The International Physics Olympiad (IphO) in France and at École Polytechnique for the first time ever

The International Physics Olympiad (Ipho) took place from July 18 to 21 on École Polytechnique campus. 

Created in 1967, the International Physics Olympiad, hosted for the first time in France and at École Polytechnique, enables hundreds of young scientists under the age of 20 to compete at the highest level in physics.

Participants in this 55th edition of the event, from almost 90 countries, were grouped into national teams of up to five members and two leaders. They compete in a spirit of encounter, dialogue, sharing and cooperation around physics.

“École Polytechnique and physics have a long history together,” emphasized Silke Biermann, Director of the Physics Department at the École Polytechnique, in her opening address to the event, recalling the contributions to the discipline of Joseph Fourier, André-Marie Ampère and Louis Joseph Gay-Lussac, Auguste Bravais, Augustin Fresnel, Gaspard-Gustave Coriolis, Nicolas Sadi Carnot, Emile Calpeyron, Henri Becquerel, Benoît Mandelbrot and more recently Gérard Mourou (Nobel Prize in Physics 2018, professor at X) and Alain Aspect (Nobel Prize in Physics 2022, professor at X)", all of whom have links with  École Polytechnique.

Alain Aspect and Gérard Mourou are members of the IPho 2025 Honorary Committee of French Nobel Prize winners in Physics, which also includes Anne L'Huillier and Pierre Agostini (Nobel Prize 2023), Serge Haroche (Nobel Prize 2012) and Albert Fert (Nobel Prize 2007). 

The competitions take place over a total of seven days and include two five-hour individual rounds, drawn up by the host country and then discussed and validated collectively.

Women physicists in the spotlight

The French Physics Society has been entrusted with the organization of the event by the French Ministry of Education, Higher Education and Research. 

The Société Française de Physique, which has been working for several years to encourage and promote the participation of women in the physics professions, to make physics more inclusive, to combat gender stereotypes and to encourage new generations of women to embark on scientific careers, has committed itself to promoting the presence of young women scientists at this 55th edition of the IPhO.

Two awards highlighted the participation of young women and the gender balance of the various delegations. 

A new exhibition, unveiled on the occasion of the IPhO, pays tribute to 20 women physicists from around the world, who have left their mark on the history of physics through their major contributions, their commitment to women and/or the dissemination of knowledge, and their avant-gardism.

Through this retrospective, the French Physical Society hopes to inspire younger generations, and especially young women, to pursue scientific careers and celebrate female role models who have shaped physics today.

The exhibition is available free of charge in English and French for the widest possible distribution in France and internationally.