Taiwan’s budding young Einsteins will return home with a stellar five gold and silver medals from this years 44th International Physics Olympiad, the Ministry of Education said yesterday.
The three golds and two silvers mean that not one of the team members scored lower than a silver, competing as individuals among 381 students from 83 countries.
Students were put through their paces in an intense practical and theoretical examination lasting a total of 10 hours, engineered to test their knowledge of physics, logic and their ability to conduct experiments.
Gold awards went to Chang Wen-yu (張文于) of Sacred Hearts High School in Yunlin County, Lo Yu-kai (羅鈺凱) of Taipei Municipal Jianguo High School and Lo Tsung-yu (羅宗祐) of National Wu-Ling Senior High School, with Chang finishing fifth place in the contest overall.
Silver medals went to Hsueh Ching-chung from National Taichung First Senior High School and Yen Chuan-yi of National Changhua Senior High School.
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), Vice President Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) and Minister of Education Chiang Wei-ling (蔣偉寧) sent messages of congratulation to the winners in Denmark where the event was held between July 7 and yesterday
Students will receive as prize money NT$200,000 for a gold medal and NT$100,000 for a silver medal, together with recommendations for admission to a Taiwanese university for physics-related study.
The ministry said the five students had been selected from 3,007 applicants and were trained by a team of university professors, led by Chia Chih-ta (賈至達) of National Taiwan Normal University.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-wong effective from 5:30pm, while local governments canceled school and work for tomorrow. A land warning is expected to be issued tomorrow morning before it is expected to make landfall on Wednesday, the agency said. Taoyuan, and well as Yilan, Hualien and Penghu counties canceled work and school for tomorrow, as well as mountainous district of Taipei and New Taipei City. For updated information on closures, please visit the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration Web site. As of 5pm today, Fung-wong was about 490km south-southwest of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan's southernmost point.
Tropical Storm Fung-Wong would likely strengthen into a typhoon later today as it continues moving westward across the Pacific before heading in Taiwan’s direction next week, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 8am, Fung-Wong was about 2,190km east-southeast of Cape Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, moving westward at 25kph and possibly accelerating to 31kph, CWA data showed. The tropical storm is currently over waters east of the Philippines and still far from Taiwan, CWA forecaster Tseng Chao-cheng (曾昭誠) said, adding that it could likely strengthen into a typhoon later in the day. It is forecast to reach the South China Sea
Almost a quarter of volunteer soldiers who signed up from 2021 to last year have sought early discharge, the Legislative Yuan’s Budget Center said in a report. The report said that 12,884 of 52,674 people who volunteered in the period had sought an early exit from the military, returning NT$895.96 million (US$28.86 million) to the government. In 2021, there was a 105.34 percent rise in the volunteer recruitment rate, but the number has steadily declined since then, missing recruitment targets, the Chinese-language United Daily News said, citing the report. In 2021, only 521 volunteers dropped out of the military, the report said, citing
Nearly 5 million people have signed up to receive the government’s NT$10,000 (US$322) universal cash handout since registration opened on Wednesday last week, with deposits expected to begin tomorrow, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. After a staggered sign-up last week — based on the final digit of the applicant’s national ID or Alien Resident Certificate number — online registration is open to all eligible Taiwanese nationals, foreign permanent residents and spouses of Taiwanese nationals. Banks are expected to start issuing deposits from 6pm today, the ministry said. Those who completed registration by yesterday are expected to receive their NT$10,000 tomorrow, National Treasury
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