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.
Eight Chinese naval vessels and 24 military aircraft were detected crossing the median line of the Taiwan Strait between 6am yesterday and 6am today, the Ministry of National Defense said this morning. The aircraft entered Taiwan’s northern, central, southwestern and eastern air defense identification zones, the ministry said. The armed forces responded with mission aircraft, naval vessels and shore-based missile systems to closely monitor the situation, it added. Eight naval vessels, one official ship and 36 aircraft sorties were spotted in total, the ministry said.
INCREASED CAPACITY: The flights on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays would leave Singapore in the morning and Taipei in the afternoon Singapore Airlines is adding four supplementary flights to Taipei per week until May to meet increased tourist and business travel demand, the carrier said on Friday. The addition would raise the number of weekly flights it operates to Taipei to 18, Singapore Airlines Taiwan general manager Timothy Ouyang (歐陽漢源) said. The airline has recorded a steady rise in tourist and business travel to and from Taipei, and aims to provide more flexible travel arrangements for passengers, said Ouyang, who assumed the post in July last year. From now until Saturday next week, four additional flights would depart from Singapore on Monday, Wednesday, Friday
The Ministry of National Defense yesterday reported the return of large-scale Chinese air force activities after their unexplained absence for more than two weeks, which had prompted speculation regarding Beijing’s motives. China usually sends fighter jets, drones and other military aircraft around the nation on a daily basis. Interruptions to such routine are generally caused by bad weather. The Ministry of National Defense said it had detected 26 Chinese military aircraft in the Taiwan Strait over the previous 24 hours. It last reported that many aircraft on Feb. 25, when it spotted 30 aircraft, saying Beijing was carrying out another “joint combat
Taiwan successfully defended its women’s 540 kilogram title and won its first-ever men’s 640 kg title at the 2026 World Indoor Tug of War Championships in Taipei yesterday. In the women’s event, Taiwan’s eight-person squad reached the final following a round-robin preliminary round and semifinals featuring teams from Ukraine, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, the Basque Country and South Korea. In the finals, they swept the Basque team 2-0, giving the team composed mainly of National Taiwan Normal University students and graduates its second championship in a row, and its fourth in five years. Team captain