Welcome to the NZ Young Physicists’ Tournament!

The New Zealand Young Physicists’ Tournament is a researched based Physics team competition open to all New Zealand students studying advanced Physics examination courses, in New Zealand. participation is another wy to practice for NCEA standard

Tournament is organised by the New Zealand Young Physicists’ Trust, registered charity CC62496. Our purpose is to promote high school physics in New Zealand as a foundation study for STEM careers. The Tournament is our flagship event.

The 2026 New Zealand Tournament Problems are Published!

The seven problems for the New Zealand Young Physicists’ Tournament are available here ready for students to start their research.

The draft schedule for both the NZYPT 2026 Tournament and the selection of the New Zealand Representative Team for the 39th IYPT in Zurich, Switzerland, is available here. Please note that this year Rep Team selection will take place BEFORE the Tournament to maximise the preparation time available.

There will be a teacher and student workshop at the end of Term 4, This will be especially useful for schools competing for the first time and year 12 students aspiring to the New Zealand representative team. The workshop will be available in several regions across NZ at minimal cost thanks to our sponsors, Jane Street International.

The schools Tournament will again be in Auckland on March 21st 2026. The fee will be kept at the 2024 level of $135 per team. Despite increasing numbers of schools participating, we don’t yet have the numbers for regional rounds. Instead we have in place an improved schools support programme with;

  • the regional workshops for teachers and students in late 2025
  • online teacher-to-teacher meetings in February and March to help you coach your students.

TEACHERS please express an interest here in this to be kept up to date with news of NZYPT 2026

Congratulations the 2025 New Zealand Rep Team

who won honorable mention medals after a very disrupted travel and final training camp curtesy of the Doha missile strikes. Their 19th place of 35 teams place was only one short of a bronze medal and placed us the ahead of Australia, the UK and the USA.

Picture =of the NZ rep team on stage after presentation of their honourable mention medals. The team are wearing team shirts and their medals. They and teh team leaders are standing in a line under a slide announcing their 19th place.

The team are

Alan Chen – St Kentigern’s College, Auckland
Audrey Kung – Queen Margaret’s College, Wellington
Zhuiuan (Jason) Tao – Westlake Boys High School, Auckland
Yujin (Julia) Sung – St. Cuthbert’s College, Auckland
Kayden Liu – Kristin School, Auckland

Also in the picture are team leaders Daniel Shi (Poland 2019) and Eric Coufmann (Singapore 2017).

ACCELERATE!

Alumni Otis Rea and his team placed 5th in the International Young Physicists’ Tournament in Singapore 2017, winning silver medals. Read how IYPT helped Jed find his confidence and accelerated his career in Aerospace!

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