Estonian team returned successfully from International Chemistry Olympiad with gold, silver and bronze medals

The International Chemistry Olympiad (IChO) took place from 20 to 28 July in Azerbaijan and all four members of the Estonian team, from Gustav Adolf Gymnasium, Tallinn Secondary Science School and Hugo Treffner Gymnasium, received a medal.

The Estonian team’s best was Rasmus Kisel from Gustav Adolf Gymnasium who placed 22^nd and received a gold medal. Carel Kuusk from Tallinn Secondary Science School was awarded a silver medal. Raul Rinken from Hugo Treffner Gymasium and Edward Erelt from Tallinn Secondary Science School earned bronze medals for their knowledge.

The IChO has two rounds—practical and theoretical. In the practical round the students had to solve three tasks: organic synthesis and purification of the product, quantitative determination of the composition of a metal alloy by titration, and determining the concentration of the active substance of a medicinal product by kinetic analysis.

The theoretical exam had eight tasks which ranged from physical chemistry to bioorganic chemistry and covered a number of areas which are in focus in modern day chemistry.

The Estonian team’s instructors who accompanied the students were University of Tartu’s Research Fellow in Analytical and Physical Chemistry Anneli Kruve and doctoral student Ott Kekišev.

According to Anneli Kruve, the Estonian students did very well and achieved a great result in very tight competition. “Looking at history, this year we repeated Estonia’s best result with the medals earned,” said Kruve.

75 countries were represented at the contest. The winner of this year’s Olympiad was China.

The contest was organised by the Baku Branch of Lomonosov Moscow State University.

The Estonian students’ participation in the 47^th International Chemistry Olympiad was funded by the Ministry of Education and Research and organised by the UT Gifted and Talented Development Centre.