© 2010 ICHO JA PA N CO M M IT T EE COVER STORY

44TH INTERNATIONAL
CHEMISTRY OLYMPIAD
For the first time in 20 years THE U.S. HOSTS the competition,
which this year includes teams from 72 nations
SUSAN J. AINSWORTH, C&EN DALLAS

AS ATHLETES from nations around the “This is an especially auspicious time to

world prepare to compete in the 2012 Sum-
mer Olympic Games in London later this
month, high school students from most of
those same countries are also in training for
the 44th International Chemistry Olympiad
(IChO), to be held on July 21–30 at the Uni-
versity of Maryland, College Park.
Supported by a $2.5 million donation
from Dow Chemical, the American Chemi-
cal Society and the university have taken on
the gargantuan task of hosting the event,
which engages high school students in ex-
ams and laboratory work to test their knowl-
edge in chemistry theory and practice. It will
be held in the U.S. for only the second time
in its history; in 1992, IChO events were split
between Washington, D.C., and Pittsburgh.
be hosting this event because of our nation’s CONTENTS
focus on science, technology, engineering, IT TAKES A VILLAGE, 12
and math education; innova- Numerous companies
tion; and workforce develop- and individuals pitch in to
ment,” says ACS Executive plan and run this month’s
Director & Chief Executive colossal competition.
Officer Madeleine Jacobs. “We
TEST YOURSELF, 18
are excited about having near-
Examples of previous years’
ly 300 of the best and brightest
questions reveal the rigor of
students in chemistry from 72
the IChO exams.
nations, ranging from Argen-
tina to Vietnam, competing for WHERE ARE THEY NOW?
medals, as well as about show- 20
ing these aspiring scientists Former chemistry olympians
and engineers some of the most exciting and relate how participation in
innovative scientific and cultural organiza- IChO shaped their futures.
tions in the Washington, D.C., area.”

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BEST AND Given the costs With a few exceptions, the participating 20 finalists at the U.S. Air Force Academy
BRIGHTEST In a and complex lo- nations will each send a team of four stu- in Colorado Springs last month (C&EN,
spirit of camaraderie
characteristic of
gistics associated dents. Qualifying student teams are typical- June 25, page 11).
IChO, students with hosting the ly chosen through a series of regional and Accompanying students to next week’s
from around the event, ACS is “truly national olympiads held in each country. competition will be two mentors from each
world gathered after indebted to Dow’s For example, the four high school students country. Lichtenstein, Nigeria, and Serbia
finishing their exams generosity” in who will represent the U.S. were selected will be participating in IChO for the first
in Tokyo in 2010.
acting as the sole after a nationwide competition, followed time this year. In addition, several coun-
sponsor of the 44th by an intensive two-week study camp for tries will be attending IChO as observers;
IChO, Jacobs says.
“I am eternally grateful to Dow’s CEO, An-
drew N. Liveris, because it was his personal
commitment to science education during
the International Year of Chemistry in 2011
that made this gift possible.”
Dow’s donation will cover most of the
events’ costs, which are expected to total
$2.7 million. Residual expenses will be off-
set by fees paid by participating countries.
The University of Maryland is providing
significant in-kind support by hosting IChO
on its College Park campus and through
its leadership of the event’s 15-member
Scientific Committee. That committee has
worked for more than two years to draft
test questions for both the theoretical and
practical exams—which together serve
as the centerpiece of the event, according
to Michael P. Doyle, professor and chair
of the department of chemistry and bio-
chemistry at the university. Doyle is cochair
of the IChO Scientific Committee along
with his department colleague Andrei N.
Vedernikov, a professor and former IChO
gold medalist. See page 18 for test ques-
tions from prior years’ olympiads, which
demonstrate the exams’ level of difficulty.

