École Polytechnique organizes the 3rd edition of the French Chemists Tournament

On March 24th and 25th, École Polytechnique hosted the third edition of the French Chemists Tournament (TFChim).

Inspired by the format of the International Physicists' Tournament (IPT), the TFChim is a meeting of student teams from French institutions of higher education, during which the students exchange on open chemistry problems that they have prepared before the tournament.

The 2023 edition brought together nine teams from nine different institutions: École Polytechnique, École Normale Supérieur (ENS) Ulm, ENS Lyon, ENS Paris-Saclay, Chimie ParisTech, University of Montpellier, ESPCI University of Sherbrooke, Université Paris-Cité and Sorbonne University.

TFChim thus confirms its increasing popularity after a meeting that brought together seven teams from seven institutions at ENS Lyon in 2022 and five teams at Chimie ParisTech-PSL in 2021.

 A team consists of a group of up to six students enrolled in a first or second university cycle (third year of a bachelor's degree or first year of a master's degree or equivalent) and one or more supervisors.

The TFChim proposes to the students to work on eight chemistry problems. These problems have been designed and chosen by the representatives of the institutions which were involved in the previous editions.

A joust is organized between two teams and takes the form of scientific debates in which both teams take on different roles. The student teams take turns presenting the results of their work, constructively criticizing and arguing about the work of the opposing team.

The teams' performances are evaluated, for each meeting, by a jury of 3 to 5 members (teacher-researchers, researchers in academia and industry) and a jury president. The team with the best score is awarded the first prize of the tournament.

The ENS Lyon team won the 2023 edition.