Young Indonesian Academics Again Taste Victory

Jakarta Globe, July 29, 2010

 Victorious Indonesian high school students claimed four medals at the International Chemistry Olympiad in Tokyo. (Photo courtesy of Chem-is-try.org) 

Tokyo, Japan. Budding Indonesian scientists are again sitting on top of the world after four senior high school students claimed medals at the 42nd International Chemistry Olympiad (IChO) in Tokyo, Japan.

According to the event’s Web site, Indonesia’s Manoel Manuputty won a gold medal, Alimatum Nashira won a silver and Stephen Haniel and Agung Hartoko were each awarded bronze.

Manoel, 17, a senior high school student from Jakarta scored 92.5 in the competition. Alimatum, from Yogyakarta, scored 78.7, while Stephen and Agung from Central Java scored 71.6 and 70.8 respectively.

The olympiad was held from July 15-27 at two universities, namely Waseda University for lab sessions and Tokyo University for theory, and attracted 276 participants from 68 countries.

The achievement completed Indonesia’s remarkable medal tally in international science competitions this year.

Last Monday, Indonesia won two gold medals and two bronze medals at the 21st International Biology Olympiad in Changwon, South Korea.

A few days later, the country won four gold medals and one silver medal at the 41st International Physics Olympiad in Zagreb, Croatia.

The olympiads are held annually.