The New Zealand Young Physicists’ Tournament is a researched based Physics team competition open to all New Zealand students studying advanced Physics examination courses, in New Zealand. participation is another wy to practice for NCEA standard
Tournament is organised by the New Zealand Young Physicists’ Trust, registered charity CC62496. Our purpose is to enrich high school physics in New Zealand as a foundation study for STEM careers. The Tournament is our flagship event.
The 2026 New Zealand Tournament Problems are Published!
The seven problems for the New Zealand Young Physicists’ Tournament are available here ready for students to start their research.
The draft schedule for both the NZYPT 2026 Tournament and the selection of the New Zealand Representative Team for the 39th IYPT in Zurich, Switzerland, is available here. Please note that this year Rep Team selection will take place BEFORE the Tournament to maximise the preparation time available.
There will be a teacher and student workshop at the end of Term 4, This will be especially useful for schools competing for the first time and year 12 students aspiring to the New Zealand representative team. The workshop will be available in several regions across NZ at minimal cost thanks to our sponsors, Jane Street International.
The schools Tournament will again be in Auckland on March 21st 2026. The fee will be kept at the 2024 level of $135 per team. Despite increasing numbers of schools participating, we don’t yet have the numbers for regional rounds. Instead we have in place an improved schools support programme with;
- the regional workshops for teachers and students in late 2025
- online teacher-to-teacher meetings in February and March to help you coach your students.
TEACHERS please express an interest here in this to be kept up to date with news of NZYPT 2026
The World Cup of Physics is coming to Auckland!
The Trust has won the hosting rights to the 40th International Young Physicists’ Tournament, often called the “World Cup of Physics” . It takes place between the 5th and 12th of July, 2027 in Auckland and will see teams from about 40 couturies compete. We are currently sorting out venues for teh 400 or so overseas participants and will of course keep everyone up to date on progress. Please contact us if you want to help.
Like all world cups, we hope the excitement of the event will raise awareness and participation, while the infrastructurewe put in place will support the school team competition for years afterwards. Our long term goal remains enriching high school physics through the Tournament and other events. Watch this space!
ACCELERATE!
An Unexpected Journey: Science Competition Leads Budding Actor to Space Design
Alumni Luke Roven and his team placed 8th in the International Young Physicists’ Tournament in China 2028, winning bronze medals. Read how IYPT helped Jed find his confidence, change direction and accelerated his career in Rocket sciences.
Congratulations the 2025 New Zealand Rep Team
who won honorable mention medals after a very disrupted travel and final training camp curtesy of the Doha missile strikes. Their 19th place of 35 teams place was only one short of a bronze medal and placed us the ahead of Australia, the UK and the USA.
The team are
Alan Chen – St Kentigern’s College, Auckland
Audrey Kung – Queen Margaret’s College, Wellington
Zhuiuan (Jason) Tao – Westlake Boys High School, Auckland
Yujin (Julia) Sung – St. Cuthbert’s College, Auckland
Kayden Liu – Kristin School, Auckland
Also in the picture are team leaders Daniel Shi (Poland 2019) and Eric Coufmann (Singapore 2017).
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