Merchiston Castle School sixth-former John Wu has been selected to be part of the British Physics Olympiad Team, which will compete in the 42nd International Physics Olympiad. John’s achievement is testament to a thriving Physics Department at Merchiston.
The British Physics Olympiad Committee produces a number of different competition papers for students who study physics and enjoy a challenge. In all of the papers, a Bronze award is roughly equivalent to an A or A* grade.
The British Physics Olympiad paper for Merchiston’s Upper Sixth students attracted over 1,700 entries nationally. From these, 98 Gold awards were presented along with 205 Silver awards.
John achieved one of the Gold awards and was placed in the top 50 pupils nationally. He was also invited to Oxford for a training camp during the Easter holidays. One other Merchiston student also achieved a Gold award and another achieved a Silver award. In the AS Physics Competition, one Merchiston pupil was awarded Gold and 11 pupils received Silver awards. Another Merchiston pupil achieved a Gold Award in the GCSE Physics Challenge, with two others achieving Silver Awards.
John has also been jointly awarded the prestigious NPL theoretical prize. He will now attend the annual International Physics Olympian Competition for secondary school pupils in Bangkok in July. John has an offer to study Natural Science at Trinity College, Cambridge after leaving Merchiston.