Gan, Tucker Chan, Rui Hu
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