India’s power, winning 3 gold and 2 silver medal at International Olympiad:

From the 14th August to 21st August , the 15th International Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics took place in Georgia with a goal to promote interest among students on Astrophysics and Astronomy related subjects. Various students represented India there and India could successfully win 3 gold and 2 silver medal . Also , special mention about Raghav Goyal who got prize for giving best answer to a very tricky theory question.

The gold medal winners were:

• Mehul Borad of Hyderabad 
• Raghav Goyal of Chandigarh
• Md Sahil Akhtar of Kolkata 

The silver medal winners were:

• Atharva Nilesh Mahajan of Indore
• Malay Kedia of Ghaziabad

 

About 209 students , out of which 37 main and 6 guests teams  participating in the IOAA and also there were 24 students from 6 countries participating in online mode. The overall position secured by India in the International Olympiad was 3rd position, the 2nd position holder was a guest team with 4 gold and 1 silver medals and 1st was Iran’s team with 5 gold medals.

Moreover, the Indian students team was under the guidance of two professors Professor Ajit Mohan Srivastava from the Institute of Physics, Bhubaneswar and Professor Sarita Vig from the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology, Thiruvananthapuram followed by two scientific observers Mr Tejas Shah from the Fr Agnel Multipurpose School & Jr College, Navi Mumbai and Dr Shriharsh Tendulkar from the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai. The team had support of Dr Tendulkar who was in his time a gold medalist of the International Astronomy Olympiad in the year 2002 and 2003.

Also, one the faculty of Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education, Professor Aniket Sule was thereby elected as President of IOAA for the next 5 years term, after serving as the General Secretary of IOAA for last 5 years.