1. The following 51 countries were present at the 26th. International Physics Olympiad:
Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Colombia, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czechlands, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, Italy, Kuwait, Lithuania, Mexico, Moldova, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Suriname, Sweden, Switzerland, Chinese Taipei, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, USA, Vietnam and Yugoslavia (Serbia/Montenegro).
Three countries: Bosnia, Latvia and Macedonia were represented by observers.
In addition to the regular participants an observer from the European Physical Society (Dr. Lars Gislen - at the same time the head of the Swedish delegation) was present.
2. Three months prior to the XXVI IPhO the Secretariat disseminated to all the delegations present at the XXV IPhO the following proposals to modify the Statutes:
A. Three proposals (from Canada, Russia and Yugoslavia) concerning the change of the titles of Secretary and Vice Secretary of IPhOs.
The International Board has unanimously accepted the following change in the #15 of the Statutes:
The words: "Secretary and Vice-Secretary, normally from the same country" are replaced with the words "President and Secretary".
B. The proposal from the Secretariat of the IPhOs to include into the Statutes two statements concerning political issues.
After discussion and introducing some changes it was decided by qualified majority to add the following two texts to the Statutes:
In #2 of the Statutes after first paragraph:
"No country may have its team excluded from participation on any political grounds resulting from political tensions, lack of diplomatic relations, lack of recognition of some country by the government of the organizing country, imposed embargoes and similar reasons. When difficulties preclude formal invitation of the team representing a country students from such a country should be invited to participate as individuals." (voting: in favor - 74, against - 7, abstained - 4)
In # 4 of the Statutes after second paragraph:
"The competition is conducted in the friendly atmosphere designed to promote future collaborations and to encourage the formation of friendships in the scientific community. To that effect all the possible political tensions between the participants should not be reflected in any activity during the competition. Any political activity directed against any individuals or countries is strictly prohibited." (voting: in favor - 90, against - 7, abstained - 0).
C. Three proposals (from Norway, Romania and Poland) suggesting changes in the rules of awarding the prizes and honorable mentions.
It was decided by majority of the leaders to postpone the discussion of these proposals until the next Olympiad.
D. The proposals (from Australia and Great Britain) on testing of the competition problems and on observers and visitors were withdrawn in understanding that they might be included in the manual for organizers of the Physics Olympiad which is being prepared by Dr. Rodney Jory.
E. The proposal (from Russia) concerning the timing of the access of the leaders to the papers of their students was not discussed for lack of time. It will be discussed at the next Olympiad.
F. Two proposals (from Great Britain and Australia) concerning the introduction of the fees for participation in the IPhO. These proposals with various modification were discussed at length. Most speakers agreed that with increasing number of participating countries some participation fee is essential to assure appropriate funding and the farther growth of IPhOs. The problem of exempting from fee payment the countries which organized the Olympiad in the past was also discussed. The indicative voting has, however, shown that qualified majority needed to introduce the appropriate changes to the Statutes could not be obtained at that time, mainly because a number of leaders had to consult their Ministries of Education or other authorities before voting on the item. A farther discussion of this problem is expected in Oslo. The Secretariat invites new proposals concerning financial future of the Olympiad. As there was no chance of introducing new rules this year over 20 countries pledged the voluntary contributions of 300 US$ per team member and leader to help the funding of the XXVII IPhO in Oslo.
5. The President of the International Physics Olympiads reminded delegations that the Secretariat of the IPhO always welcomes suggestions, comments and remarks concerning the Statutes and the Syllabus. All the suggestions received in the written form before December 31, 1995 will be disseminated to all the delegations not later than in March 1996. The President also reminded that all the basic Olympic documents (Statutes, Syllabus, statistics, results, minutes, suggested changes, etc.) are available by the "ftp" procedure from the server "ftp.ifpan.edu.pl" (one should use the following command: "ftp ftp.ifpan.edu.pl".) from the subdirectory "/pub/competitions/ipho".
6. The President of the IPhOs was pleased to announce that the following countries indicated that they will be able to organize the following future Olympiads:
6. Professor Arnt Inge Vistnes (Norway) has announced on behalf of the organizers of the next International Physics Olympiad that the XXVII International Physics Olympiad will be organized in Oslo on July 5 - 12, 1996 and cordially invited all the participating countries to attend the competition.
7. The results of marking the papers by the organizers were presented: The best score (42.5 points) was achieved by Yu Haitao from China (Absolute Winner of the XXVI IPhO). The following limits for awarding the medals were established according to the Statutes:
According to these limits 25 Gold Medals, 29 Silver Medals, 43 Bronze Medals and 54 Honorable Mentions were awarded. The list of all scores was distributed to the delegations. Only the scores of prize winners and the students awarded honorable mentions are to be make public.
In addition to the regular prizes a number of special prizes was awarded. Their list will be ditributed later.
8. At the end of the last International Board meeting of the XXVI IPhO the Secretary of the IPhO expressed on behalf of the President and all the members of the International Board sincere thanks and appreciation for Dr. Rodney Jory and the members of the Organizing Committee for exemplary preparation and execution of the XXVI International Physics Olympiad. The International Board gave Rodney standing ovation to salute his work and resulting memorable Olympiad.
9. At the closing ceremony the "ICPE Medal for Physics Teaching" awarded to IPhO in 1993 was transferred from the organizers of the XXVI IPhO to the representative of Norway, the host of the next Olympiad.
10. The Chinese delegation refused to participate in the closing ceremony and the final banquet to protest the presence of flag of Taipei (China), which in their view differed from the one internationally accepted as the Olympic flag.
Dr. Waldemar Gorzkowski
(President of the IPhOs)
Dr. Rodney Jory
(Executive Director, Organizing Committee, XXVI IPhO)
Dr. Andrzej Kotlicki
(Secretary of the IPhOs)
Warsaw, Canberra, Vancouver, July 12, 1995