International Young Physicists' Tournament
Format: Online, live weekly sessions.
Real physics research on a problem shared by young physicists around the world.
Research Guide: Dr. Sergey Samsonau
One Problem, Taken All the Way
The IYPT publishes seventeen open-ended physics problems each year, with no textbook answers. You take one and pursue it as far as it will go: develop the theory, run the experiments, simulate where it helps. Then bring it to the tournament and defend it.
- Open to
- US students with a year of physics and a semester of original research behind them.
- Guided by
- Dr. Sergey Samsonau, a professional Research Guide.
- Format
- Online. Weekly live sessions with your Research Guide, independent work between sessions.
- Admission
- Selective, by application, with a physics assessment. What you have done matters, not where you did it.
- Your problem
- One of the seventeen IYPT problems published each year, pursued with theory, experiment, and simulation.
- Timeline
- Starts in September and runs the whole year: US selection in March, the international tournament in July.
Seventeen Problems, One Is Yours
Each year the International Young Physicists' Tournament (IYPT) poses seventeen open-ended problems. There is no solution to look up: how deep each one goes is discovered, not assigned. They are genuinely hard.
You choose one from the set and make it yours. The question is already posed, so all your energy goes into the physics: modeling, measuring, and taking the problem further than anyone expects.
Who This Is For
The program is for students in the USA. Bring physics you already know and research you can already do, and aim them at an IYPT problem. Two things need to be true, and both must be shown, not claimed.
A year of physics. At least a year, in school or on your own. We assess your knowledge at admission: you should be able to reason from first principles about topics typically covered in high school. The rest you will teach yourself as your problem demands it.
A semester of original research. A sustained investigation you formulated and carried out yourself, in any field, in a SoTS lab or anywhere else. What matters is the trace of real work: the question you chased, and how far past the first obstacle you took it. Where you did it, what school you attend, and whether it won anything do not matter.
The two test different things. The physics means you can engage the problem. The research means you can sustain an open-ended investigation when the easy path closes. An IYPT problem needs both.
What You'll Do
Investigate a real physical phenomenon. Unusual effects, counterintuitive behavior, questions that look simple and are not.
- Build apparatus from household items, hardware-store parts, and improvised rigs
- Develop mathematical models and test them against your own data
- Run computer simulations
- Present your findings, defend your conclusions, and revise when the data disagrees
This is how professional physicists work: theory, experiment, and computation held together.
Example Problems from the IYPT Set
| Field | Problem |
|---|---|
| Mechanics | Tennis Racket Theorem: When an object with different principal moments of inertia about each axis is thrown while it rotates, it can suddenly start rotating around a different axis. Investigate how rotational motion is affected by relevant parameters during free fall. |
| Optics | Sweet Monochromator: Pass linearly polarized white light through a column of sugar solution. When observed through a polarizer, the light may appear colored, and the color changes as you rotate the polarizer. Construct such a monochromator and optimize it for the narrowest wavelength bandwidth. |
| Fluids | Ring Fountain: When a flat metal ring falls into a water tank, it generates a fountain that can shoot water high into the air. How does the maximum height depend on the ring's parameters? |
| Electromagnetism | Magnetic Newton's Cradle: Repelling, non-touching magnets replace colliding balls in a new type of Newton's cradle. The cradle can act similarly to a regular one, but can also exhibit other interesting behavior. Explain and study the movement. |
| Fluids | Autumn Coin: The motion of a coin falling to the bottom of a liquid-filled tank can be remarkably similar to the fluttering and tumbling of a falling autumn leaf. Investigate how the motion depends on relevant parameters. |
Source: IYPT 2026 Problems.
How It Works
- Starts in September and runs the whole year.
- Live online sessions with your Research Guide, once a week.
- Independent work between sessions: build, model, simulate, analyze.
- Regular presentations to the cohort: defend your reasoning to people who will find the holes.
The Road to the Tournament
The road runs through the US selection in March: one student per problem, judged on a PDF of your slides and a 12-minute video. Do well there, and it continues to the international tournament in July.
This is where the road leads: the atmosphere of IYPT 2026 in Zurich, and the final of IYPT 2025 in Sweden.
Videos: IYPT 2026 Aftermovie by the Swiss Young Physicists' Tournament, and IYPT 2025 FINAL by IYPT Sweden.
Tournament Details
IYPT 2027: Auckland, New Zealand, July 2027. The 40th edition, with about 200 students from 36 countries expected.
The tournament has run since 1988, hosted around the world. Recent and upcoming editions:
- 2023: Pakistan
- 2024: Hungary
- 2025: Sweden
- 2026: Zurich, Switzerland (ETH Zurich)
- 2027: Auckland, New Zealand
See tournament philosophy, rules, and advice from organizers: USIYPT.net (US selection), IYPT.org, and IYPT 2027 Auckland.
Your Research Guide
Dr. Sergey Samsonau leads the cohort as a professional Research Guide.
- Physicist: PhD in Physics (experiment and simulation), MS in Theoretical Physics, 25 years in the field
- Trained 100+ students in research methodology at NYU
- Built and directed the research labs program at PRISMS (one of the top US high schools)
- Endorsed by USIYPT leadership for IYPT preparation
- Developed original research education methodologies
Want to go deeper into physics as a subject, not just a single problem? See the Physics Lyceum. For where a physics education leads, and why it is one of the strongest undergraduate paths, see The Hidden Ivy League. And the Research Residency is built the same way as this program: a real, predefined problem, pursued in depth.
Apply
Admission is selective, on the strength of the work. To apply, email us with evidence of your prior research, such as a report, a poster, or a slide deck from your project, and a few sentences on your physics background. Expect a physics knowledge assessment as part of admission. Tuition is sent by invoice on request.
A problem shared with the whole world. Your own physics, your own research, taken all the way.