City-based student Sharad Mirani will represent India at the 5th International Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics (IOAA) to be held in Poland during August 25 to September 3 this year. Mirani is member of the five-member team representing India. Other students are Jeevan Priya ( Hyderabad), R. S. B. Bhardwaj (Hyderabad), Akhil Kedia (Kolkata) and Akshay Krishna ( Bangalore).
IOAA is a prestigious world forum for scientific activities held for continuous 10 days in which high school students from around the world compete against each other, solving theoretical, analytical and observational problems in the fields of astronomy and astrophysics. More than 30 countries will participate in the event, said science city officials.
Sharad, a student of Prakash High School in Ahmedabad, was the first student of Gujarat to represent India at the International Earth Science Olympiads held at Taiwan during 2009 and International Astronomy Olympiads (Jr.) in Ukraine in 2010.
Science City officials said that they are nurturing students to prepare them for international arena where they can compete with students from different countries. "Our summer camps and awareness seminars for the school children are targeted at bringing out genius in them by igniting their curiosity and imagination. We want more Sharads from the state to represent our nation," said a science city official.