Phuong Anh is currently a 12th-grade student in the Physics 1 class at Hanoi - Amsterdam High School for the Gifted. She is one of eight students selected for the 2025 Asian Physics Olympiad and the sole female team member.

In the recent national competition for excellent students in Physics, Phuong Anh not only won first prize but also achieved the highest score among all Physics competitors representing Hanoi.

Phuong Anh is no stranger to international Physics contests. She earned a Bronze Medal at the 2023 International Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics, another Bronze at the 2024 European Physics Olympiad, and a Gold Medal at the 2024 Nordic-Baltic Physics Olympiad.

Her selection ends a six-year absence of female representation on Vietnam’s Asian Physics Olympiad team. The last girl to make the team was Nguyen Khanh Linh from Lam Son High School for the Gifted in Thanh Hoa, who competed in 2019 and won a Bronze Medal at the Asian Physics Olympiad before going on to secure a Gold Medal at the International Physics Olympiad.

Speaking to VietNamNet, teacher Trieu Le Quang, Phuong Anh’s homeroom teacher and Physics instructor since grade 10, shared that it has been a long time since a girl made it onto Vietnam’s Asian Physics Olympiad team.

“Phuong Anh is truly exceptional. Excelling in Natural Sciences - especially Physics - requires immense dedication, both intellectually and practically,” he said.

Quang added that Phuong Anh is highly motivated and has a strong personality. “She’s incredibly passionate about Physics and devotes much of her time to it. Because of this passion, she even postponed her plans to apply for overseas universities by a year to focus entirely on national and regional Physics competitions. Realistically, she already has the credentials for a strong study abroad application thanks to her impressive achievements,” he noted.

Should Phuong Anh also qualify for the International Physics Olympiad team, she would break Vietnam’s six-year streak of having no female representatives in that competition as well.

However, teacher Quang emphasized that the Asian Physics Olympiad is even more competitive than the international one. “The strongest teams tend to be from Asia - like China, Taiwan, and Russia,” he explained.

In 2025, Hanoi - Amsterdam High School for the Gifted has four students selected to join various regional and international Olympiad teams. These four are also the only representatives from Hanoi among the 37 students nationwide who qualified for the 2025 regional and international Olympiads.

Besides Phuong Anh on the Asian Physics Olympiad team, the school also boasts Nguyen Manh Tuan on the International Chemistry Olympiad team, as well as Le Hoang Kieu Anh and Nguyen Luong Thai Duy on the International Biology Olympiad team.

Thanh Hung