Russian schoolchildren became absolute winners of the International Mendeleev Olympiad

Intellectual competition ended on Saturday in Astana

Russian schoolchildren returned with an absolute victory from the 57th International Mendeleev Chemistry Olympiad for schoolchildren, which was held from May 1 to May 6 in Astana. Our team took first place in the overall standings of gold medals, and a student from Mordovia became the winner in the individual standings.

Since 1997, the International Mendeleev Olympiad (IMO) has become the successor of the All-Union Chemistry Olympiad for schoolchildren, retaining its numbering. One of the organizers of the project from the Russian side is traditionally the Faculty of Chemistry of Moscow State University. Lomonosov, the host this year was the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

113 schoolchildren of 10th and 11th grades from 21 countries participated in MMO-57. In addition to the traditionally participating teams of Austria, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Bulgaria, Israel, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, Mongolia, the United Arab Emirates, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Turkey, Uzbekistan, Croatia and other countries, for the first time The Brazilian team came to participate in the Olympics. A total of 34 bronze, 23 silver and 11 gold awards were drawn.

For six days, the participants passed three rounds of tests: two theoretical and one practical. In terms of complexity, the tasks of the first round corresponded to the program of specialized chemical classes. In the second round, the participants were offered higher-level problems from five sections of chemistry: organic, inorganic, analytical and physical chemistry, as well as from life sciences. The third, practical round of the Olympiad lasted five hours – it was aimed at testing the schoolchildren’s skills in working in a chemical laboratory: the ability to perform chemical analysis of substances and carry out synthesis according to the proposed method.

As a result, Andrey Dubinsky, a 11th grade student from the Republican Lyceum for Gifted Children (Republic of Mordovia), became the absolute winner in the individual competition. Among the gold medalists are representatives of 4 countries. Most of all – 7 gold medals – was won by the Russian team, which also received two silver and one bronze medals. Two gold medals for the national team of Uzbekistan, one each for the representatives of Hungary and Belarus. In total, medals were awarded to participants from 19 countries.

According to the rector of Moscow State University. Lomonosov Viktor Sadovnichy, another major success of our team at the main tournament of young chemists of the planet showed that Russia is a great chemical power. “It is especially important,” he noted, “that many problems at the Olympiad were helped by industrial chemists. This shows a combination of fundamental and applied knowledge, helps to more effectively create scientific and personnel reserves in the interests of the industry.”

The Russian team was represented at the Olympiad by schoolchildren from seven regions of the country: Samara region, Mordovia, Tatarstan, Bashkiria, St. Petersburg, Moscow region and Moscow.

After the main events, the children visited the sights of the capital of Kazakhstan, got acquainted with the customs, traditions and culture of the Kazakh people.

In Russia, the winners of gold medals will receive prizes – 1 million rubles each, silver – 500 thousand rubles, bronze – 400 thousand. From the project office of the Decade of Science and Technology, the children were presented with a three-story 20-kilogram cake.