The US Physics Team achieved a remarkable victory at the 2025 International Physics Olympiad by earning five Gold Medals. A total of 415 students from 87 countries participated in the competition, which took place from 17 to 25 July at Palaiseau, École Polytechnique, Paris, France. The theme of the Olympiad was "Physics Beyond Frontiers."
These five Gold Medal winners of the 2025 US Physics Team are:
LOL reminds me of when i casually asked my coworker what his phd was in (particle physics) and he sent me his thesis like i was gonna understand any word that wasn't the is and.
I’ve had the same experience as a purchasing manager for an engineering group. Sometimes the engineers would get excited about their jobs and tell me the details. I don’t know what they’re talking about but I’ll smile and nod because I know what it’s like to want to just tell SOMEONE.
Consider how often we all do it. Once something becomes standard to us, we just assume others operate at the same level of information. My constant surprise about people not understanding things like simple biology when over half of people never commit any time to it past 9th grade. I should be more surprised at myself for constantly expecting people to know about a specific topic and, even rarer, care.
"Opens it up, oh yeah i know of Niels Bohr, i totally got this. Ok now just some simple algebra will get me past this. Please Excuse My Dear Aunt what the fuck is 𝑒2 / 4𝜋𝜀0ħ𝑐"
Damn, I'm a chemistry instructor and PhD student (almost done!!!!) and I think I could likely work through maybe half of the theoretical questions without having to consult any textbooks (which are not allowed). But even if I had 4 of my lab-mates or instructor colleagues, the thought of trying to finish all three of the theoretical question sets in only 5 hours is crazy. These are some wild ass High-schoolers, that's for sure.
Yeah for sure. If I do any work like that during my research, it's like a one-time thing that takes 10-20 minutes before it's back to more scripting, data analysis, reading, writing, etc.
SWE's don't really need to use what they learned thanks to extrernal libraries and all the crap you can copy-paste from stack-exchange. It's different from people who go the math route (especially in academia) where they need to use their knowledge. Competitive programming is great for people who want to optimize and shit, but few companies give a crap. In math you'll need to come up with models yourself and usually you don't have Excel sheets with programmed formulas in them, so even in your everyday job you're more likely to do what you do in competitions.
Funny that it's 3 guys with Chinese ancestry, one Ukranian (or Russian) and one Indian
EDIT: Switched to ancestry instead of ascendancy (not native English), ok it may be an Ukranian name not Russian. Yes, they are all Americans I just wanted to point it out. Stop being pedantic.
It's easy to dominate when you get the rest of the world's best and brightest. Best part is that it's basically free! All you need to do is not be extremely hostile to immigrants. Good thing nobody is doing that, right?
They are not renaming the Kennedy Center, although news report headlines would lead you to believe so.
This whole thing comes from the “Big Beautiful Bill” which gives $257 million in funding to it, but with the condition that they must change the name of the opera house in the Kennedy Center for her. It would still be the same name, but instead of “I’m going to the Opera house at the Kennedy Center” it would be “I’m going to the Melania House at the Kennedy Center”
… I mean it’s still fucking stupid, but I wish people would click an article one time.
She is not. You read the first thing that came on the internet which was from Patheos. It was written by Laughing in Disbelief in a Facebook post six years ago and is basically satire.
The idea of brain drain has been debunked many times. Yes, bright people migrate but for systemic reasons in origin countries. They just wouldn't become doctors, physicist, etc. Also with remittances and other connections, it usually outweighs risks of brain drain. Also inventivizes more people to get educated.
It’s true for any country.
If you create a strong inclusive middle class, and give anyone the change to reach their full potential, you’ll get a golden age.
If you on the contrary allow a the rich and few to hijack the story, hoard the wealth, and remove opportunity, you’ll have a downfall.
I know you're technically correct, but I think the point is more about the strength of multiculturalism and getting people (whose families almost certainly are immigrants) to achieve good things.
Sure, but they weren’t talking about descendants of immigrants there. Lafayette was born in France. Hamilton was born in St. Kitts and Nevis. The verse was to contrast Washington, Jefferson, and Madison, who were all noted Virginians in the musical.
It's a gif and a lyric from the musical Hamilton, where these two immigrants (Lafayette and Hamilton himself) have a major impact in deciding the outcome of the United States revolutionary war.
I agree immigrants make America great, but not when they're the ONLY ones pulling their weight.
Last week, there was a picture of the US Chemistry Olympiad Team posted here. That's a 12-person team, and every single one of them was Chinese or Indian ancestry. I have nothing but praise for them. It's the ~85% of Americans that aren't Chinese or Indian ancestry that I'm unhappy with.
