THE GREAT ACHIEVEMENT OF INDONESIAN YOUNG SCIENTISTS

As the largest country in ASEAN, Indonesia has many potential human resources. Unfortunately, this potential has not been widely known. However, the success of Indonesia on ICYS (International Conference of Young Scientists) for the last two years certainly has opened an international understanding that although living in a developing country, the people of Indonesia could achieve international levels of achievement.

As has been reported by Public Information Centre of Ministry of National Education, Indonesia managed to become the champion at the World Scientific Research Competition for the Youth or the 17th International Conference of Young Scientists (ICYS) held in Denpasar, Bali on April 12 to 17, 2010. Indonesian team could compete in all fields of competition, ie Physics, Mathematics, Computers, and Ecology. The team won seven gold medals, one silver medal and three bronze medals and two Special Awards. This achievement repeated the success of Indonesia in the same event in 2009 in Pszcyna, Poland.

ICYS itself is a scientific activities sponsored by the Eotvos Lorand University, Budapest, Hungary and the Belarussian State Univeristy Minks, Belarus. This event has been underway since 1994 and followed by many countries from Europe, America, Africa and Asia. Meanwhile, in ICYS 17^th, this event was followed by as many as 19 countries. A total of 13 countries became members and six countries as an observer. The participating countries were Belarus, Brazil, Croatia, Germany, Georgia, Hungary, Indonesia, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Russia, Turkey, and Ukraine, while the observer countries were Iran, the United Kingdom, Thailand, Nigeria, Laos, and Cambodia.