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All five Indian students bag gold medals at the International Physics Olympiad 2026, at Bucaramanga, Colombia

प्रविष्टि तिथि: 12 JUL 2026 2:33PM by PIB Mumbai

July 12, 2026

India excelled at the 56th International Physics Olympiad (IPhO) 2026, held in Bucaramanga, Colombia from July 05 to July 12, 2026. All five Indian students bagged Gold medals. The students were:

  1. Kanishk Jain (GOLD) from Pune, Maharashtra
  2. Riddhesh Anant Bendale (GOLD) from Indore, Madhya Pradesh
  3. Rishit Garg (GOLD) from Dwarka, New Delhi
  4. Shresth Suraiya (GOLD) from Mumbai, Maharashtra
  5. Svarit Joshi (GOLD) from Ahmedabad, Gujarat

There were two leaders from India were Prof. Anwesh Mazumdar (HBCSE - TIFR, Mumbai) and Dr. Leena Joshi (St. Xavier's College, Mumbai), and two Scientific. The Observers were Prof. Ananda Dasgupta (Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Kolkata), and Ms. Nisha Kelkar (Gogate-Joglekar College, Ratnagiri).

In the country-wise medals tally, India was placed at the first position, jointly with China, Kazakhstan, Russia, South Korea, and Taiwan. The special prize for overall winner went to a South Korean student; the award for best in the experimental component went to a student from Iran. In all, 51 gold, 80 silver, and 97 bronze medals were awarded. A total of 381 students from 85 countries participated in the competition. This is the second time that India has won five gold medals in IPhO, the other occasion being in 2018.

The 5-hour theoretical competition featured three problems based on diverse topics like the thermodynamics of paramagnetic cooling, caustics and cusps in light reflected in a coffee cup, photoionization of ozone, and dynamics of electron-positron pairs. All the Indian students

excelled in the theoretical examination, some reaching close to perfect scores. The experimental competition, also of 5 hours, challenged students to explore several phenomena related to thermodynamic processes in fluids and heat transfer. The Indian students also performed remarkably well in the experimental component.

The Physics Olympiad cell and the resource pool of external teachers and mentors trained the students during the orientation and pre-departure camps at HBCSE.

The National Steering Committee on Science Olympiads, teacher organisations and the funding agencies of the Govt. of India (DAE, DST, MoE) have provided continued strong support of the Olympiad programme which enables us to showcase Indian talent on the international arena.

This was India's 27th appearance at the IPhO. In all these years, nearly 44% Indian students have won gold medals, another 41% silver, 10% bronze, and 5% honourable mentions. In the last ten years, all Indian students at IPhO have won either gold (62%) or silver (38%) medals.

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Sriyanka Chattarjee/Parshuram Kor

 

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