CONFERENCE REPORT
REPORT ON CANADA'S PARTICIPATION IN THE 42ND
INTERNATIONAL PHYSICS OLYMPIAD, BANGKOK,
THAILAND
BY
BORIS BRAVERMAN AND ANDRZEJ KOTLICKI
T
he 42nd International Physics
Olympiad (IPhO) was held
between July 10 and July 18 in
Bangkok, Thailand. A total of 393
secondary school students from 84
countries participated in the competition,
receiving a total of 54 gold, 68 silver, and
93 bronze medals, as well as 67 honourable
mentions. The competition was hosted by
Chulalongkorn University, the oldest
university in Thailand, with the opening
and closing ceremonies presided over by
Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri
Sirindhorn of Thailand. The involvement
of a Princess of Thailand in organizing the
IPhO emphasized the importance placed on
the event by the Thai nation. During the
opening ceremony, Princess Sirindhorn
welcomed the assembled students in a
speech in which she noted the importance
of physics for the future development of
technology and industry worldwide.
Boris Braverman was
a Gold Medallist from
the 2006 IPhO. He is
currently pursuing his
PhD at the
Massuchusetts
Institute of
Technology.
Fig. 1
Canadian team at the 42nd IPhO. Left to right: Sepehr Ebadi, Eric Zhan,
Franklin Yang, Chao Wang, and Christopher Macmackin.
The members of the Canadian team this
year (Figure 1) were: Sepehr Ebadi, from Langstaff S.S.
(Toronto), Christopher Macmackin, from Saint John H.S.
(St. John, NB), Chao Wang, from Sir John A. MacDonald
C.I. (Toronto), Franklin Yang, from Don Mills C.I.
(Toronto), and Eric Zhang, from University of Toronto
H.S. (Toronto). Sepehr and Chao were awarded silver
medals, Franklin received a bronze medal, and Eric was
awarded an honourable mention.
Dr. Andrzej Kotlicki
<kotlicki@phas.ubc.
ca> is from the
Department of
Physics and
Astronomy at the
University of British
Columbia.
202 C PHYSICS
SUMMARY
The 42nd International Physics Olympiad
(IPhO) was held between July 10 and July 18
in Bangkok, Thailand. A total of 393
secondary school students from 84
countries participated in the competition,
receiving a total of 54 gold, 68 silver, and 93
bronze medals, as well as 67 honourable
mentions. The competition was hosted by
Chulalongkorn University, the oldest
university in Thailand.
IN
CANADA / VOL. 67, NO. 3 ( July-Sept. 2011 )
The very successful organization of this Olympiad was
especially impressive because of the short time available
to the organizers. Olympiad planning is a lengthy process
that begins three years before the actual event, due to the
necessity of raising funds, finding a venue for 400
students and 150 leaders, and creating the exam problems,
especially the equipment for the experimental
competition. Due to financial concerns, the country
originally slated to host IPhO 2011 were unable to carry
through with their obligation, and in December 2009
informed the IPhO organization of their inability to host
the event. Fortunately, Thailand had significant experience
in hosting Physics Olympiads, having hosted the Asian
Physics Olympiad (APhO) twice in the last decade, and
volunteered to host the IPhO this year.
The problems comprising the competition challenged the
students' knowledge of physics at a level exceeding most
introductory physics courses in universities. As usual,
there were three theoretical problems, while the
experimental part of the competition consisted of two
separate experiments. When the students were not busy
2011 INTERNATIONAL PHYSICS OLYMPIADAA
solving problems, they experienced the warm hospitality of
Thailand, the “land of smiles”. Highlights of the social
program included trips to the Grand Palace, the Temple of the
Emerald Buddha, Sattahip beach, and the Rose Garden, where
the students rode elephants, tried Kala dancing, and watched a
Thai kick boxing demonstration. Between the theoretical and
experimental parts of the competitions, the students were
treated to a banquet and concert by the Royal Thai Navy.
device changes in a saw tooth pattern when the combs are
moved relative to each other, which allows for very precise
measurement of position. The potential resolution limit of even
the crude displacement sensor used in the competition was
about 0.01 mm, significantly better than the resolution that can
be achieved using a ruler.
