Live broadcast of the Award Ceremony of the IMChO59 is available here.
The 59th International Mendeleev Olympiad of Schoolchildren in Chemistry (IMChO) - one of the largest competitions in chemistry, equated by UNESCO in status to the International Olympiad - has finished In Belo Horizonte (Brazil). The Olympiad is named after the great Russian scientist Dmitry Mendeleev, who discovered the Periodic law of elements, which symbolizes the complexity, multidisciplinarity and creative approach to solving the proposed problems. The Mendeleev Olympiad is organised by the Department of Chemistry of Lomonosov Moscow State University and the Melnichenko Foundation.
This year, 40 countries are taking part in the Mendeleev Olympiad: Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bolivia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Chad, China, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cuba, Chad, Chile, China, Costa Rica, Croatia, Ethiopia, Guyana, Honduras, Hungary, Guyana, Honduras, Iran, Israel, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Mexico, Mongolia, Peru, Qatar, Republic of Korea, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Northern Macedonia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Uzbekistan, Venezuela and Vietnam.
A total of 19 gold medals, 38 silver medals and 58 bronze medals were awarded at the 59th International Mendeleev Olympiad in Chemistry. 3 gold medals - China, 10 gold medals were won by Russia, 3 gold medals - Uzbekistan, 2 gold medals - Vietnam, 1 gold medal - Hungary. The link to all results is below:
Zhao Yaosi, a schoolboy from China, won the absolute first place and the Academician Lunin Prize of the I degree. The prize of the II degree was awarded to Vladimir Elistratov from the school of the Centre of Pedagogical Mastery (Moscow). The prize of the III degree went to Wang Xuantong, a schoolboy from China.
Zhao Yaosi (China) earned the title of ‘Best Theorist’. ‘The best practitioner’ was Mendigali Kaldybay from Kazakhstan.
According to Stepan Kalmykov, Chairman of the IMChO59 Organising Committee, Scientific Director of the Faculty of Chemistry of Moscow State University, Vice-President of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the International Mendeleev Olympiad has become a serious tool for the formation of the international chemical community: ‘This is not just a competition, but a whole series of round tables and mini-symposia, which allows us to transfer and improve the world's leading practices in the field of chemical education, as well as in the training of top-level Olympiad students. The exchange of experience between the heads of the world's leading teams that takes place during the Olympiad is invaluable. The Mendeleev Olympiad not only helps the development of the Olympiad movement in many countries, but also provides opportunities to expand international scientific and educational co-operation - new educational and scientific projects are being formed in the field of ecology, radiochemistry, radiopharmaceuticals and other areas. New scientific ties have appeared among representatives of almost all countries participating in the Olympiad’.
Tatiana Zhuravleva, General Director of the Melnichenko Foundation, Co-Chair of the Organising Committee of the IMChO-59: ‘The 59th International Mendeleev Olympiad in Brazil has strengthened the status of one of the key international projects of Russian science and education, expanding its geography to dozens of countries. Hundreds of undoubtedly talented and motivated schoolchildren from all over the world demonstrated a high level of academic knowledge, confirming that chemistry has a huge potential for development as the most important driver of the global economy. The foundations for future international co-operation in this field are laid at events such as the Mendeleev Olympiad, as it brings together young people who tomorrow will become leaders of the largest scientific, technological and commercial projects in their countries’.
Alexander Gladilin, Chairman of the IMChO-59 jury, Professor of the MSU Chemistry Department and Director of the MSU University Gymnasium, Dr Alexander Gladilin, said: ‘The overall level of the teams is high because the vast majority of teams are made up of winners of national Olympiads. There are absolutely top teams that perform very well here and will certainly confirm their level at the International Chemistry Olympiad. Besides Russia, these are China, Hungary, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan. This year we have been joined by teams from several countries that are known as very strong, including Japan, South Korea and Iran. Another striking example is the Vietnamese team. They performed well last year, and this year even better.’
