13 June:At least four students from India will participate in the International Biology Olympiad to be held in Mumbai from 13th to 20th July.
The students, who were selected after undergoing training and selection, are P G Nandan from Chennai, Sachit from Mangalore, Siddharth Bharat Iyengar from Bangalore, and Subhrashis Guha Niyogi from Howrah, Dr Vijay Singh, co-ordinator of the science Olympiad said in Mumbai on Friday.
The team will be accompanied by two leaders Dr Purushottam Gopalkrishna Kale, Reader in Zoology, Ramniranjan Jhunjhunwal College, Mumbai and Dr Sasikumar Menon, Assistant Director, Therapeutic Drug Monitoring Centre, Mumbai.
The IBO will be held at Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education (HBCSE), in north-east Mumbai."Over 65 countries are expected to participate this year. IBO was initiated in 1990 and India started participating in it since 2000 and this year we are hosting the IBO in Mumbai," Singh said.
HBCSE has been a nodal centre for training and selecting students for the Biology Olympiad since 2000.
HBCSE collaborates with the Indian Association of Teachers for Biological Sciences (IATBS) and the Indian Association of Physics Teachers (IAPT) for implementing the programme.
The Science Olympiad Programmes are funded by the Department of Atomic Energy, Department of Science and Technology and Ministry of Human Resource Development.
Singh said preparations for selecting the Indian team began in November, 2007 and about 10,000 students from across the nation registered in the first level examination and selected 318 students.In the second round, 42 students were selected by the Indian National Biology Olympiad which conducted the exams in 16 centres across the country.
Following an orientation programme, which was held at Jhunjhunwalla College in Ghatkopar both in theory and practicals, four students were selected for the IBO, Singh said.Singh said this is the first time that India is hosting IBO.India had earlier hosted International Chemistry Olympiad in 2001.Courtsey : DD NEWS