Saudi Astronomy and Astrophysics Team Returns Home with 3 International Medals

The Saudi Astronomy and Astrophysics Team returned home today after successfully participating in the International Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics (IOAA) held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from August 17 to 27.

They won three bronze medals at the event, which featured over 250 students from 53 countries.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's medal winners were Joud Basim Hamdan Al-Lahyani, a second-year secondary school student from the Makkah Education Directorate; Hussein Hassan bin Mohammed Al-Mubarak, a first-year secondary school student from the Eastern Province Education Directorate; and Fajr Hassan bin Ali Al-Ubaidan, a second-year secondary school student from the Al-Ahsa Education Directorate.

This achievement is the result of the training and qualification journey that the Saudi students underwent in training camps held in cooperation between King Abdulaziz and His Companions Foundation for Giftedness and Creativity (Mawhiba), the Communications, Space and Technology Commission (CST), and the Ministry of Education.

The IOAA is an annual international competition for secondary school students, first organized in 2006 in Thailand. The Kingdom participated last year with an observer team in preparation for this year's competitions.