Twenty pupils from around the UK have been selected to compete for a place in the national team at the International Biology Olympiad (IBO).

In January, a record 6,189 students took part in the first round of the British Biology Olympiad. The 129 students with the highest scores were invited to take part in a more demanding examination and the 20 highest scorers will now attend the final round at the University of Warwick later this month.

There, they will compete for a place in the four-person team which will represent the UK at the IBO in Denmark this summer.

Dr Andrew Treharne MBE CBiol FSB, who chairs the group of volunteers which organises the competition, said:
"I very much look forward to meeting the twenty finalists at the University of Warwick in a few days.

"They will spend one day in an undergraduate laboratory being trained in techniques they are unlikely to have encountered at school and a second day when their practical skills will be tested by members of the School of Life Sciences.

“Well done to these students and a huge thank you to all the other students and their teachers who contributed to this year's record participation. The Society of Biology and the UKBC volunteers who run the competitions were very impressed with the high standard of the entries."

The finalists are, in alphabetical order:
Elizabeth Apsley - Marple Sixth Form College
Timothy Birkle - St Paul's School
Bryn Brunnstrom - St Paul's School
Guy Cheng - Winchester College
Cian Collier - Royal Latin School
Samuel Fitzsimmons - The Manchester Grammar School
Joshua Gowdy - Torquay Boys' Grammar School
Kevin Gurung - Reading
Matthew Hankins - Reading
Roisin Hanrahan - Oxford High School
Henry Hole - Winchester College
Andrew Hui - Queen Elizabeth's School for Boys
Fairooz Islam - Manchester High School for Girls
Cameron Magrath - Norwich School
Alexander Mayorov - Westminster School
Raghav Sudarshan - Nottingham High School
Scott Sussex - Godalming Sixth Form College
Rhys Thomson - Reigate Grammar School
Kieran Toms - Reading
Thien Huong Vu - CATS Sixth Form College

The IBO seeks to challenge both theoretical knowledge and practical skill of some of the top pre-university biology students in the world, with over 60 countries taking part.

The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) supports the UK teams’ participation at the IBO, where considerable UK success has been achieved in previous years.