High School Students Excel at the International Chemistry Olympiad

In July of 1995, the 27th International Chemistry Olympiad was held in Beijing, China. Canada was represented by Chun Fung Man from John Oliver Secondary School in Vancouver, Christopher Mason from Sir Winston Churchill High School in Calgary, Brandon Macdonald from Yale Secondary School in Abbotsford, B.C., Fong Hsu from the University of Toronto Schools, and Aaron Dumont (alternate) also from Yale Secondary School. Two members of this team, Chun Fung Man and Christopher Mason, received Bronze Medals. Congratulations!

This year the 28th International Chemistry Olympiad will be held in Moscow, Russia.. Canada will be represented by Simon Blais from College Merici in Quebec City, Francois Blanchette from College Bois de Boulogne in Montreal, Doris Chan from A.Y. Jackson Secondary School in North York and Brian Yeh from Western Canada High School in Calgary.

The team is chosen at the national finals which are held at McGill University. The examinations, consisting of laboratory and theoretical portions, are very challenging because they question knowledge beyond that taught in high schools or CEGEP. The questions are not the typical "text-book" problems and require the student to be resourceful and creative. Qualitative analyses and compound preparation compose the laboratory section, while the theoretical portion consists of problems of varying difficulty.