SWABI, July 26: Two Pakistani students, Muhammad Suleman Mahmood and Mohammad Zeeshan Javed, have won ‘honourable mentions’ at the 38th International Physics Olympiad (IPhO) held in Isfahan, Iran, on July 13-22.

The IPhO is a prestigious high school physics competition held annually at world level.

Dr Ibrahim Qazi of the GIK Institute led Pakistani team while Al Hasanat Rasul, acting project director, Science Technology Engineering Mathematics (STEM) Careers Project, Higher Education Commission, was his deputy.

On his arrival from Iran on Thursday, Dr Qazi said the other members of Pakistani team were: Maham Siddiqi, Haroon Masood and Mohammad Sami Tahir.

He said the participants were selected after a nationwide screening test, followed by several camps where they were trained and tested by eminent scientists.

Dr Qazi said a total of 327 contestants, 135 leaders and 86 observers from 73 countries took part in the annual event. He said before their departure for Isfahan, the students who represented Pakistan were given extended period of experimental and theoretical training at their final preparatory camp at the GIK Institute.

He said teams of top talented students were selected on merit at the national level by the STEM Careers Project of the HEC. The teams, he added, represented Pakistan annually in the international Olympiads for biology, physics, chemistry, and mathematics. He said these prestigious annual competitions provided opportunity to pre-university students from all over the world to compete in challenging theoretical and experimental science problems.

Dr Qazi said the training and activities were organised under the umbrella of the STEM Careers Project, which was an extension of the National Physics Talent Contest launched by the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission in 1995.

The 39th International Physics Olympiad is scheduled to be held in Hanoi, Vietnam from July 20 to 29 next year.