The second experimental problem was the investigation of a
mechanical black-box consisting of an aluminum cylinder
containing a steel ball bearing. The ball bearing was affixed to
the cylinder, and the ends of the cylinder were sealed to ensure
the location of the ball bearing was hidden from the
contestants. The students then analyzed the oscillation period
of this physical pendulum as a function of the location of the
pivot point to determine both
the position and mass of the
steel ball bearing. Many
contestants came up with
creative alternatives to the
intended approach to finding
these quantities, with one
contestant using his ruler to hit
the aluminum tube and listen
for the change in sound due to
hitting the tube near the
location of the ball.
The first theoretical problem was a variant of the classic
problem of a three body system interacting gravitationally. The
students were asked to analyze the motion of a small planet
orbiting a system of two identical stars. The second problem
led the students through several steps to ultimately answer the
following seemingly simple
question: how much charge
must be placed on a soap bubble
in order for it to levitate? In this
system, levitation is possible
because
the
electrostatic
repulsion of the charges on the
surface of the soap bubble
expands it slightly, decreasing
the pressure and hence density
of air in the bubble, and
allowing the buoyant force from
the
surrounding
air
to
As indicated by the IPhO
counteract the gravitational
Statutes, a moderation of the
forces on the soap. The final
grading was held where the
result was that for a bubble of
local markers and the
radius 1 cm and thickness 100
delegation leaders discussed
nm, a total charge of 256 nC
the students' scores to ensure
would be sufficient for the
fairness and consistency in the
bubble to levitate. The third
marking. The moderation went
problem asked the students to
very
smoothly,
with
model the process of molecularFig. 2 Schematic of capacitative displacement sensor. Different
disagreements resolved in a
ionic scattering. Because the
outlines/shades of gray indicate the two plates.
friendly and speedy manner.
attractive force grows very
One of us (AK) also served as a
rapidly as the ion and molecule
member of an advisory body to the markers, consisting of three
approach each other, if the ion passes sufficiently near the
molecule, the two will collide regardless of the initial speed of
team leaders, which helped resolve disputes where the leaders
and markers could not come to an agreement. Altogether, there
the ion. This behaviour is both physically and mathematically
analogous to that of an object falling into a black hole.
were only a dozen such disputes among the over 80 delegations
present at the competition.
Perhaps the most interesting part of the competition was the
Next year, the IPhO is slated to be held in Tallinn and Tartu,
first experimental problem, where the students investigated a
Estonia. At the closing ceremony, Jaak Aaviksoo, professor of
capacitative displacement sensor, which is the key component
physics at the University of Tartu and Minister of Research and
of a familiar piece of modern technology — digital calipers.
Education of Estonia, invited all present countries to
The sensor consists of two capacitor plates, shaped like
participate in next year’s competition.
interlocking hair combs (Figure 2). The capacitance of this
LA PHYSIQUE AU CANADA / Vol. 67, No. 3 ( juil. à sept. 2011 ) C 203
CONFERENCE REPORT
REPORT ON CANADIAN TEAM’S PARTICIPATION IN
THE 4TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE FOR WOMEN
IN PHYSICS -- Stellenbosch, South Africa, April 5-9, 2011
BY
MARINA MILNER-BOLOTIN, ADRIANA PREDOI-CROSS, ROBY AUSTIN, ARUNDHATI DASGUPTA,
SHOHINI GHOSE, MICHAEL STEINITZ, AND LI-HONG XU
T
he 4th International IUPAP
Conference for Women in
Physics (http://www.acitravel.
co.za/event/index.php?
eventID=20) was held in the beautiful
town of Stellenbosch, South Africa.
These conferences are organized in
different parts of the world on a triannual basis. The previous conferences were held in Paris, France
(2002), Rio-de-Janeiro, Brazil (2005)
and Seoul, South Korea (2008) [1]. For
the first time in the history of the
Conference, the event took place in
Africa, thus attracting a large number
of delegates from this continent. More
than 250 delegates from 60 different
Fig. 1 ICWIP delegates. Photo provided courtesy of 2011 ICWIP organizers.
countries (mainly women) gathered in
Stellenbosch to share their achievements in physics, discuss issues facing
Ghose, Dr. Marina Milner-Bolotin, Dr. Michael Steinitz
women balancing career and families in science and
and Dr. Li-Hong Xu who attended the event, a team
engineering, shared ideas on how to attract girls to
leader, Dr. Adriana Predoi-Cross, who did not attend but
physics, and debated solutions for advancement of
was instrumental in preparing the posters for the
women’s career in physics at the individual country level
conference, and Dr. Janis McKenna from the University of
as well as at the international level.
