What is The International Young Physicist Tournament?

IYPT is a tournament established more than 30 years ago to encourage pre‐college students to study physics at a deeper level. In preparation for the tournament, students will conduct original research on physics problems that are age appropriate, yet challenging and currently unsolved.

The tournament consists of debating with students from other schools and countries about the validity and accuracy of these original solutions. The lists of problems to choose from for the international tournament are published annually by the IYPT organizing body.

When do the US tournament and International Tournament occur?

The selection event to determine the students that will represent the United States occurs in early spring on the University of the Sciences Campus.

In 2020 the International event will be held in Timisoara, Romania from July 9th to the 16th.

How is the US National Team chosen?

Students will prepare solutions for a subset of the problems posted by the IYPT. This subset is announced in August / September of the year prior to the competition. Teams of students will prepare solutions to this subset of problems and present them in a local tournament in the spring. The US team will either be selected from the team that performs the best overall, or by selecting the individual students that demonstrate the best understanding of physics at the event.

What do you need to do to become involved?

Contact an IYPT board member through our website

What should I do, once I have indicated an interest in participating?

Start doing research with your students. Select from among the 5 problems that have been chosen as the subset of the problems that will be used to determine the US team. Generate a presentation for each problem and be prepared to share the results of your work with others. Once you have indicated an interest we will provide a contact person to mentor you through the process. We will also, share presentations the US team has created in the past and links to video recorded fights that have happened at the international level.

Are USIYPT and USAYPT the same organization?

No they are not. While the experience for students during the competition are intended to be similar in structure these are two completely different organizations. Only through USIYPT can students become eligible to compete in the international event.