First Vietnamese student to win gold medal at International Astronomy Olympiad

At the 2018 International Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics in China, Tran Xuan Tung (grade 12 Physics 1 student at Hanoi-Amsterdam High School for the Gifted) was the only and first Vietnamese student to win a gold medal. He ranked 11th out of 26 candidates awarded this medal and was the one whose solution to a test was recognized by the Organizing Committee as "better than the answer".

"That was a theoretical question. The organizers gave the parameters of the yearly movements of the two stars Ngưu Lang and Chức Nữ and asked if they could meet. The answer was to use geometry to solve it, but I followed the direction of using vectors," Tung said.

Tung's different solution was initially not recognized by the judges. He then proactively discussed with the team leader to complain. The night before the rebuttal, Tung stayed up until 5am to check the judges' grading results to find the incorrect score. He re-solved and explained in detail how he did it to prove he was correct and help the teacher who was rebutting understand correctly.

"When grading and discussing with Tung, I was sure that his approach was correct. Tung has the ability to present his work well, concisely, and with enough ideas, but sometimes it was too short for the grader to fully understand his intentions. During the debate that day, the four judges spent a lot of time solving the problem in Tung's direction before they could recognize his solution as better than the answer," said the teacher in charge of the 2018 International Astronomy and Astrophysics Olympiad team - Mr. Le Manh Cuong.

With two successful rebuttals, 20 points were added to Tran Xuan Tung's score, and he won the gold medal. He calculated that without those extra points, he would only win the silver medal. "The teachers and staff jokingly said that this year's Olympic season was too heartbreaking. When the Organizing Committee announced the silver medal without my name, everyone was happy because they knew for sure that Vietnam would have its first gold medal," the male student shared.

Returning from the competition, Tung focused on reviewing for the National Physics Excellent Student Exam and won first prize. Physics is not only his favorite subject but also the foundation of Astronomy and Astrophysics, so Tran Xuan Tung is very conscious and invested in studying. His desk in the house in Thong Phong Alley (Dong Da, Hanoi) is full of magazines.Physics and Youth; books for this subject.

Tung said that since he was a child, he was passionate about watching TV and reading books about space science because "there are many mysteries that humanity has not explained and I want to explore them." That desire urged Tung to participate in the national team selection to compete in the 2018 International Astronomy and Astrophysics Olympiad. That is the way to help him approach the nature, get closer to space science intellectuals, and be able to brush up onover, interact with friends with the same passion.

Among about 40 candidates competing in the national round, Tran Xuan Tung was in the top 5, becoming the representative of Vietnam to participate in the International Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics. After nearly 3 months of training with teachers at school, the Institute of Physics, and the Vietnam Space Center, he was happy to experience a lot of new knowledge.

Tung learned about the Big Bang, types of galaxies, the expansion of the universe, general relativity with many applications such as GPS... For the first time, he learned how to determine the distance between celestial bodies, the velocity, and the cycle of an object in space...

Every day, the team practices three shifts: morning, noon, and evening. 2-3 times a week, they bring telescopes to watch the stars at night until 4-5am to learn about star maps. There are days when he and his friends only get 2-3 hours of sleep in the car when traveling to Hanoi to continue their morning class. Although it is hard, but with his passion for exploring the mysterious universe, Tung still tries to overcome it to bring home the first gold medal of the International Astronomy and Astrophysics Olympiad for the country.

In the future, I want to study abroad to freely explore this knowledge and study research.

The 2018 International Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics took place from November 3 to 11, 2018 in Beijing (China) with the participation of 214 students. Among the 39 participating countries and territories, there were Russia, the US, China, Canada, India...

At the competition, contestants must take four tests in English: practice, theory, data processing and team tests. Vietnam has participated for three years, all represented by students from Hanoi.

In 2018, all five contestants came from Amsterdam. As a result, four of them won medals, including one gold, one silver and two bronze. This achievement placed the Vietnamese team in 10th place.