British Columbia, one of the past Chairs for the
Marina MilnerBolotin, UBC,
Adriana PredoiCross, U. Lethbridge,
Roby Austin,
St. Mary’s Univ.,
Arundhati Dasgupta,
U. Lethbridge,
Shohini Ghose,
Wilfrid Laurier Univ.,
Michael Steinitz,
St. Francis Xavier
Univ., Li-Hong Xu,
UNB
The Canadian delegation consisted of eight members from
all across Canada: six members (in alphabetical order) -Dr. Roby Austin, Dr. Arundhati Dasgupta, Dr. Shohini
204 C PHYSICS
Committee to Encourage Women in Physics of the
SUMMARY
The 4th International IUPAP Conference for
Women in Physics was held in the beautiful
town of Stellenbosch, South Africa. The
Canadian delegation consisted of eight
members from all across Canada. The
participation of the Canadian delegation was
made possible by the support of the
Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics,
NSERC, the Canadian Association of
Physicists and the universities of the team
members.
IN
CANADA / VOL. 67, NO. 3 ( July-Sept. 2011 )
Fig. 2
Canadian team members who attended the 4th
ICWIP. From left to right: Arundhati Dasgupta,
Shohini Ghose, Li-Hong Xu, Michael Steinitz,
Roby Austin and Marina Milner-Bolotin. Photo
provided courtesy of Dr. Marina Milner-Bolotin.
RAPPORT DE CONFÉRENCE ICWIPAA
Canadian Association of Physicists, who contributed to the
preparation of some of the presentations. The participation of
the Canadian delegation was made possible by the support of
the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, NSERC, the
Canadian Association of Physicists and the universities of the
team members.
The focus of this meeting was on encouraging international
research partnerships and collaborations, as well as on sharing
best practices and building capacity for the participants to
return home equipped to take specific actions that will further
increase and advance the participation of women in physics in
their countries. The purpose of the 4th International
Conference on Women in Physics (ICWIP2011) was threefold: (i) to provide an international opportunity for analysis of
the current status of and progress in promoting women in
physics internationally; (ii) to provide an arena for
international women in physics to share their scientific
accomplishments and nucleate international research
collaborations; and (iii) to build capacity in each participating
country to design and implement changes that improve the
numbers of and advancement of women in physics.
The Canadian delegation members presented seven posters,
two oral presentations, chaired a session, advertised the
Canadian Journal of Physics, participated in a meeting of
presidents and past-presidents of national Physical Societies,
and participated in the Outreach event for local high school
girls on April 9th, 2011. Our Country Team Poster was entitled:
Women in Physics in Canada and it described the successes and
challenges of Canadian female physicists. All of our posters
were well attended and attracted the interest of many
international delegates. The posters we presented are listed
below:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Bringing together teams of physicists (mostly women, though
officially required to include at least one male physicist in each
country-team) from across the globe, the Conference:
(i) Reviewed the status of women in physics country by
country; (ii) Shared success stories and identified persistent
barriers impeding women in physics; (iii) Proposed ways to
improve women’s participation in physics worldwide;
(iv) Helped the country teams refine and accelerate appropriate
strategies to improve the status of women in physics in their
home countries, regionally, and internationally; This included
efforts to influence government policies and lobby with various
academic and research institutions. (v) Shared physics research
progress and results; and (vi) Seeded collaborations in physics
research, education, and outreach involving participants from
multiple countries in related sub-disciplines.
Fig. 3
The country team poster presented by the Canadian
delegation at the 4th ICWIP. Photo provided courtesy of
Dr. Marina Milner-Bolotin.
Women in Physics in Canada
Attracting Girls to Physics at All Academic Levels: A
Canadian Perspective
Canadian Gender Studies and the Role of Women in
Physics
Improving the Workplace Environment for Women in
Physics in Canada
Physics Outreach Activities in Elementary, Secondary and
Post-Secondary Schools in Canada: A UniversityIndustry-Government Collaboration
Leaving and Entering a Career in Physics in Canadian
Academia
One poster was presented by Dr. Shohini Ghose in the
scientific poster session:
7.
