Minutes of the Meetings of the International Board during the XXXVIII International Physics Olympiad in Isfahan (Iran) July 13 – 22, 2007

1. The following 69 countries were present at the 38 ^th International Olympiad:

Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Canada, China, Colombia, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Great Britain, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Malaysia, Mexico, Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro (*), Nepal (*), The Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Poland, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Suriname, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan (Chinese Taipei), Tajikistan, Thailand, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, USA and Vietnam.

(*) - new countries invited by the Organizing Committee to the Olympiads this year.

In addition, the following four countries were represented by observers:
Afghanistan, Kuwait, Liechtenstein, and Macedonia.

2. Results of marking the papers by the organisers were presented.

The best score (48,8 points) was achieved by Youngjoon Choi from South Korea (Absolute winner of the 38^th IPhO). The following limits for awarding the medals and the honourable mention were established according to the Statutes:

 

Gold Medal		44 points
Silver Medal		38 points
Bronze Medal		33 points
Honourable Mention		22 points

According to the limits 37 Gold Medals, 46 Silver Medals, 51 Bronze Medals and 81 Honourable Mentions were awarded. The list of the scores of the winners and the students awarded with honourable mentions were distributed to all the delegations.

• for the best score (Absolute winner)
• Youngjoon Choi    (South Korea)
• for the best score in the experimental part of the competition:
• Tomas Bzdusek    (Slovakia)
• for the best score in the theoretical part of the competition:
• Xingyue Peng    (China)
• Gabor Konya    (Hungary)
• Aoxi Li    (China)
• for the best score among female participants:
• Kseniya Solovyeva   (Russia)
• Gorzkowski Prize
  (for the best participant among the countries that joined the IPhO 2007 for the first time)
• Bishal Lamichhane    (Nepal)

5. At the beginning of the second meeting of the International Board the sudden death of our president, Waldemar Gorzkowski, was commemorated with a Minute of Silence.

6. The International Board accepted the propositions of the Advisory Committee that Prof. Maija Ahtee, secretary of the IPhOs, would act as the president until the next International Physics Olympiad, 2008. Likewise, Prof. Helmuth Mayr (Austria) was proposed and accepted to act as the secretary until the next Olympiad.

7. During the discussion of the experimental problem a subcommittee consisting of Dr. Juan Leon (Spain), Dr. Florence Robine (France), and Mr. Robin Hughes (Great Britain) was formed. Together with the members of the Academic Committee they prepared an improved version of the text by taking into account the remarks expressed during the preliminary discussion.

8. During the grading of the students´ solutions the local graders consulted some problems concerning the interpretation of the criteria etc. with the following three leaders designated to this work by the International Board: Dr. Juan Leon (Spain), Dr. Leong Chuan Kwek (Singapore), and Prof. Ming-Juey Lin (Taiwan, Chinese Taipei)

9. The International Board discussed a proposal of changing the Statutes. (The text of the proposal was disseminated to all leaders more than three months in advance). The proposal formulated by Dr. Jaan Kalda (Estonia), Prof. Helmuth Mayr (Austria), and Dr. Gunnar Friege (Germany) referred to the awarding system used at the Olympiads. This proposal was rejected. (Voting: total number of Members of the International Board, 137, required minimum of votes 92; number of votes in favour 91).

10. The Vietnamese delegates handed out printed materials about the IPHO-2008 to all delegations.

11. At the end of the Olympiad, acting on behalf of the organizers of the next International Physics Olympiad, Prof. Hong Khoi Phan (Vietnam) announced that the 39^th International Physics Olympiad will be organized in Hanoi, Vietnam on July 20^th – 29^th 2008 and cordially invited all the participating countries to attend the competition.
 
 
 

......................................... Dr.M.Reza Ejtehadi Head of the Academic Comittee

......................................... Prof.Maija Ahtee Acting president of the IPhOs

......................................... Prof.Helmuth Mayr Secretary of the IPhOs

Isfahan, July 2007