International Biology Olympiad: medals for the Luxembourgish team

As part of the International Biology Olympiad (IBO), the Luxembourgish team, made up of final-years high school students, won three bronze medals. The award ceremony took place on 17 September 2020 at the Lycée des Arts et Métiers in Luxembourg and aimed at rewarding the best national students for their great performance during the national and also during the international contest in biology, which was held online between 7 and 12 August 2020.

The International Biology Olympiad (IBO) is organising each year the world’s premier biology competition for secondary school students. Its objective is to identify, inspire, empower and support the next generation of leaders in the life sciences and to develop their international network. Given the coronavirus pandemic, the 2020 edition had to be held online, where the participants took part in practical and theoretical tests in bioinformatics and animal physiology: “The IBO challenge”.

The Luxembourgish team got excellent results and won three bronze medals. “I am very proud of the performance of our team. They did an excellent job during the contest under these unusual circumstances. We also thank the University of Luxembourg for sharing together our joy as well as for offering us some hoodies to represent the Uni.lu colors during the competition”, explains Alexandre Salsmann, co-organiser of the Luxembourg Biology Olympiad and member of the international jury. The three students’ team was awarded with some prizes during a ceremony, which took place on 17 September 2020 at the Lycée des Arts et Métiers in Luxembourg.

The Luxembourg Olympiads

This year was the 6th edition of the Luxembourg Biology Olympiad, which is a national scientific competition, with theoretical and practical aspects, mainly aiming at secondary school students in classes 1eC and 2eC. Despite the health situation, the final round took place on Limpertsberg campus on 7 March 2020, where the four best students in the field of biology were selected to participate in the International Biology Olympiad (IBO).

The Luxembourg Biology Olympiad is part of the Luxembourg Olympiads, which is also composed by two other national contests: the Luxembourg Chemistry Olympiad and the Luxembourg Physics Olympiad. As for these two competitions, the officials took the decision to cancel the respective finals in 2020 due to the pandemic, and the international competitions have also been suspended. They however plan to organized to rewarded all qualified students for the finals during the official award ceremony.

Every year, and for each Luxembourg Olympiad (Biology, Chemistry and Physics), between 200 and 400 students from about 20 high schools in the country register to the competitions. During these national competitions, the jury is examining secondary school students’ skills in solving biological/chemical/physical problems as well as in performing and analysing practical experiments. The main objective of the Luxembourg Olympiads is to promote students’ interest in life sciences as well as to motivate them to become more involved in this field.

Finalists Luxembourg Biology Olympiad