École Polytechnique’s team wins the 2026 International Physics Tournament

A team of six Cycle Ingénieurs Polytechniciens Program students from the 2024 Class  won the International Physicists Tournament (IPT), which was held for the first time in the United States and hosted by Oklahoma State University from May 26 to 30, 2026.

École Polytechnique’s team, consisting of Jade Godard, Hadrien Frappier, Mathieu Hazebrouck, Tristan Tirdea, Antoine Valentin, and Joris van der Lee, was supervised by Samy Ben Hamoudi from the Hydrodynamics Laboratory (Ladhyx*) and Nicolas Lemaire (X2021) from the Louis Leprince-Ringuet Laboratory (LLR**) and Guilhem Gallot (Department of Physics, LOB***).

 It finished ahead of Team IPT (Russia) and Switzerland.

École Polytechnique’s team qualified for the IPT by winning the 13th French Physicists’ Tournament, which took place at the University of Strasbourg on February 27 and 28.

The International Physicists’ Tournament aims to foster discussion among teams of students from different countries on physics-related topics.

The tournament is organized around “Physics’ Fights.” During these debating contests, the teams take on different roles. The students take turns presenting their findings, offering constructive criticism of the other group’s work, and moderating the discussions. At the end of this scientific marathon, a jury of researchers evaluates the three presentations.

*Ladhyx: A joint research unit of the CNRS, École Polytechnique, and the Institut Polytechnique de Paris 

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

*** LOB: Laboratory of Optics and Biosciences – École Polytechnique – CNRS – INSERM – IP Paris