International Young Physicists' Tournament

International Young Physicists' Tournament

The International Young Physicists’ Tournament, IYPT, is one of the world's foremost and most influential annual physics competition centered around 17 non-examination research problems, team work, and discussion-based sessions called Physics Fights where the performances of the teams are judged by expert physicists.

During 1988-2012, around 40 nations with ca. 2300 students have taken part at the IYPT.

The IYPT is a week-long event in which around 150 international pre-university contestants participate. This event is preceded by a variety of national competitions, conferences, and preparatory meetings, in which dozens of thousands of people are involved at various stages worldwide.

The participants present and discuss their research projects at the events that share common features with thesis defense or scientific conferences. The teams switch roles and take floor as Reporters, Opponents and Reviewers, thus learning about peer review early in their career. The IYPT is well established as a global hub of physics promotion that enjoys increasing influence and outreach.

The concept of the event was coined in 1979 by Evgeny Yunosov who initiated the first IYPT in 1988. It was later recognized that the IYPT-based projects often result in professional, peer reviewed publications before the authors complete a university degree, and the topics of the projects make a lasting impact on partner or rival activities in physics promotion and physics education research. Since the 1990s the IYPT is increasingly but informally acknowledged by the media as the Physics World Cup.