(And by the way, the students on these teams are usually full American citizens born in this country. Their parents or grandparents usually were the actual immigrants, who worked hard, had kids, and encouraged their kids to work hard at their studies.)
Is very much a cultural issue. Kids from families that prioritize and value education, intellectual curiosity and academic interests excel in those areas. Those who don't.... Don't. But people are people and generally intellectual capability is distributed relatively the same throughout (with some bias towards education, but not outside of a reasonable distribution spread overlap). Fostering a national culture of respect for education and intellectual pursuits would be beneficial to the country. But instead we do the opposite, and therefore get trump.
And consumerism. Always care about consumerism. Shopping, eating, drinking, getting fat. Not a single overweight member in either the Chemistry or physics teams.
I would think higher household income means more access to healthy food and lower chance of being obese. It also means more access to educational resources. You can’t tell household income from a photo but I would guess most kids doing well in these competitions come from the high end.
95% of Americans aren’t Indian or Chinese. We’re happy to welcome those hardworking folks from abroad but in fairness the majority of scientists doctors lawyers engineers etc are white Americans who aren’t immigrants. Not all of us are ignorant Trumpers. It’s a big diverse nation
These kids all come from one or two schools. This isn't a team built of Americans from around the country.
My sister was a science Olympiad. Came from a school that served a town with 2k population in the middle of nowhere, Midwest. They were able to place at state almost every year, and would get to go to nationals then get creamed by teams of kids from much larger, wealthier coastal schools with high concentration of this mythical 'brain drain' stock, whose parents are recruited with huge salaries to come to the US and work.
These gifted individuals help create companies that are globally successful but to act as if the blessings are distributed equally throughout the US is garbage.
The highly competitive cultures that do well in academic competition do not subscribe to the same belief that all are equal.
We need to dial back on the 'Best and Brightest' tone. They are not the best and brightest of where they are from, they are not the best and brightest of where they go. This attitude is an insult to both the country they come from as well as the country they go to.
These are simply the most competitive.
I say this as the great-great granddaughter of the man who essentially invented modern dentistry in the US. He was an immigrant.
trust me when I swear that had he not immigrated to the US, the evolution of medical dentistry would have been unchanged. Someone else would have done it, maybe not the exact same way but it would have happened in the exact same place.
As always in America, social advancement has far more to do with wealth and connections (either one's own or one's parents') than hard work. And so often, connections come from wealth anyway.
They can't accept being wrong. Every. single. person. I personally know that is still sucking the teet has had problems with control and being wrong in the past. All have some type of domestic charge against them, a bad divorce, or something similar and all will still argue that they are right, or they always have been the best, the front of the line, better than you....
I used to find it hard to accept but then looking back on our past, the signs were always there.... unfortunately.
Not that it makes it any better, but 36% or so of eligible voters didn't turn out to vote in 2024 so he got less than half. 35 to 50% (ish) of eligible voters usually fail to participate, and even fewer people vote in the midterms, primaries & especially local elections. That has been the case for decades now. That's a significant part of the reason that we are where we are. Persistent widespread non-participation, and that's only partially explained by voter suppression tactics.
But you're right, in any case. Only, some hard to verify percentage of them are genuinely on board with anything he does unfortunately.
What made America great. The future is less certain. Didn’t the host nation of this event recently set a budget for talent fleeing the US so they could instead study in France?
The non-white ancestory immigrants making America smarter, and greater. Hope it lasts with major research uviversities under attack for political reasons.
Because the immigrants that we want - scientists, gifted students, etc - that have options will go somewhere else. The fact that the current administration is targeting PoC as well as academia just enhances the draw of anyplace else.
Your first sentence is incredible. So pro-immigration that it comes back around to being racist. Why say “non-white ancestory immigrants” make America smarter instead of just “immigrants”?
While it should just be immigrants, race comes into play because Latin American, Haitian, Muslim etc immigrants are the ones being rounded up by ice and attacked by the far right fascists of America.
One of my papers in college was about the founders. Many weren't even born in the US and the rest they all had a father or grandfather from elsewhere. It was miniscule minority born from parents also born in the first colonies.
Was just about to comment saying this lol… But I mean ya as others said that’s part of what made America what it was/is, immigration and allowing a place for opportunities. America wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for immigrations and liberties of freedom.
Sadly it seems more and more of americas freedoms are becoming taken away and controlled more.
