Charles Barclay leads UK team to best result yet at 13th annual IOAA in Hungary

Green Templeton Associate Fellow Charles Barclay has led another UK team to success at the International Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics (IOAA).

Competing at the 13th annual IOAA in Hungary, the team of five students, aged 17 and 18 years old, won one gold medal, three silver medals, and one bronze medal.

The UK finished in fifth place out of 47 countries, coming behind Russia, China, United States, and Romania.

It marked the UK team’s best result yet across all five competitions entered so far.

Charles, who organizes the annual Astronomy For All Lectures at Green Templeton, also led teams to Indonesia in 2015, India in 2016, and China in 2018.

Started in 2006, the IOAA is an annual competition at the highest level for secondary school students around the world, who have to be under 20 years at the start of the competition.

Countries enter teams of five students and two team leaders. Selection for the UK team  – the British Astronomy and Astrophysics Olympiad (BAAO) team – takes place via competition papers, sat in schools, in the preceding year, until the final team of five students (and one reserve) are chosen at a training camp in Oxford.

The questions are aimed at years 12 and 13, but the timing of each Olympiad tends to affect which year group can actually compete.