LMH Physicist Helps Secure Oxford’s Spot in PLANCKS Finals

Second-year LMH Physics undergraduate Kiefer Lim Yi Heng was part of a four-person Oxford student team that secured second place in the PLANCKS UK & Ireland preliminaries, held at Swansea University in February. Sponsored by the Institute of Physics and the International Association of Physics Students, the competition challenges participants with complex physics problems designed to test their analytical and problem-solving abilities.

Thanks to their impressive performance, the Oxford team has qualified for the finals in Barcelona this May, where they will compete against top physics students from around the world.

The preliminary round featured a rigorous four-hour test paper comprising ten challenging physics questions. Beyond the competition itself, Kiefer and his teammates valued the opportunity to visit Swansea and engage with students from other universities across the UK and Ireland. During the three-day event, they attended several guest lectures by leading academics, gaining insights into topics such as meteors, career pathways for physicists, and the real-world applications of undergraduate physics concepts in advanced fields like quantum field theory.

Reflecting on the experience, Kiefer said, "The competition honed our problem-solving skills through tackling unorthodox physics brain teasers. The organisers emphasised how the ability to approach novel problems is a crucial skill in physics research—something we, as undergraduates, had little prior experience with."

With their sights set on the finals in Barcelona, the Oxford team is eager to represent the University on an international stage against some of the best physics students in the world.