Recently, Oklahoma State University hosted around 200 students, coaches and judges from around the world for the first International Physicists Tournament held on North American soil.

The predominantly European tournament, hosted in Checiny, Poland; Zurich, Switzerland; and Paris, France, in recent years, has only been hosted outside of the continent a few times, but chose Stillwater, Oklahoma for the site of the 2026 event.

“Dr. Joseph Haley, a faculty member here, was very enthusiastic about hosting the tournament here at OSU when we asked for site suggestions,” said Jeanne Bernard, president of the IPT Executive Committee. “Once we discovered that the university could accommodate all of our logistical needs, we were excited to choose Stillwater and OSU as the host site of this year’s tournament.”

This year’s tournament challenged 20 teams to compete across five days to determine the winning country. Teams hailed from across the globe, from major European centers like France, Italy and Germany to smaller countries such as Denmark, Sweden and Croatia, as well as multiple teams from North and South America and as far away as India.

Most might envision a physics tournament as groups of students huddled around white boards trying to solve a complex physics equation faster than the other team. While the work done by the students is just as complex and intricate as you might imagine, the structure of the tournament is far from the “quiz bowl” atmosphere.

Teams competed in physics “fights” throughout the competition. Each fight consisted of multiple rounds with each team rotating through the roles of presenter, opposition and moderator. During the rounds, teams would choose one of 17 open-ended physics challenges that they had been given last fall to solve and then proceed accordingly, given their respective roles.

“The tournament is really quite unique in its structure,” Haley said. “It’s nothing like most people would expect a physics tournament to look.”

After the first two days, the top nine teams were identified through cumulative scoring and advanced to the semifinals. Those teams included Switzerland, Team IPT [students from Russia], France, Italy, Germany, Hungary, Brazil, Poland and Croatia.

The top three — France, Switzerland and Team IPT — then competed in the Grand Finale with France being crowned champion by a narrow, fraction-of-a-point margin.

“The tournament turned out even better than I could have expected,” Haley said. “The feedback from participants was overwhelmingly positive. People were especially struck by the beauty of the campus and the welcoming atmosphere. One person even told me that we ‘set a high bar for next year in Milan (Italy).’

“I want to give special credit to the organizing team and volunteers, whose dedication and attention to detail were essential to making this event as successful as it was. It was truly a special moment for OSU and something I think participants will remember for a long time.”

While mainly focused on physics, the tournament also provides pre-doctoral students a chance to interact with their fellow competitors and share cultures, ideas and learn more about the students who may have very different life experiences than their own.

The third day of the competition is usually deemed an excursion day, when teams still in the competition usually choose to hone their presentations for the following day’s semifinal fights, while the other teams participate in a day of sightseeing and bonding. This year, teams went to Oklahoma City or Tulsa and visited museums, enjoyed local cuisine and learned more about Oklahoma.

“That might be the most beneficial part of the whole tournament,” Haley said. “The physics competition is fun, but I love the fact that our students have the opportunity to learn about other cultures and create friendships with someone that may live a different kind of life, but — at the end of the day — is just a physics nerd like them.”