Héctor Jair Jiménez
represented Mexico in the 51st International Chemistry Olympiads that took place from J uly 21 to 30 , 2019 in Paris, France . The young student won the bronze medal .
Héctor was selected by the National Chemistry Olympiad (ONQ) , coordinated and organized by the Mexican Academy of Sciences (AMC) , with support from the National Council for Science and Technology (CONACyT) .
“We came back very happy with the result, which is a great accomplishment for such a difficult international competition . Once more, it has been proven that Mexican students have the ability to compete with any student of the world, and that’s why we hope this program keeps awakening scientific callings in our youths,” said the national coordinator of the ONQ, Mauricio Castro , in a release issued by the AMC.
The researcher remembered that the objective of this olympiad is to promote Chemistry , to get the youth interested in this science. “And we hope that our Mexican team, by bringing these awards, is a great incentive for other students, to show them that they can get prepared and participate in international competitions,” he added.
Héctor Jair, originally from Veracruz , told the AMC that “the competition consisted of two exam s, one practical , and another theoretical ; in the first, we had to solve three problems related to chemical synthesis, we had to obtain a pure product, a yellow dust from a nitrocarboxylic acid. We also did a calibration and an assessment, for which we had to measure the amount of iron and sulfur dioxide contained in a wine sample. For the theoretical exam, we solved nine problems.”
In addition, the student Víctor Ulises Placencia , originally from Jalisco , won an honorary mention in the 51st International Chemistry Olympiad .
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