Bangladeshi students win 1 silver, 5 bronze medals

Six Bangladeshi students won one silver and five bronze medals at the 1st Open World Astronomy Olympiad that was held remotely from September 26 to October 2, last year, in the city of Saransk in the Republic of Mordovia of the Russian Federation.

The Russian Embassy in Bangladesh, with the support of the Russian House in Dhaka, hosted an award-giving ceremony in Dhaka to recognise the achievements of six Bangladeshi participants.

Representatives from many national institutions including the Ministry of Education and the Bangladesh Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics (BDOAA) participated in this event. The awards were presented by the Russian ambassador, Alexander V Mantitsky.

The awardees were: Imdadullah Raji, student of Notre Dame College (bronze); Hritom Sarker Oyon, student of Adamjee Cantonment Public School (silver); Ahnaf Anwar Nafi, student of Chittagong College (bronze); Radh Chowdhury, student of Dhaka Residential Model College (bronze); Md Fijul Kabir Jishan, student of Ananda Mohan College (bronze); and Md Faiyaz Siddiquee, student of the DPS STS School, Dhaka (bronze).

Maxim Dobrokhotov, director of the Russian House in Dhaka, welcomed the participants and emphasized that this kind of event is important for both Moscow and Dhaka and aims to find and promote talented people, to show the necessity for education and future opportunities. He specified that prize winners of such Olympiads have advantages when applying for Russian government scholarships and grants programmes.

The speaker elaborated on the advanced and world-class education system in Russian universities, saying that the Russian House in Dhaka has always provided cooperation in this regard and will continue to do so in the future.

The OWAO is also planned this year (tentatively in November) in a mixed format (both in-person and remote). Bangladesh is preparing to participate again.