Mr Wojciech Tarnawski and Mr Adam Wyrzykowski, first year students of mathematics and biology at the Faculty of Physics, Astronomy and Applied Computer Science of the Jagiellonian University won silver medals during the World Physics Olympiad, which was held from 28 December 2011 – 3 January 2012 in Mataram at Lombok (Indonesia).

The Olympiad was initiated by Prof. John Surya, the owner of Surya Surya Institute. 109 participants from 15 countries took part in the Olympiad, including students from China, Turkey, Kazakhstan, Slovakia, Estonia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Hungary, Russia, Bulgaria, Germany, Brazil and Indonesia.

The aim of the contest was to select the best physicist (according to the motto: Beat the champion) by way of confronting finalists of the world's biggest olympiads (IPhO and APhO) and students selected by means of the so called Selection Round. Mr Wojciech Tarnawski was introduced to take part in the Olympiad as a medal winner of IPhO, whereas Mr Adam Wyrzykowski achieved best result (100 %)  in Selection Round.

The contest lasted two days. On the first day the participants had 5 hours to solve 3 theoretical problems in mechanics, electrodynamics and optics. On the second day the participants worked on problems in experimental electrodynamics and mechanics; they had 2.5 hours to come up with a solution.

The jury, consisting of the representatives of scholarly communities from various countries, selected 11 gold medal winners, including participants from China, Estonia, Germany, Hungary, Russia, Indonesia, Singapore and Slovakia.

Silver medals went to 12 participants from Singapore, Indonesia, Poland, Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, Belarus, and Germany. The jury awarded also 11 bronze medals to participants from Russia, Hungary, Hong-Kong and Indonesia (7 medals).