Brief history of the IPT

The International Physicists’ Tournament was born in Ukraine in 2009 as a continuation of a long tradition of physics competitions in the USSR. It brought together 16 teams from the leading universities of Ukraine and neighboring countries. The two first editions of the tournament took place at Kiev University, and the third and fourth editions occurred at the Moscow Institute of Technology in Russia. In 2013, the tournament moved west, to Switzerland where the fifth and sixth editions took place at Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne. The tournament stayed in Europe for the subsequent years, until in 2022 the IPT got to South America, and was hosted in Bucaramanga, Colombia.

Over the years, more and more countries took part in this event. In 2022, the tournament brought together fifteen countries (despite the pandemic-related drop): Brazil, Colombia, Croatia, Denmark, France, Germany, Romania, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, and the UK.

YearHost# of registered teams# of participating teamsGold winnerSilver winnerBronze winner
2009Kyiv - Ukraine44UkraineRussiaN/A
2010Kyiv - Ukraine44RussiaUkraineN/A
2011Moscow - Russia88UkraineRussiaSlovakia
2012Moscow - Russia66RussiaUkraineSwitzerland
2013Lausanne - Switzerland1010SwitzerlandPolandFrance
2014Lausanne - Switzerland99FranceUkraineDenmark
2015Warsaw - Poland1111UkraineDenmarkFrance
2016Paris - France1615FrancePolandRussia
2017Gothenburg - Sweden2018UkraineSwedenFrance
2018Moscow - Russia2116SwitzerlandFranceBrazil
2019Lausanne - Switzerland2119France - XFrance - LyonUkraine
2020online2110RussianUkraineUSA
2021online and Warsaw - Poland1513RussiaBrazilUkraine
2022Bucaramanga - Colombia1915FranceBrazilSwitzerland
2023Paris - France2218France and PolandN/ATeam IPT
2024Zurich - Switzerland2221GermanyFranceItaly
2025Checiny - Poland2618Germany and SwitzerlandN/AFrance