REMARKABLY, planning for this month’s

IChO began almost three years ago, when
the IChO Steering Committee accepted
the U.S. offer to host the 2012 olympiad,
notes G. Bryan Balazs, an ACS councilor
and immediate past-chair of the ACS Cali-
fornia Section, who now serves on that
committee as chair of this year’s IChO
Organizing Committee. As chair, Balazs
has coordinated ACS volunteer efforts sur-
rounding the 44th IChO. Planning for the
event has been led by Mary M. Kirchhoff,
director of ACS’s Education Division, and
Cecilia C. Hernandez, the division’s assis-
tant director of endowed programs, includ-
ing the olympiad program.
As host of IChO, ACS has been respon-
sible for arranging lodging, meals, trans-
portation, and entertainment for each of
the event’s participants and attendees—a
total of 650 people—for the full 10 days of
the olympiad.

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 countries are required to observe for two consecutive years before
they can send a team to compete in the event. Representatives
from El Salvador, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, and
Uzbekistan will be observing for the second year, while representa-
tives from Georgia, Montenegro , and South Africa will observe for
the first time. Through this process, those aspiring to compete in
the olympiad learn the intricacies of the event and become familiar
with the rigorous standards and rules for participation.
As is the case during every IChO, students and mentors are sepa-
rated when they arrive in the host city, for test-security reasons,
Hernandez says. In addition, students will be cut off from the use of
cell phones and computers until testing is completed on Thursday,
July 26. Students and mentors will be reunited after Thursday’s
exam during a party that will be hosted by the French Embassy.

ON A GIVEN DAY, mentors may be hard at work reviewing, trans-

lating, or arbitrating the scoring of the exams, while students may
be testing or touring.
For the students, ACS has designed a full schedule of recre-
ational and educational activities that will fill the time around the
five-hour lab practical exam, preceded by a 30-minute lab safety
presentation, on Tuesday, and the five-hour theoretical exam on
Thursday, according to Hernandez.
Festivities will begin with the IChO opening ceremony at the
University of Maryland’s Dekelboum Concert Hall on Sunday, July
22. Nobel Laureate Richard R. Schrock, a professor of chemistry at

CAROLINE HANCOX
CHALLENGED Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will
Students work serve as the opening keynote speaker. Sharing
through the five- the podium with Schrock will be Maryland
hour theoretical
exam during the Gov. Martin O’Malley and University of Mary-
IChO competition land President Wallace D. Loh.
in Cambridge, Attendees will be welcomed via video by
U.K., in 2009. Nobel Laureate and Priestley Medalist Ahmed
H. Zewail, a professor of chemical physics and
of physics at California Institute of Technology,
who is serving as president of this year’s IChO. Chair of the ACS Board
of Directors William F. Carroll Jr. will serve as master of ceremonies.
The opening ceremony “may be the most exciting part of each
olympiad,” notes J. L. Kiappes, a member of the 2004 U.S. olym-
piad team, who is now a member of the Steering Committee and
the IChO Scientific Committee. In a ceremony full of pomp and
circumstance, students, mentors, and organizers come together,
and “you begin to really appreciate how so many people from all

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 COVER STORY

over the world have been preparing for this assistants will grade the exams. They will ed on a question that was marked as incor-
single week,” he says. “Teams often wear share the graded exams with each country’s rect. After any negotiated changes are made,
native costume, meet other students for the mentors for their review. Mentors have the the final grades are evaluated, revealing who
first time, and take pictures together. It’s opportunity to challenge or question the will win gold, silver, and bronze medals.
refreshing to see the camaraderie and spirit grading of the individual exams in scheduled The medals will be formally presented
of friendship that goes beyond nationality meetings with members of the committee. at the closing ceremony, which will be held
or politics.” During that time, they might highlight a dif- on Sunday, July 29, at Georgetown Univer-
In the days following the opening cer- ference in notation used by their country or sity’s Gaston Hall in Washington, D.C. ACS
emony, students will get a taste of the U.S. suggest that partial credit should be award- President-Elect Marinda Li Wu will con-
by attending a baseball game at Camden
Yards, where the Baltimore Orioles will
host the Oakland Athletics, and touring the
National Aeronautics & Space Administra-
tion’s Goddard Space Flight Center.
They will also take a boat cruise out of
Annapolis, Md.; have dinner and play games
at Dave & Buster’s restaurant and arcade;
and tour both the National Aquarium
in Baltimore and the Maryland Science
Center. In addition, students will watch
a chemistry demonstration show by ACS
President Bassam Z. Shakhashiri, visit
Kings Dominion amusement park, go shop-
ping, and compete in a “Chemistry Idol”
competition, which will be modeled after
the television show and talent competition
“American Idol.”

