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A team of eight students from the Hong Kong Academy for Gifted Education (HKAGE) has achieved the city's best ever results in the Asian Physics Olympiad (APhO), bringing home one gold medal and five honourable mentions in the APhO 2011. It was the first gold for Hong Kong in the event. The competition was held between May 1 and 9 in Tel Aviv, Israel.
The gold medallist, Harry Cheung Hil-fung, is from Diocesan Boys' School. A Secondary 4 student, he achieved among the top three scores in the Hong Kong Physics Olympiad (HKPhO) 2010 and he was also "Best Contestant" in the 7th Pan-Pearl River Delta and Chinese Elite Schools Physics Olympiad 2011. In the APhO 2011, he stood out among the 130 contestants and was rewarded with the gold medal.
The five Hong Kong students with honourable mentions were Wong Yu-fu (Secondary 5, SKH Tsang Shiu Tim Secondary School), Wong Yuk-fai (Secondary 5, Shun Tak Fraternal Association Leung Kau Kui College), Leung Siu-kwan (Secondary 6, Po Leung Kuk No. 1 W.H. Cheung College ), Andy Loo (Secondary 5, St Paul's Co-educational College) and Chau Tsz-ki (Secondary 6, CNEC Christian College). Tam Ka-long (Secondary 6, Wa Ying College) and Wong Kim-cheong (Secondary 6, Fukien Secondary School) were the remaining two members of the Hong Kong team.
"As the APhO is contested by elite young physicists, the outstanding achievement of the Hong Kong Team in such a competitive contest is worthy of praise," the Chief Curriculum Officer (Gifted Education) of the Education Bureau (EDB), Mr Chan Pui-tin, said.
Dr Stephen Tommis, Executive Director of the HKAGE, said, "Harry Cheung has shown what hard work and persistence can achieve. Ability alone is often not enough to guarantee success." He also thanked all the organisations and trainers who had so effectively contributed to this success.
The EDB, the HKAGE, the Physical Society of Hong Kong and Hong Kong Physics Olympiad Committee jointly organised HKPhO 2010 last year. The HKAGE then provided follow-on physics enhancement programmes for high-achieving contestants. All the tutors are the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) physics professors. Each of the eight Hong Kong Team members underwent nine-month, four-stage physics enhancement programmes.
The APhO aims to promote physics education and to encourage a spirit of communication and co-operation among learning communities, as well as to nurture students who are gifted in physics.
The leader of Hong Kong Team was Professor Yang Zhi Yu (HKUST), with Dr Ng Shiu Cho (Fukien Secondary School) as deputy leader. Mr Ma Guancong (HKUST) and Ms Chan Hoi-sze (Pui Shing Catholic Secondary School) were observers.
Ends/Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Issued at HKT 14:43
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