In addition to the competitive part, the Mendeleev Olympiad also includes a large scientific, educational and cultural block. ‘During the 59th Mendeleev Olympiad a series of round tables and mini-symposia were held, where team leaders discussed the problems of training top-level Olympiad students, textbooks and the system of chemical education in different countries. - Alexander Gladilin told about the international programme of the Olympiad. - Also at the Federal University of Minas Gerais, where the Olympiad took place, there was a series of popular science lectures, which were listened to not only by the participants of the Olympiad, but also by Brazilian students’.
The 59th International Mendeleev Chemistry Olympiad (IMChO) will be held from 6-13 May 2025 in Brazil, in the city of Belo Horizonte at the Federal University of Minas Gerais. Since 2023, the CSI has been held under the auspices of the Decade of Science and Technology.
The goals and objectives of the IMChO include several key areas of work: supporting gifted students studying chemistry, promoting chemistry education, disseminating best practices in chemistry education, enhancing the prestige of the chemistry profession, creating conditions for the formation of new generations of chemical scientists and engineers, and strengthening international cooperation. The IMChO serves as a platform for dialogue between representatives of the international educational and scientific community. The IMChO clearly demonstrates the commitment of the participating countries to the principles of long-term multilateral co-operation in the interests of new generations.
The IMChO brings together the best schoolchildren - winners of national Olympiads. The programme is always designed so that the participants have an opportunity to get acquainted and establish informal communication. Connections made at such events often last for decades and later develop into fruitful scientific co-operation.
The winners of the Olympiad are given an opportunity for career development: they get the right to enter the best universities of the country without exams, they are more willing to work in international laboratories from the first year.
The 2025 Olympiad is hosted by the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), one of Brazil's oldest and most prestigious universities, which plays a key role in the country's education, science and culture. UFMG is ranked among the top 5 universities in Brazil and the top 20 universities in Latin America.
The co-chairs of the IMChO-59 Organising Committee were Stepan Nikolayevich Kalmykov - Vice-President of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Scientific Director of the Department of Chemistry at Lomonosov Moscow State University; Tatyana Andreevna Zhuravlyova - General Director of the Melnichenko Foundation and Sandra Regina Goulart Almeida - Rector of the Federal University of Minas Gerais.
The Organising Committee and Methodological Commission of the Olympiad consists of professors, teachers, leading universities, as well as chemistry teachers of secondary schools of the participating countries, graduate students and students of universities of the host country.
Procedure of the IMChO:
Teams of final and pre-graduation schoolchildren from among the winners of the national chemistry Olympiads participate in the IMChO.
The competition consists of three rounds.
The first round consists of 8 compulsory tasks. The tasks of the first theoretical round in complexity correspond to the programme of specialised chemistry classes.
In the second theoretical round there are 5 blocks of three problems from different areas of chemistry (organic, inorganic, physical, analytical or life sciences). These are tasks of a slightly higher level. A participant can choose any of the three problems in each block.
The experimental round of the Olympiad lasts for 5 hours, it implies that the students have skills of working in a chemical laboratory: the ability to perform chemical analysis of substances and to carry out synthesis according to the proposed methodology.
Awards for the winners:
Winners of the International Mendeleev Olympiad receive bronze, silver and gold medals. The number of winners is determined as a percentage of the number of participants. 10 % of the total number are gold medallists, 20 % - silver medallists, 30 % - bronze medallists. The exact number is determined by an international jury.
Many winners and prize-winners of the Olympiad in their countries receive additional prizes, awards and benefits. In some countries these are grants for higher education, in some other countries - cash prizes
Additional incentives for winners:
Starting from 2020. The Melnichenko Foundation awards the absolute winners of the IMChO in individual competition the Academician Valery Lunin Prize, established in honour of the founder of the Mendeleev Olympiad. The prize fund in 2025 totalled RUB 1,000,000 for absolute first place, 500,000 for second place and 350,000 for third place.