MEANWHILE, MENTORS will be embark-

ing on their own busy schedule of events.
After the opening ceremony, mentors from
all participating countries will gather to ex-
amine the laboratory facilities where their
students will take the practical exam, tak-
ing inventory of supplies that each student
will need for the exam.
Later, mentors will meet to review the
exam questions prepared by the Scientific
Committee for this year’s competition.
They will have an opportunity to lobby to
reword or reject questions that they believe
would be outside of the knowledge base of
their students, or to request adjustments
of grading methods.
This deliberation, which can last from
two to six hours, “can be very heated,”
according to Doyle. “That is what we are
going to try to avoid this year. My role is
to keep things moving in these meetings,
making sure that people feel that they have
been treated fairly.”
After mentors agree on a final slate of
test questions, they then work to translate
the test into the language used by their
students. Translated tests are fed into an
Internet program that ensures that no part
of the answers has been incorporated into
the questions.
When testing is complete, the IChO
Scientific Committee members and their

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 COVER STORY
See a list of those serving on the 44th IChO Scientific
MORE ONLINE Committee at cenm.ag/oly.
gratulate students on their olympiad per- Orchestrating this year’s competition—
formance, and ACS Past-President Bruce and the many events surrounding it—has
E. Bursten will preside over the closing been complex. Among the many individuals
ceremony. This event will be followed by a and organizations supporting the effort,
farewell party and banquet at the National Sigma-Aldrich has donated the chemicals
Building Museum in Washington. to be used in the lab practical. Other in-kind
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donations include calculators from Texas
Instruments, molecular models from Mo-
lecular Visions, copies of the Merck Index
from Merck & Co., backpacks from Nike,
and personal care products from Procter
& Gamble. In addition, ACS’s Chemical
Abstracts Service is providing access to
SciFinder for all IChO teams in advance of
the competition; it is also providing hard-
cover journals and umbrellas. Bristol-Myers
Squibb donated funds to offset expenses for
preliminary Scientific Committee meetings
that were held last year. Those who have
pitched in toward the success of the 44th
IChO recognize the value and benefits that
result from their efforts.
BECAUSE THE COMPETITION takes
place on a level playing field, students
who receive IChO medals bring a certain
prestige to their home nations, Doyle says.
“That achievement certifies that educators
are in fact doing something right in their
country in preparing students to be inter-
nationally competitive,” he adds.
“For me,” Kiappes says, “the olympiad
was a truly life-changing experience. It
really opened my eyes to what an inter-
national endeavor chemistry is.” He is
currently enrolled in the Skaggs-Oxford
Program, a Ph.D. program that is a collabo-
ration between Scripps Research Institute
in La Jolla, Calif., and the University of
Oxford, in England. “I don’t think I would
have actively pursued graduate studies
outside the U.S. if not for the perspective
provided by the olympiad.”
It’s hard to imagine that any IChO par-
ticipant is unaffected by their immersion in
an international, chemistry-focused world,
even for a week. C&EN talked with several
past chemistry olympians, and each credits
their IChO experience with influencing
their career path (see page 20).
“It is very exciting to see the dynamics
and the enthusiasm of all who are involved
in IChO,” says Doyle, who attended the
2011 IChO in Ankara, Turkey. “They are
participating in something that will be vital
to them all their lives.”
Zewail, too, sees great merit in the
olympiad program, which will continue
with competitions in Moscow in 2013 and
Hanoi, Vietnam, in 2014. “The International
Chemistry Olympiad is uniquely positioned
for celebrating the beauty and cornucopia
of chemistry with the best young minds,” he
says. “By intellectually bonding with fellow
students from all over the world, they form
networks for the future.” ◾