NEW DELHI: Saudi students are aiming for the podium at the International Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics held in India’s Mumbai this week, building on their team’s successful debut last year.
The IOAA is a worldwide annual competition to recognize talented high school students in astronomy and astrophysics through a series of theoretical, practical and experimental tests.
This year, the event featuring 320 students from 64 countries is organized by the Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education — a national center of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research — in Mumbai from Aug. 11-21.
The Saudi team has been trained by Mawhiba — the King Abdulaziz and His Companions Foundation for Giftedness and Creativity, a non-profit endowment dedicated to nurturing young talent in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics — with support from the Ministry of Education, the Saudi Space Agency, and NEO Space Group.
“This year, five talented students were nominated to be part of the Saudi national team after highly competitive and rigorous qualification stages that spanned almost a year,” Talal Al-Dawood, supervisor of the astronomy and space program at Mawhiba, told Arab News.
