After a good performance in the Physics Olympiad held in Zurich, Switzerland, recently, four Indian students have bagged one gold and three silver medals at the 27th International Biology Olympiad (IBO) in Hanoi, Vietnam, last week. The Indian contingent was felicitated in Mumbai by the Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education (HBCSE). Over 253 of the brightest biology students from 68 countries participated in the Olympiad.
Lajjaben Patel from Surat won the gold medal by obtaining the highest score in the plant anatomy and physiology experiment, one of the four experiments students have to perform. Spandan Roy from Kolkata, Tanish Modi from Chandigarh, and Vidushi Varshney from Jaipur bagged silver medals. The four students were accompanied by Prof. Dharmendra Shah of M.S. University, Baroda, and Prof. Rekha Vartak of HBCSE, Mumbai, along with two scientific observers, Anupama Ronad and Vikrant Ghanekar of HBCSE.
Over 253 of the brightest biology students from 68 countries participated in the IBO. The competition consists of challenging and innovative theoretical and experimental examinations, each six hours long.
Although the IBO is an individual event, in terms of medals won, India ranked 8th in the world behind Singapore, China, Taiwan (four gold medals), USA (three gold medals
), Germany, Hungary (two golds medals), and Japan (one gold and three silvers).Ms. Patel secured an overall rank of 15 among all participants. The other three students were placed among the top 21 per cent of all students. The four students were selected through a three-stage procedure of national examinations in biology in which over 19,000 students participated at 1,300 centres across the country. The students were also put through a series of difficult selection tests: theoretical and practical.
