École Polytechnique’s team has qualified for the 2026 International Physics Tournament (IPT)

A team of six students from the Cycle Ingénieur Polytechnicien Class of 2024 won the 13th French Physicists Tournament and qualified for the International Physicists Tournament (IPT), which will take place in May in the United States, hosted by Oklahoma State University.

École Polytechnique’s team, composed of Jade Godard, Hadrien Frappier, Mathieu Hazebrouck, Tristan Tirdea, Antoine Valentin, and Joris van der Lee, was supervised by Samy Ben Hamoudi of the Hydrodynamics Laboratory (Ladhyx*) and Nicolas Lemaire (X2021) of the Louis Leprince-Ringuet Laboratory (LLR**). It finished ahead of the ENS/University of Lyon team (2nd) and the ENSTA team (3rd).

Held this year at the University of Strasbourg on February 27 and 28, the French Physicists’ Tournament is an experimental physics competition for undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in a French institution of higher education.

It takes place in two phases. From September to January, participants work in teams on eleven open problems in physics. These problems are designed to combine experimental and theoretical investigations. The goal is to understand the underlying physical mechanisms through a process of inquiry.

The second phase takes place over two days at a single location. All student teams come together for debate competitions and discuss the problems they have prepared throughout the year. These events, known as “Physics’ Fights,” are genuine scientific debates during which teams present their work and discuss that of other teams, with the aim of gaining a deeper understanding of the phenomena at play.

The French Physicists’ Tournament thus serves as a valuable training ground for research and the professional world. As such, the participating institutions award ECTS credits for the preparation involved.

*Ladhyx: A joint research unit CNRS, École Polytechnique-Institut Polytechnique de Paris

**LLR: A joint research unit of CNRS, École Polytechnique-Institut Polytechnique de Paris