A recent State College Area High School graduate took home an individual medal and helped the U.S. Physics Team place fifth in the world at the 47th International Physics Olympiad, July 10-18 in Switzerland and Liechtenstein.
Vincent Liu, who graduated from State High in June and will attend Penn State this fall, was one of five members of the team representing the United States in the international competition. He earned one of three silver medals for the U.S. team, which also won two golds.
He was first selected for competition in May from among 4,300 who took an exam administered by the American Association of Physics Teachers in March. Liu was just the second State High student to advance through the exam, following Susannah Burrowes In June he joined 19 others who qualified for a rigorous, 10-day training camp at the University of Maryland, which included a crash course in the first two years of college-level physics, as well as learning about advanced research from top physicists.
At the conclusion of the training camp, Liu was picked along with four others (Abijith Krishnan of Scottsdale, Ariz., Jason Lu of Lincolnshire, Ill., Jimmy Qin of Sanford, Fla., and Srijon Mukherjee, who attended Amity International School in Noida, India) to comprise the U.S. team for the competition in Europe. Paul Stanley of Beloit College and David Fallest of North Carolina State University oversaw the team.
The Olympiad competition included theory questions on mechanics, non-linear circuits and subatomic particle detection as well as two experimental questions.
