Spanish students triumph in the Ibero-American Biology Olympiad in Mexico
The national representatives were trained for a week at the School of Sciences and the CIMA of the University of Navarra.
PHOTO: Manuel Castells
The four Spanish representatives participating in the Iberoamerican Biology Olympiad have been awarded result thanks to their work during the competition held in Mexico. Specifically, they obtained a bronze medal, two gold medals and a silver medal. Also, one of them, José Manuel Ezquerra Aznárez, won first place in the Olympiad.
All of them attended one week of theoretical sessions at research center (CIMA) and tutored internships at School of Sciences of the University of Navarra before traveling to Mexico.
"In the mornings we would go to CIMA where we were assigned a tutor who would explain to us what the project he was working on consisted of. That way, we saw how a researcher works and what life is like at a high-level laboratory . In the afternoons, we did internships at the University of Navarra. Thanks to them, we became fluent with the laboratory material and they taught us tricks to do the procedures well," explains one of the winners, Daniel Aguilar, who won the gold medal.
For his part, Alvaro Ortega, bronze medal winner, highlighted the usefulness of the training at the University of Navarra and the CIMA "we learned new techniques from laboratory and how to face the theoretical exam. In addition, it made me more interested in Biology and allowed me to meet amazing people".
The other winners of the Olympics were José Manuel Ezquerra Aznárez, gold medalist and issue one of the Olympiad, and Oleksandra Khomenko, silver medalist.