Quantum Chaos in the Dynamics of Cold Atoms by
S. Ghose, S. Chaudhury, A. Smith, B. Anderson and
P. Jessen.
GENDER AND PHYSICS
Physics is the study of matter and interactions. It is a gender
neutral subject. In medicine the increase of female researchers
in the profession has resulted in more research funding for
female related health issues. Although it is hard to differentiate
the female influence in physics in the same way, females are
under-represented in the physics profession and that remains a
topic of concern in gender studies. There is no clear evidence
as of yet that says that either gender does physics better than
Fig. 4
Members of the Canadian team, Li-Hong Xu and Marina
Milner-Bolotin, speak with other ICWIP delegates. Photo
provided courtesy of Dr. Marina Milner-Bolotin.
LA PHYSIQUE AU CANADA / Vol. 67, No. 3 ( juil. à sept. 2011 ) C 205
4TH ICWIP CONFERENCE REPORT
the other. Yet, statistics show that few females choose physics
as a career. Despite a steady increase the percentage of female
researchers in Mathematical and Physical sciences in academic
positions in Canada is just 17.1% (2008-2009). The percentage
of female doctoral students is 30% and the percentage of
females enrolled in undergraduate courses in Mathematics and
Physical sciences was 39.1% in 2008-2009. The ideal situation
where young female physicists are equally comfortable in
identifying themselves as the next Nobel Prize winner has not
been achieved. The Nobel prizes and awards for discoveries are
dominated by male physicists. Strong female role models to
inspire the next generation are not visible except for a few in
the Canadian physics community. The Canadian Government
recently awarded 19 Canada Excellence Research Chairs
researchers after a worldwide search and not one of them was
a woman.
Women physicists in term positions or research associate
positions abound. Women who have chosen to take an
extended career break find it difficult to compete with
physicists in the same career bracket and the community is
very insensitive to women seeking a re-entry. In order to
facilitate the smooth transition of women back into their
careers and to maximally utilize their expertise, programs
should be initiated at the university and national granting
agency levels. NSERC has guidelines and policies to provide
extension of duration of research grants for female faculty
members taking an extended parental leave. However these
policies have to be implemented properly. Some Canadian
universities have policies by which faculty members may
extend the pre-tenure period. Many, but not all, institutions
sometimes offer the option of a “shared” or “split” position,
and this sometimes enables women to satisfy their family
obligations.
GENDER BASED POLICIES AND GUIDELINES:
Based on our discussions, we saw that, although women in
science in Canada still face serious challenges, Canada has
been able to address many of the problems that other countries
are still struggling to solve: Canada has more women- and
family-friendly policies than many other countries, thus
allowing women to have a successful science career while not
sacrificing their family life. Two notable patterns of gender
bias towards women in physics-related academic positions are
that women have to work harder to establish competence, and
that women encounter severe bias once they have children (the
“maternal wall”). Studies have shown that men are presumed to
be competent, while women often have to prove their
competence over and over again. However, the strongest and
most open form of gender bias today often is the bias against
mothers. Fathers who play an active role in family care may
encounter severe bias as well. We are fortunate to have many
supportive programs in Canada that assist in balancing family
and career for women in physics: i) paid parental leave, ii) paid
parental leave for students and post-docs, iii) compassionate
care Leave, iv) on-campus childcare, v) pause of the tenure
clock.
In the context of a tight job market, most Canadian academic
institutions are faced with the problem of “dual-career”
appointments. Being aware of the impact of the availability of
“dual-career” appointments on the ability of these couples to
integrate successful careers with family responsibilities,
numerous institutions have implemented guidelines and
policies for the hiring of faculty spouses/partners in full-time
appointments, available to all couples. In the absence of such
guidelines, the academic institutions are trying to solve the
problem of the dual-career couples on a case-by-case basis.
When no efforts are made at an institutional level towards
“dual career” hiring, these academic couples face long-distance
relationships, or underemployment of one partner to
accommodate the partner that has secured an academic
position. Very often the partners that subordinate their career
are women, with negative impacts on their future careers in
academia.
