Radio Cadena Agramonte emisiora de Camagüey
Havana, May 13 – Four Cuban students displayed a silver medal and three bronze medals today from the 59th edition International Mendeleev Chemistry Olympiad (IMChO), held in Belo Horizonte, capital of the southeastern Brazilian state of Minas Gerais (southeast).
After six days of theoretical and practical tests, which concluded this Monday, 260 students from 40 countries competed in the first competition of its kind held in the Southern Hemisphere.
The silver was won for Cuba by Juan Carlos Yepe, from the Pre-University Vocational Institute of Exact Sciences (IPVCE, for its acronym in Spanish) of Havana, and the bronzes were won by Marco Antonio Asin and Roy Roger González, both from the IPVCE of Camagüey, as well as Ernesto Alejandro Barrera, from Sancti Spíritus.
For the first time, a Cuban, Dr. Gerardo Manuel Ojeda, head of the preselection and professor at the Faculty of Chemistry at the University of Havana, was invited to be part of the international jury.
In addition, the Caribbean island's delegation now included, as mentor, Dr. Julieta Coro Bermello, president of the Cuban Chemical Society, professor of Biochemistry for the preselection and at the Faculty of Chemistry at the University of Havana.
In a novel way, Latin American countries were invited, in tribute to Brics+, the expansion of the Brics bloc, which was originally formed by Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, and now includes new members such as Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia and the United Arab Emirates, among others.
The acronym Brics+ indicates the incorporation of partner countries, in addition to the founding members, and can be seen as a form of cooperation and strengthening of international relations.
Such contest brought together the participants in the Department of Chemistry of the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG, for its acronym in Spanish).
Presented by Rector Sandra Regina Goulart, the gold medals were awarded to representatives from Russia (the country that received the most gold awards), China, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, and Hungary.
The prizes for the best theoretical and practical tests were awarded to Yaoxi Zhao of China and Mengdigalli Kaldybay of Kazakhstan, respectively.
Yaoxi also won the Valery Lunin Academic Award, established by the Melnichenko Foundation and awarded to the tournament's most outstanding students.
The IMChO was created at the Faculty of Chemistry of Lomonosov Moscow State University, with the aim of promoting the development of scientific talents in this field.
The competition owes its name to the Russian chemist Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev, discoverer of the periodic law, on the basis of which the periodic table of chemical elements was created.
This year, the Mendeleev International Chemistry Olympiad was organized by UFMG, the Faculty of Chemistry of Moscow State University, and the Melnichenko Foundation. (Text and photo: PL)
