Brilliant effort by this year's participants
The Norwegian students did really well this year! We have achieved a new Norwegian record in the international Biology Olympiad and ended up with two bronze medals, one for Jaesung Shin and one for Karoline Ravlo-Losvik. It is about the same level as the other Nordic countries, but next year the Norwegian Biology Olympiad Committee is aiming even higher and going for gold.
Intensive days in Al Ain
This year's International Biology Olympiad took place in Al Ain in the United Arab Emirates, and lasted eight days. The students have had quite intensive days, with practical exams in biochemistry, bioinformatics, molecular plant biology, and ecology and behavioral biology. In addition, there have been two long theory exams.
Visa problems for Syrian refugee
Unfortunately, Ahmad Sadek, one of the four Norwegian winners, did not get a visa to the United Arab Emirates. Ahmad is a Syrian refugee, and therefore only three of the Norwegian participants traveled. The remaining three students were Jaesung Shin, Karoline Ravlo-Losvik and Albertine Tveit.
75 countries represented in the International Biology Olympiad
The students were accompanied by three representatives from the Department of Biosciences, who had long days with a lot of translating and correcting assignments. It has been a very well organized competition, the host nation did a good job, although there have been some things that have been challenging.
This year's competition has had approx. 350 students from 75 countries and approx. 300 jury members where Simon Kline, Pernille Eidesen and Ida Nielsen from the Department of Biosciences have been the Norwegian representatives.
New round of Biology Olympiad in the autumn
The Department of Biosciences organizes the Norwegian Biology Olympiad every year. A new round of the Biology Olympiad starts in the autumn, round 1 for the 2024 competition will take place 02-20 October 2023.