206 C PHYSICS
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The process of entering or re-entering the workforce after a
career break can be enhanced by professional networking
efforts. Collaborative research efforts between faculty
members /researchers within the same or different institutions
within Canada or abroad can be both beneficial and very
effective. In addition, it is recommended that faculty members
attend training activities such as workshops that improve their
communication and presentation skills. Early in one’s career
the ability to write good research grant proposals is very
important. For these reasons, some universities, through their
Research Services, organize workshops on technical writing,
writing research grant proposals, time management and project
management for all faculty members. Often senior faculty
members mentor new (early-career) faculty members and help
them develop negotiation and team working skills as well as
teach them how to build up research collaborations.
In addition, the university-industry-government collaborations
that exist in Canada are also quite unique, and we, as Canadian
delegates, were very proud of this. It was very exciting to see
Conference delegates using Blackberry phones and to realize
that RIM has been an important contributor to Canadian
science. Outreach activities in Canada are also something we
all can be proud of: Canadian universities and research
institutions offer world-class science opportunities for K-12
students and science teachers. Notable are the efforts to attract
and mentor female students starting from an early age. In
several provinces the participation of young women in regional
Science Fairs and physics competitions has increased in the
past few years. Selected physics outreach groups have
strategies to include families of young girls in their activities in
order to educate them about the importance of leaving doors
open for future learning and career opportunities. Efforts like
Scientists and Innovators in the Schools (SITS) started by a set
of mothers to train their girls, and the outreach activities of the
Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics attracted the
attention of the delegates who visited our posters.
Due to a large number of upcoming retirements in academic
positions, the presence of women in academia will continue to
RAPPORT DE CONFÉRENCE ICWIPAA
grow, supported by efforts and aggressive actions to ensure
equity in academia made by governments, university
administrations, and academic staff associations.
CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS
To participate in a physics conference, where the majority of
participants were women from all around the world was a very
special opportunity for us. It was very inspiring to see the
achievements of women-physicists from all around the world.
The Conference attracted excellent plenary speakers, such as
Jocelyn Bell-Burnell (the discoverer of pulsars), Cecilia
Jarlskog (the current International Union of Pure and Applied
Physics (IUPAP) president-designate), Mae Jemison (the first
African-American woman astronaut in space) and Rachel Ivie
(a statistical expert from the American Institute of Physics).
Their presentations are posted online at: http://physics.
yale.edu/4th-international-conference-women-physics. Dr. Ivie
presented preliminary results from the most recent global
survey of physicists, which included almost 15,000
respondents from more than 140 countries, including Canada.
Her findings showed that significant challenges are still faced
by women in physics all over the world. The detailed outcomes
of the survey should be used by physics societies, and can be
found at the APS website.
On April 9th, two of our team members (Marina MilnerBolotin and Li-Hong Xu) participated in a special outreach
event that attracted more than 300 local high school girls. This
was very exciting, as we had an opportunity to meet the girls
and their physics teachers and discuss science careers with
them. We hope, as a result, that we will establish connections
between the physics teachers’ associations of South Africa and
Canada.
As IUPAP is searching for the venue to host the next 5th
International IUPAP Conference for Women in Physics, and as
the locations of the Conference have to be “equally” distributed
around the world, Canada was suggested as a perfect location.
We are sure that if we receive the support of the Perimeter
Institute, NSERC, CAP and local universities, we can have a
very successful event here at home. This proposal will be
considered seriously for the next few months and in case we
have a positive outcome, we will submit a Canadian proposal
to host the 5th or 6th International IUPAP Conference for
Women in Physics.
To see more photos from the Conference, please email
marina.milner-bolotin@ubc.ca.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We would like to thank Mmantsae Diale, Silvina PonceDawson, and Janis McKenna for useful information and all the
sponsoring agencies NSERC, CAP, University of Lethbridge,
St. Mary’s University, University of New Brunswick and the
Perimeter Institute.
REFERENCES
1.
IUPAP WG.5: Working Group on Women in Physics and the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th IUPAP conferences for Women in Physics:
http://www.iupap.org/wg/wip/
LA PHYSIQUE AU CANADA / Vol. 67, No. 3 ( juil. à sept. 2011 ) C 207