At a time when the international community has heightened sensitivity to the work of Iranian physicists, more than 350 of the brightest young physics minds from 80 countries around the world will gather in Isfahan, Iran, in mid-July to compete in the 20 7 International Physics Olympiad. Stanley, chairman of the physics department at Beloit College, is senior coach to the American team of five high school students who will make the trip. "The site for the competition is chosen about 10 years in advance. That it's in Iran now isn't an issue, it's just coincidence," Stanley said. Still, he added, a number of parents have contacted him about traveling to Iran. Stanley said he isn't particularly worried about safety in Iran, though he concedes there are unknowns ahead. "It's very likely they're going to fingerprint us on arrival, that they're going to delay us more than ordinary passengers before they finally let us into the country," Stanley said. "And when we depart, they're going to more thoroughly check our bags. They're going to want to see our film, see our video recorders, they'll likely ask us to turn on our laptop computers to see if we've brought material with us." But once immigration red tape and inherently more dangerous Tehran, where they land, are behind them, Stanley expects no problems. "The desire to impress us with their hospitality is going to be the norm," he said. Encouraging others to move beyond a myopic world view is key to what makes Stanley tick. He spent seven years in the Fiji Islands as a teacher in the Peace Corps and has been to 40 countries. This will be his first trip to Iran. He also plays trumpet in several groups on campus and is learning Chinese. "People who grow up eating with forks do not perform as well on the whole if they're in a place where forks are not available," said Stanley. People have made a lot of jokes about the physics contest being held in Iran, but they're missing the point, said U.S. team member Kenan Diab. "The Physics Olympiad has been around for such a long time, it really transcends political conflict," said Diab, 17, who'll attend MIT in the fall. "I really would prefer not to see the political circumstances kind of pollute the purity of the contest like that. "The fact that 80 countries can just sit around and do physics for a week and a half, that's pretty cool."
Fiji RPCV Paul Stanley takes top U.S. physics students to Iran
Beloit prof takes top U.S. physics students to Iran
Jun 25, 2007 — Knight Ridder Tribune Business News
Jun. 25--The irony hasn't escaped Beloit College professor Paul Stanley.
At a time when the international community has heightened sensitivity to the work of Iranian physicists, more than 350 of the brightest young physics minds from 80 countries around the world will gather in Isfahan, Iran, in mid-July to compete in the 20 7 International Physics Olympiad. Stanley, chairman of the physics department at Beloit College, is senior coach to the American team of five high school students who will make the trip. "The site for the competition is chosen about 10 years in advance. That it's in Iran now isn't an issue, it's just coincidence," Stanley said. Still, he added, a number of parents have contacted him about traveling to Iran.
"They're saying, So, you're going to make sure my kid is safe. You're going to look after them, right?' And what I have to say is, Well, actually, no, I'm not going to look after them.'" It's not that he doesn't want to. "But shortly after the plane lands we'll be met by Iranian hosts and they're going to separate the coaches from the competitors," Stanley said. Even cell phones will be confiscated. It's not some plot, Stanley said. "This is normal. This is what always happens," said Stanley, who's previously gone to Olympiads in Singapore and Spain. "Why? Because the coaches get access to the exam in advance, in part because we have to translate the exams into our local languages.
Separating us, confiscating cell phones or whatever is just one way of making sure there is no temptation or even accid ntal information sharing with students ahead of time." The Physics Olympiad, now in its 38th year, was originally a competition for Eastern Bloc countries. With the thaw of the Cold War in the early 1980s, western countries started participating. The five members of the 2007 U.S. Physics Olympiad team are selected from an elite group of students. A perfect SAT score "is the norm for this group," Stanley said. To get to the Olympiad, 24 finalists were chosen from more than 200 semifinalists.
These finalists then took part in a two-week training camp in May at the University of Maryland, where they spent hours doing examinations, problem sets and experiments a d getting lessons on advanced topics such as relativity and thermodynamics. At the end of camp, five students were named to the Olympiad team: Kenan Diab, Gates Mills, Ohio; Rui Hu, Wilmington, Del.; Jenny Kwan, San Marcos, Calif.; Jason LaRue, Miami; and Haofei Wei, Oklahoma City. The U.S. team is sponsored by the American Physical Society and the American Association of Physics Teachers. Students are in Iran for 10 days, but have only two days of competition, each featuring a five-hour exam.
The first, worth 60 percent, covers theory; the remaining exam involves an experiment. For the record, Stanley said with a wry grin, it's highly unlikely there will be any nuclear-related questions. Although the five American students are there as a team, they compete individually, and would ultimately win medals as individuals. The top 6 percent of competitors generally receive gold medals. Last year, China placed first overall, the U.S. was second and Indonesia was third. When they're not competing, students have plenty of time to look around -- with constant supervision. Each international team is assigned an Iranian host who will be responsible for guiding them everywhere from breakfast to touring local museums or mosq es.
"The fact that we have a female on our team probably means we'll have two hosts, a male and a female, to look after the team," Stanley said. "The students will be expected to follow their hosts like sheep." Iran has not been without its troubles. On Sunday, the New York Times reported a backlash against those who have moved too far toward Western dress and habits, with the government focusing on labor leaders, universities, the press, women's rights advoca es, a former nuclear negotiator and Iranian-Americans, three of whom have been in prison for more than six weeks. And the ongoing standoff with the West over Iran's disputed nuclear program threatens to bring new sanctions.
But Stanley said he isn't particularly worried about safety in Iran, though he concedes there are unknowns ahead. "It's very likely they're going to fingerprint us on arrival, that they're going to delay us more than ordinary passengers before they finally let us into the country," Stanley said. "And when we depart, they're going to more thoroughly check our bags. They're going to want to see our film, see our video recorders, they'll likely ask us to turn on our laptop computers to see if we've brought material with us." But once immigration red tape and inherently more dangerous Tehran, where they land, are behind them, Stanley expects no problems.
"The desire to impress us with their hospitality is going to be the norm," he said. Encouraging others to move beyond a myopic world view is key to what makes Stanley tick. He spent seven years in the Fiji Islands as a teacher in the Peace Corps and has been to 40 countries. This will be his first trip to Iran. He also plays trumpet in several groups on campus and is learning Chinese. "People who grow up eating with forks do not perform as well on the whole if they're in a place where forks are not available," said Stanley. People have made a lot of jokes about the physics contest being held in Iran, but they're missing the point, said U.S.
team member Kenan Diab. "The Physics Olympiad has been around for such a long time, it really transcends political conflict," said Diab, 17, who'll attend MIT in the fall. "I really would prefer not to see the political circumstances kind of pollute the purity of the contest like that. "The fact that 80 countries can just sit around and do physics for a week and a half, that's pretty cool."
