Sri Lanka won three bronze medals and an Honorable mention at the 52nd International Chemistry Olympiad 2020
R M S Ravindu Sanwara (Ananda College, Colombo 10), Arulanantham Abhinanthan (Hindu College, Jaffna) and Uvindu Praveen Sumanasekera (Badulla Central College, Badulla) won bronze medals and M B Shakindi Vihanga (Sujatha Vidyalaya, Mathara) won an honorable mention at the 52nd International Chemistry Olympiad 2020. This is a very remarkable achievement since this is the first time Sri Lanka represented at the International Chemistry Olympiad.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic this year’s competition hosted by Turkey was conducted as a remote examination on 25th July 2020 with the participation of 235 future scientists from 60 countries. In Sri Lanka, the remote theory examination was conducted at the Headquarters of the Institute of Chemistry Ceylon, Rajagiriya.
The International Chemistry Olympiad (IChO) is a competition organized for secondary school students of all levels from all over the globe with the objective of promoting their creativity and cognitive skills in solving Chemistry related problems. Sri Lanka participated as observers in IChO in 2018 and 2019. In 2016, IChO steering committee officially accepted the Institute of Chemistry Ceylon (IChemC) as the official organizer to conduct the National Chemistry Olympiad competition in Sri Lanka. Since then IChemC organized the Chemistry Olympiad Sri Lanka (COSL) national competition annually. The first stage COSL is the preliminary selection exam conduct island wide. Then the best 25-30 students will be invited to a practical and theory training workshop held at the headquarters of the Institute prior to the final competition. Winners of COSL get Olympiad medals, awards, certificates and scholarships. After the further training and screening process four students will be selected for the team to represent Sri Lanka at the IChO. The team is trained by the Senior Lecturers from the Institute of Chemistry Ceylon and Universities.
Chemistry Olympiad Sri Lanka committee would like to congratulate the winners for bringing glory to the country.
Dr. Ireshika de Silva,
Secretary,
Chemistry Olympiad Sri Lanka