IGPT students among prizewinners of the First World Championship in Geology

It was held as part of the 11th International Environmental Congress in St. Petersburg.

The team of third-year students of Stella Ižová (Slovakia) and Martha-Dorcas Zau (Republic of the Congo) took the first place in the team competition. Second-year student Yaroslav Burylin was among the top ten participants. His team was second.

The championship, organized by the All-Russian Research Institute of Geology and the government of St. Petersburg, gathered students and young specialists from 20 countries.

“In order to get an invitation to the in-person stage, it was necessary to pass an online test,” said Yaroslav Burylin. “The championship was held in two languages – Russian and English. We were divided into six international teams of seven people each. My team included participants from Tanzania, Namibia, and Cuba. The competitions in various geological disciplines were very interesting, one of the most interesting and at the same time very difficult was the tectonics competition.

According to Yaroslav, he managed to show high results in the individual competition because he has a lot of experience in various Olympiads, championships, quizzes, and conferences.

Stella Ižová, on the contrary, had no experience of participation in such competitions before.

“In our team, except for me and Martha-Dorcas Zau, there were representatives of Belarus, Yemen, and Mali,” says Stella. “In total, the championship consisted of 10 rounds. They were devoted to mineralogy, petrography, laboratory research, paleontology and stratigraphy, tectonics, Quaternary geology, metallogeny, construction of a geological map and section, and geological route. In addition, a geologic quiz was held. The most difficult round for me was the one on Quaternary geology, as I haven’t been able to study it in depth yet.”

Her team won because, Stella believes, its participants had in-depth knowledge in different sections of geology.

“The atmosphere at the World Championships was great, we all became very good friends. I hope that next year it will be held again and I will be able to take part in the competition,” shared the third-year student.

Martha-Dorcas Zau admitted that the championship was a challenge for her, which she successfully coped with, “It was a good experience. I learned a lot during the few days of the competition. Now I want to study geology even more. It is a very interesting science. I didn’t expect our team to win and I was very happy about it.”