Vietnam earns 4 medals at 2025 International Biology Olympiad

Nguyen Luong Thai Duy, an 11th grader at Hanoi Amsterdam High School for the Gifted, secured the gold medal and placed seventh among the 298 contestants participating in the IBO from July 19 to 27.

The two silver medals were awarded to two 12th graders, Nguyen Huu Thanh from Tran Phu High School for the Gifted in Hai Phong City and Bui Hoang Dai Duong from Quoc Hoc High School for the Gifted in Hue City.

Le Hoang Kieu Anh, another 12th grader at Hanoi Amsterdam High School for the Gifted, received the bronze medal.

These achievements placed Vietnam among the top ten countries by overall team score.

The 2025 IBO saw participation from 81 delegations, including three observer teams, representing 81 countries and territories, with a total of 298 competitors.

The contestants faced two theory exams, each lasting 180 minutes, followed by four practical laboratory tests, each scheduled for 90 minutes.

In actual conditions, however, practical testing extended over a continuous twelve‑hour period from 12:30 pm on July 22 until 12:30 am on July 23, due to extra time required for specimen preparation and equipment setup.

The two theoretical papers covered global and real‑world topics such as environmental pollution, green growth, carbon neutrality, climate change combat, community disease prevention, and the diagnosis and treatment of several basic diseases under the principles of precision medicine.

Practical exams encompassed biomedicine, molecular and cellular biology, ecology and systematics, and microbiology.

First held in Czechoslovakia in 1990, the IBO has since become the world's premier annual biology competition for high school students, drawing over seventy participating countries.

Its goal is to bring together the most gifted secondary school biology students worldwide and foster their talents through rigorous theoretical challenges and hands‑on laboratory work.

Success at the IBO requires integrated knowledge of mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, and environmental science, along with fundamental laboratory skills that span from molecular to biosphere levels.

Vietnam first participated in the IBO in 1996 and won its first medals, a gold and a bronze, in 2000.

In 2016, the country hosted the 27th IBO in Hanoi, where the national team earned one gold, one silver, and two bronze medals.

Since then, Vietnamese students have continued to win numerous gold, silver, and bronze medals in subsequent competitions.