Once again, achievements are made by UGM students. After going through a long struggle, UGM team finally managed to win many medals in the National Olympiad of Science and Mathematics 2011, held from 28 April to 2 May 2011 in Bandung. In this competition, UGM managed to win five gold medals, four silver medals, 6 bronze medals, and 1 Honorable mention.
National Olympiad of Science and Mathematics is an annual Olympiad organized by the Directorate General of Higher Education, Ministry of National Education Republic of Indonesia. The Olympiad aims to strengthen national unity and to measure the top ability of Indonesian students in the field of sciences. Participants consisted of 204 students from 41 universities in Indonesia that have successfully passed the selection on the second stage. They are from UGM, ITB, IPB, IT Telkom, UNY, UI, ITS, Airlangga University, Diponegoro University and Unnesa. The second stage selection was followed by 1045 participants in mathematics, 578 participants in chemistry, 566 participants in physics, and 684 participants in biology.
For the field of biology, UGM team successfully had the most students being qualified for the final among the entire biological program studies in Indonesia, namely 6 students plus a winner of Indonesian Higher Education National Science Olympiad 2010. The team also managed to dominate the medals table by winning 2 gold medals (Fajar Sofyantoro and Yunita D. Setyorini), 2 silver medals (Imam Bagus Nugroho and Matin Nuhamunada), and 1 bronze medal (Rudi Nirwantono).
In the field of chemistry, UGM managed to win one gold medal (Setya Parmadi, student of Chemical Engineering), one silver medal (Laila Ambar Sari), and 2 bronze medals (Adhi Dwi Hatmanto and Priyagung Dhemi Widiakongko). Meanwhile, Ibnu Jihad (student of Physics, Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics) won Honorable mention in the field of physics.
In the field of mathematics, students of Mathematics Department, UGM Faculty of Science, dominated the championship with the acquisition of two gold medals (Made Tantrawan and Muhammad Thoriq), 1 silver medal (I Made Ari Susena), and 3 bronze medals (Febi Sanjaya, Putra Andika Hermen, and Iwan Ernanto). Special for this field, 20 best participants will receive coaching. Five best participants will then be selected for the International Mathematics Competition event held in Blageovrad, Bulgaria. Last year, the students of UGM Department of Mathematics (Albert Gunawan and Made Tantrawan) won the Golden Prize and Silver Prize in the international mathematics competition.
The achievement adds to the long list of UGM student achievement, both at national and international levels and proves the quality of education and academic quality of UGM. All this achievement makes the happy news in relation to the commemoration of National Education Day which falls on 2 May.