16th IOAA has ended!

Around three hundred students from fifty countries competed in the 16th International Astronomy and Astrophysics Olympiad in Poland between August 10th and August 20th. The American team achieved an amazing result with five medals (2 gold and 3 silver medals).

Evan Kim – gold medal
David Lee – gold medal
David Zhang – silver medal
Austin Chen – silver medal
Adhitya Chandra – silver medal

Team Leaders: Lucas Pinheiro (Notre Dame) and Abhay Bestrapalli (MIT)

Training was conducted by volunteer mentors through video calls with the team members.

The USA team was selected by volunteer members of the USAAAO (USA Astronomy and Astrophysics Organization) based on candidates’ results in a selection exam. The next IOAA will take place in Brazil in August 2024.

The USAAAO team is extremely grateful to the “The Masson Family Fund” for their generosity. Because of the support of the Mason Family, USAAAO could cover the team’s travel, accommodation and food expenses. We’re also thankful to law firm Prince Lobel for legal representation.

For more IOAA moments, follow us on Facebook and Instagram.

US Team at IOAA 2023!

The US team is now in Poland for the 2023 IOAA competition, which lasts from 8/10 to 8/20. We wish them all the best! This year’s team includes:

  • Austin Chen
  • David Lee
  • David Zhang
  • Evan Kim
  • Adhitya Chandra

More information about the team can be found here.

Webinar on Fundamental Physics for USAAAO

Please join us on Friday, 7/14 at 6 PM PST/9 PM EST for a webinar hosted by USAAAO coaches on fundamental concepts integral to astronomy/astrophysics and the USAAAO competition! All are invited to attend. The webinar will cover concepts and include problem solving (it will not be recorded).

The meeting link can be found here (passcode: 784375). We hope to see you there!

2023 NAC Complete!

Congratulations to all students who took the NAC exam yesterday! We hope you enjoyed the problems. Problems, solutions, and scores will be released within the next few weeks.

2023 USAAAO First Round Exam Complete!

We would like to thank all of the students who took part in the first round exam on Saturday. We are also especially grateful to teachers and all of the USAAAO volunteers for their hard work in putting together and proctoring the exam.

Exams and solutions can be found here. The cutoff to qualify for the National Astronomy Competition was 13. Scores for the first round exam are posted on Gradescope, with a representative histogram of scores shown below.

Thank you for supporting us in our efforts to expand access to astronomy and astrophysics!

Last Day to Register!

You have until January 31st to register for the First Round of USA Astronomy and Astrophysics Competition. We already have students from 25 states and 12 countries registered.

Students must be present at the specified exam time that depends on the time zone of a student. First Round is on Saturday, February 11th. Second Round time slots will be the same.

To register, please use this link. Registration this year is $30 per student. If you’re unable to pay, please register by using this form. You don’t need to fill out both forms. We want to make sure that everyone that wants to participate has the opportunity to do so.

The slots are:

Slot 1: 9am West Coast time (same as 12pm East Coast Time, 2pm Brazil time, 7pm Romanian time, etc.)

Slot 2: 9pm East Coast time, which translates to 5pm Alaskan time and 4pm Hawaiian time.

Note: students are responsible for double checking the time difference

For more information about the selection process visit our Selection Process page. If you’d like to receive notifications about future opportunities, join our mailing list here.

USAAAO Registration is Open!

Registration for the first round of USAAAO is open!

The registration forms are on this page. There is a fee of $30 to register, but we have a financial aid application for those who need it.

Registration will close on January 31st, 2023.

The first round exam will take place on February 11th, and there will be two time slots available to accommodate students in different time zones. The competition will be online, and students will be proctored by USAAAO volunteers through video calls.

You can read more about the tests on our selection process page, and you can find study materials on our resource page. If you have any questions, email us at info@usaaao.org! For more frequent updates about USAAAO, visit our Instagram page.

Schedule for USAAAO 2023!

We’re excited to announce the schedule of USAAAO for the upcoming year!

The whole competition will be online. USAAAO volunteers will be proctoring the exams. In order to accommodate different time zones, we will be offering 2 time slots. More details to follow.

Jan 3rd (2023)-Jan 31st (2023): Registration

February 11th: First Round Exam

April 1st: National Astronomy Competition

August 10th-20th: IOAA in Poland

Registration will open on our registration page, so get ready and spread the word! If you want an email announcement, join our mailing list here. The registration fee this year will be $30, however we will accept financial aid requests.

You can read more about the tests on our selection process page, and you can find study materials on our resource page. If you have any questions, email us at info@usaaao.org!

15th IOAA has ended!

Around three hundred students from forty-five countries competed in the 15th International Astronomy and Astrophysics Olympiad in Georgia the country between August 14th and August 22nd. The American team achieved an amazing result with ten medals (3 gold, 3 silver and 4 bronze).

Main team:

Samvit Das – gold medal
David Zhang – gold medal
Erez Israeli Miller – silver medal
Justin Chen – silver medal
Abhay Narasima Bestrapalli – bronze medal

Guest team:

Evan Kim – gold medal
Andrew Liu – silver medal
Orion Foo – bronze medal
Austin Chen – bronze medal
Arjun Patel –bronze medal

Team Leaders: Natasa Dragovic (Tufts University) and Lucas Pinheiro (Notre Dame)

Training was conducted by volunteer mentors through video calls with the team members.

The USA team was selected by volunteer members of the USAAAO (USA Astronomy and Astrophysics Organization) based on candidates’ results in a selection exam. The next IOAA will take place in Poland in August 2023.

The USAAAO team is extremely grateful to the “The Masson Family Fund” for their generosity. Because of the support of the Mason Family, USAAAO could cover the team’s travel, accommodation and food expenses. We’re also thankful to law firm Prince Lobel for legal representation.

For more IOAA moments, follow us on Facebook and Instagram.

Part of the team during the opening ceremony