Illustrative: Israel’s Chemistry Olympiad team that competed in the 58th International Chemistry Olympiad in Uzbekistan. Photo: Israel Ministry of Education and the Future Scientists Center

Israeli students have continued a remarkable run of international victories, collecting medals in mathematics, chemistry, physics, and biology competitions around the world in recent weeks.

The latest success came at the 67th International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) in Shanghai, China, where Israeli teenager Yotam Budnik won a gold medal and every member of the country’s six-person delegation returned home with a prize.

Budnik, a 12th grader from Rehovot, ranked 23rd among 666 students from 117 countries. Competitors were challenged to solve six exceptionally difficult problems testing their knowledge of algebra, combinatorics, geometry, and number theory.

The victory marked Budnik’s second consecutive IMO gold medal. He also won a bronze medal in 2024, giving him three medals across three years of competition.

The rest of the Israeli national team that competed in the IMO also went home with medals: Shahar Blumentzvaig won silver, while Daniel Priness, Michael Cohen, Elad Even-Shani and Yuval Yaul won bronze medals. Team Israel ranked 18 in the competition. The Israeli mathematics team trained at the Weizmann Institute of Science with support from Israel’s Ministry of Education as well as The Future Scientists Center for the Advancement of the Talented and Gifted, established by the Maimonides Fund.

This year’s IMO took place from July 10-21. The Olympiad for high school students has been held annually in a different country since 1959, with the exception of 1980, and Israel has been participating since 1979. Eligible students must be under 20 years old and not enrolled in post-secondary education. Next year’s IMO will be held in Budapest, Hungary.

This month alone, Israel’s young minds have taken home several medals in competitions around the world that focus on chemistry, physics, and biology. Israel’s national chemistry team won two gold and two silver medals at the 58th International Chemistry Olympiad in Uzbekistan earlier this month shortly after Israel’s national physics team secured one gold and four silver medals at the 56th International Physics Olympiad in Bucaramanga, Colombia. Also this month, Israeli students won two gold and two bronze medals at the International Biology Olympiad in Lithuania.