A team from Oxford’s Department of Physics, TeamName, came out on top at this year’s UK and Ireland Preliminaries of the international theoretical physics competition, PLANCKS. The win has earned them a spot in the finals that will take place in the Netherlands in May. A joint team from Imperial and Oxford, I Carnot, came in second while another Oxford team, Oxionians – One Last Time, came in fourth. The UK and Ireland Preliminaries were held in Kent at the end of February.
PLANCKS is a theoretical physics competition for teams of three to four undergraduate and master’s students and is organised by the International Association of Physics Students (IAPS) and supported by the Institute of Physics. The competition attracted 41 teams of physics fanatics from 39 universities across the UK and Ireland. The teams undertake an exam during the three-day conference, hear from keynote speakers and have plenty of opportunity to network with their peers.
TeamName members Yixun Liu, Chunyi Deng, Hongyi Xiong and Jingxiang Yang will be travelling to Eindhoven for the finals in 21-25 May 2026. Last year, Oxford team POSTLIMS came second in the preliminaries while in 2024, the Oxonians Reloaded secured first place.