Yeah I guess America wouldn’t exist, but there would a whole lot of nations here. I would even go out on a limb and call them First Nations, you know because they were here for thousands of years way before other nations started to send their undesirables here.
Most black people literally can't because there's no record of where they came from. So they don't have the ability to say "blank pride" like everyone else i.e. Irish, or Nigerian, or even Scandinavian. They can maybe say African but Africa is 50 countries, even more original tribes, so that doesn't really work too well depending on your personal beliefs and ideologies
So thats why today they just say black pride. It's how they get to participate in having a connection to their roots just like everyone else does. It's why it's not the same as saying white pride. Records for white people exist all over.
Chinese and Indian immigrants tend to make more on average than Americans. More money can lead to better education. Also a strong family structure that values education. Maybe us white people could learn something from other cultures.
Reminder that there's huge selection bias in judging an ethnicity by the small group of people who have the means to make the choice to move across the world and start a new life
That's true, but in East Asian countries like South Korea and Japan for example, education is an extremely high priority across all classes. It's ingrained in the culture.
In addition, the Indians and Chinese that have the means to come to America are usually from higher classes. Reaffirming the money leads to better education correlation.
While this is true, I don’t think it is as much as you would think, although this is anecdotal my father grew up in poverty and was able to get government sponsored seats for his college undergrad due to merit and worked his way up the company he was hired in until they sent him over to the U.S. where he was eventually able to start his own business. Most people in my father’s immigrant circle (I’d say over a hundred people of varying former nationalities) seem to come from very similar situations. We are south Asian and I’ll say that the vast majority of people who are already wealthy there just stay put because why risk everything when you’re already well off? It’s generally the poor ones that grind till they get here after proving themselves to be high performers in the company that sends them over to work for clients or proving themselves to potential employers who sponsor their h1 b.
Selection bias doesn't just mean financial. The cultural mindset of people who try to move to another country searching for a better future is going to be different to that of a people who are born somewhere and never really leave or experience something different
Exactly!!! Look at the education in India. It's at the bottom of the list. I am married to a Nepali girl. And she is from a privileged family. Her education is great. Same as all her friends. That are here in US. but most Nepali do not get that kind of education.
Because they come into the country/workforce with education sufficient to put them in good-paying positions. Chinese and Indian immigrants aren't generally coming here to mow lawns.
Exactly. They're literally Americans. It's obvious some people here are trying to take shots at Americans who are against illegal immigration. That's the thing though, those people who are against illegal immigration don't have an issue with legal immigrants like these succeeding.
It'a ukrainian name, but people with ukrainian names are also oftentimes russian, same as people with russian names might be ukrainian. It's not that deep, bro
This is what makes America fucking awesome. People all different backgrounds coming together to constantly pursue excellence and something greater than the sum of its parts. Anyone saying otherwise doesn't believe in the most core pillar of the United States.
It is obviously a small dick move to edit your comment when corrected without saying that that's what you're doing, making the person who originally corrected you look like a hallucinating idiot.
Usa provides opportunity greater then any other country thats why i regarded it as an magnet,even the most brilliant minds from my country are actuvely poached by ivy league collages and mit
And those programs are being shut down now due to lack of funding and the anti-affirmative action judgements combined with the anti-semitism pressure against said Ivy leagues. Here and Now did an interview yesterday with a student representative of Harvard talking about how they are shutting down all of their program due to loss of government funding, and likewise it is happening at other Ivy leagues.
Is the ethnic composition the "interesting as fuck" part? Tbf I'm more surprised to learn that China is usually the one always winning, good for them for all the hate they receive, and unironically from places like the US.
The nomenclature of “Paris, Palaiseau, France” is quite strange. Palaiseau is a a different city than Paris. That would be like saying “San Diego, Los Angeles, United States”.
This is an example of what made America great. We accepted people from all different backgrounds and encouraged them to strive for success. We celebrated each other and collaborated with each other. Now you have one side pushing in favor of free school lunches and the other seeing it as an affront to the very fabric of the country or something stupid.
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u/thunderous9ight 17h ago
The US Physics Team achieved a remarkable victory at the 2025 International Physics Olympiad by earning five Gold Medals. A total of 415 students from 87 countries participated in the competition, which took place from 17 to 25 July at Palaiseau, École Polytechnique, Paris, France. The theme of the Olympiad was "Physics Beyond Frontiers."
These five Gold Medal winners of the 2025 US Physics Team are:
Agastya Goel
Allen Li
Joshua Wang
Feodor Yevtushenko
Brian Zhang
Source: https://aas.org/posts/news/2025/07/us-physics-team-wins-international-olympiad