Students Chosen for U.S. Physics Olympiad Team

Senior Ariella Kirsch and junior Kenan Diab have been selected as members of the 2006 United States Physics Olympiad Team. Scoring higher than over a thousand other students to earn a spot on the prestigious team, they may be selected to face the challenge of meeting physics students from all over the world in a brain-to-brain competition. Kirsch and Diab are among the twenty-four students from across the U.S. were chosen to train for the mentally grueling exams and lab tests they`ll face at the International Physics Olympiad. Students spent a week at the physics training camp at the University of Maryland, College Park, conducting lab experiments, taking exams, and hearing presentations from prominent scientists. A debater and computer builder, Diab describes himself as a competitor in his biography. \"While I have focused most of my energies on mathematical and scientific pursuits,\" he says \"my love for anything competitive hasn`t really diminished.\" Kirsch is also ambitious. \"I`d like to one day become fluent in more than just English,\" she said. \"My overly ambitious list of languages I want to know includes Hebrew, Russian, Arabic, Spanish and Chinese. And possibly French.\" She has just participated in a local political campaign, she said in her online biography. Upper School Physics teacher Robert Shurtz will serve in his first year as head coach: the academic director of the students` ten-day study. When the students travel to Singapore, Shurtz will get together with other head coaches to grade exam questions. He has been a U.S. Physics Team coach since 2001. The U.S. Physics Olympiad Program was started in 1986 by AAPT to promote and demonstrate academic excellence. The Olympiad is a nine-day international competition among pre-university students from more than 60 nations. The training camp is sponsored by the AAPT and the American Institute of Physics, College Park, MD.