Inside Bangladesh's Journey to the Astronomy Olympiad
A dean noted it almost in passing: not one of the six students chosen to represent Bangladesh at this November's astronomy Olympiad in Russia comes from Dhaka. Behind that detail lies a summer-long filter — 2,500 students down to six — and a room full of scientists, sponsors, and parents trying to explain what it means to hand a teenager a flag.
Six flags sat folded on a table inside the Russian House in Dhaka. Outside, Dhanmondi moved at its usual pace. Inside, six teenagers stood a little straighter than usual, parents somewhere behind them, waiting for a moment three months of exams and camps had built toward.
In November, these six will fly to Russia to compete against the best young astronomers in the world. But before the flight, there was this — a flag passed from hand to hand, and a room trying to put into words what it means to send children to represent a country.
It began with numbers most people never see. More than 2,500 students sat an online exam held simultaneously across Bangladesh on July 3. Over the following weeks, more than 650 travelled to regional centres in ten districts. By July 31, roughly 268 had gathered at East West University for the national round. Thirty were selected — 15 junior, 15 senior — for an eight-hour-a-day Astro Camp at SPARRSO from August 6 to 8, taught by faculty from BUET's mathematics and physics departments, museum staff, and instructors from the Nepal Astronomical Society. Six names remained at the end.
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Three from the senior group: Rajorshi Das Gupta of Chattogram College, Md Mokhdum Amin Fahim of Police Lines Secondary School in Jashore, and Md Arafat Hossain Alif of Rajshahi Collegiate School. Three from the junior group: Md Zubayer Hossain Jisan, also of Rajshahi Collegiate School; S.R. Anubhav Roy Anu of The Millennium Stars School and College in Rangpur; and Labib Mashrafi of Military Collegiate School Khulna.
None of them, Prof. Dr. Harun-ar-Rashid, Dean of Science at BUET, noted with something between amusement and pride, came from Dhaka.
"A person is as big as their dream," he told the room, recalling an earlier conversation with the students. But he came with a caveat too: the students were young, and might know formulas without knowing why they worked. "As you go higher," he said, "accept math as logic, not magic."
Sukanta Sarkar, senior executive at the National Museum of Science and Technology, has been with the Association for nearly 31 years — long enough to have helped write its earliest rules. For him, the competition was never really about the contest. "It is about awakening a national consciousness," he said. "We will expand our minds beyond the clouds and think about conquering the world." His only practical advice: solve five years of past question papers before the exam in Russia, by any means available, AI included.
Maruf, representing SPARRSO, spoke like a scientist rather than an official — about a Bangladeshi team already headed to Beijing for small-satellite work, a forthcoming NASA collaboration that could open astro-robotics opportunities nationwide, and a Roscosmos partnership currently under process. "I hope this journey is not limited only to attending one World Olympiad," he said. "We have a long way to go."
Khosru, advisor to the Association, turned to the parents in the audience — the ones who had financed years of tutors and exam fees without any guarantee it would lead anywhere. "Without the parents, I'm sure none of this would happen," he said. He mentioned a name from that morning's paper: Dr. Lamya Mowla, a Bangladeshi astrophysicist now at NASA — proof, he seemed to suggest, that the six were joining a lineage rather than starting one.
Professor Dr. Ashik Mosaddik, Pro-Vice Chancellor of East West University, called the six "diamonds gathered from every district and division across the entire country," needing only exposure and guidance. "Our dream," he said, "is that one day, someone from Bangladesh will get the opportunity to go to space."
By evening's end, the flags had changed hands. Mashhurul Amin, Chairman of the Association, and Alexandra Khlevnoy, Director of the Russian House in Dhaka, presented each student with the national flag — turning six individual achievements into one act of representation. The Association also pledged to facilitate annual scholarship opportunities in Russia going forward.
Between now and November, the six will keep studying — coursework alongside Olympiad prep, five years of question papers, whatever else the weeks demand. When they land in Russia, they will carry a flag folded once in a room in Dhanmondi, now unfolding into something larger than any of them.
