International Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics
The International Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics is an anual competition for high school students on the topics of astronomy and astrophysics. Although a bit younger (it was established in 2007) it is very similar in spirit to well-known competitions such as the International Physics Olympiad or the International Mathematics Olympiad.
As of 2025, more than 60 countries partcipate in this olympiad, totaling at about 300 students and more than 100 official delegation members. Each country is allowed to send a team of up to 5 students and 2 teamleaders.
Germany participates in IOAA since 2019. And, in fact, I myself was part of this very first German team in 2019. After winning all three national selection rounds, I managed to secure a silver medal at the IOAA in Keszthely (Hungary) - finishing in the top 10% of all students. In particular, I was among the best 10 students in the theory exam which makes up half of all the available points. Unfortunately, I narrowly missed the gold medal ranks because I screwed up the observational rounds which might be one of the reasons why I decided it would be best to stick to theory in my own research.
After my own great experience as a student participating in IOAA, I decided to join Ivan Kokhanovskyi (who initiated the German participation in 2019) in organizing the national selection rounds. Since then, I have also accompanied the German team as a teamleader at all editions of IOAA from 2020 to 2026.
In the meantime, we professionalized the selection competition as well as the preparation and training of the team, and we even founded a non-profit organization called Astronomie-Olympiaden e.V. whose purpose is running the national olympiad. There, I currently act as a chairman.
If you are interested in our German selection competition, check out our website at ioaa-germany.de.