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The achievement marks the first time Israel’s teams in these disciplines have broken into the global top 10, winning a combined 10 medals.
By Shula Rosen
Israeli high school students have secured their best-ever results at the International Science Olympiads, with the math team placing sixth and the chemistry team tenth among more than 100 competing countries.
The achievement marks the first time Israel’s teams in these disciplines have broken into the global top 10, winning a combined 10 medals — including six golds — at the 2025 competitions held in Australia last month.
The results are the highlight of a six-year partnership between Israel’s Ministry of Education and the Maimonides Fund’s Future Scientists Center, which has transformed the country’s approach to Olympiad preparation.
Once run on a modest budget with professors volunteering and students covering some expenses, the program is now fully funded and professionally managed by the center.
Training is more structured, data-driven, and sustained, starting years before students reach the international stage.
The Future Scientists Center works with about 2,500 students annually across mathematics, chemistry, biology, physics, and computer science, identifying the most gifted for intensive coaching by leading academics.
Eli Fried, the center’s director general, told Jewish Philanthropy that placing in the top 10 once seemed unrealistic. “That was all a bit of a fantasy a number of years ago,” he said. “We weren’t sure how practical that was as a target.”
This year’s math team earned four gold, one silver, and one bronze medal.
The chemistry team took home two golds and two silvers.
The program, Fried said, aims not just for medals but to develop Israel’s future leaders in science and technology — individuals who often go on to serve in elite military intelligence units, conduct groundbreaking research, and strengthen the country’s high-tech and academic sectors.
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