A proud moment was experienced by all the Indians present at the second International Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics (IOAA), which was held in Badung, Indonesia from 19th August to 27th August, as the nation won the first rank conquering two gold, two silver and one bronze medals, in the event.

Team leader, Mayank Vahia of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, reported, “India ranked first in the official team rankings and was awarded the best team trophy.”

The highest marks were scored by a Delhi student named Nitin Joshi, who was awarded a special prize and trophy. Akshay Subramaniam from Hyderabad and Nitin Jain from Delhi, were the two, who won the gold medals. Anant Jain from Delhi and Tushar Shrotriya from Pune, also were really happy as they were given the silver medals. Last but not the least; bronze medal was won by Uttam Bhat from Manipal.

The nodal centre which trains and selects the Indian Team for Olympiads is the Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education (HBCSE) of the TIFR.

There were total 89 students from 21 countries who participated in the event. The countries were, Azarbajan, Bangladesh, Belarus, Bolivia, Brazil, China, Greece, Indonesia, Iran, Cambodia, Korea, Malaysia, Myanmar, Poland, Romania, Singapore, Slovakia, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Ukraine. Total of 10 gold medals, 11 silver medals and 18 bronze medals were won during this event.