The two students who represented Cuba at the 56th International Chemistry Olympiad (IChO 2024) won a bronze medal and an honorable mention in the prestigious and competitive event, held this year in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, from July 21 to 30.
Héctor Manuel Domínguez Pérez, from the Vocational Pre-University Institute of Exact Sciences (IPVCE) Luis Urquiza Jorge, in Las Tunas, won a bronze medal in the competition, while Mario Luis Pérez Brito, from the IPVCE Eusebio Olivera, in Sancti Spíritus, received an honorable mention.
Cuba was one of the 84 countries that participated in the IChO 2024, where 327 students competed. The students from the island were mentored by Dr. Gerardo Manuel Ojeda Carralero, from the University of Havana.
The Facebook page of IPVCE Luis Urquiza Jorge congratulated the two young Cuban award winners. "Exceptional result, many congratulations," the post stated, accompanied by a video of the moment when Domínguez received his bronze medal.
From the competition venue, Pérez, winner of an honorable mention, made statements to the provincial newspaper Escambray. The student recounted that the months leading up to the contest were very intense training. “All my free time was dedicated to training in order to achieve good results in the national olympics and then in the international ones,” he stated.
The competition consisted of a theoretical exam and an experimental one. In the first, they had to solve nine highly difficult problems, as he explained, while commenting: "Many say that this olympiad is the most difficult in the world."
The young man expressed that representing Cuba in this Olympics was "an immense pride" and added: "The other delegations are surprised because there are only two of us Cubans. And yes, there are two of us, but two who gave their all."
In the 55th edition of the International Chemistry Olympiad (IChO 2023), held in Switzerland, Cuban students César Endris Acosta Martínez and Erick Jordan Valdés Abreu won bronze medals; and with their performance, they repositioned Cuba in the ranking of the competition, after six years without winning medals in this type of event.
The International Chemistry Olympiad has the fundamental purpose of encouraging students to seek excellence in this area of science. It is a competition for pre-university students and takes place each year in a different country.
This month, five more students from Cuba received honorific mentions for their participation in the 65th International Mathematical Olympiad, held in Bath, United Kingdom.
Last June, eight students from pre-university education won medals at the XV Ibero-American Olympiad in Informatics, which took place online in Peru.
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