Youngsters from the Ilan Ramon Youth Physics Center in Beersheba notched an achievement on a global scale on Wednesday by winning yet another prize in the "First Step to Nobel Prize in Physics" annual competition, widely considered the most prestigious prize in the world in the field of science for high school students. Between 2007 and 2014, the Ilan Ramon Youth Physics Center has placed Israel as the world leader in prizes for physics research conducted by high school students. Over those years, the Ilan Ramon Center has won 45 prizes in total, leaving countries like South Korea, the United States and Russia far behind. The Ilan Ramon Youth Physics center operates in conjunction with physics teachers from across the country to identify the most gifted students from southern Israel. The students write their research work with the guidance of experts from Ben-Gurion University. This year, 10 of the best research projects were submitted to the prestigious U.S.-based competition, and on Thursday the students' research projects will be presented to the wider public in Israel for the first time. Six of the 10 students were scheduled to present their work at a national competition for young physicists at Ben-Gurion University set to kick off on Thursday. The entire field of contestants comprises 23 high school students from southern Israel. Itzik Turgeman, the director-general of the Rashi Foundation, which for the third straight year co-sponsored the competition with the Ilan Ramon Center, the Education Ministry, the Beersheba municipality and other bodies, said, "The extraordinary achievements of the [Ilan Ramon] Center point to the vast potential of human capital in the periphery."
