Malaysia's IOAA 2025 Team
Team Leaders:
Fong Keng Yin (Fongky)
Chin Wei Loon (William)
Students:
Cheah Hoe Yeen (Lucas) - Silver Medal
Yahaya bin Basiron - Honorable Mention
Chan Dun Li
Teo Jia Quan
Teng Jia Xin
Mascot: Mirfak
Learn, share, and explore are the theme of the MOAA Camp. Check out the adventure of your fellow students in the MOAA 2023 Camp.
The team brought home a Silver Medal and an Honorable Mention from Mumbai, India.
Jalur Gemilang flies proudly in Poland with one Gold Medal, one Bronze Medal, and one Honorable Mention.
When I joined MOAA-Jr in 2019, 14-year-old me wouldn't have known that it would be the first of a series dominoes to tumble into who I am today.
In the IOAA, students get to work with actual data that astronomers use, while also solving fun practical problems along the way - you will have to have your head up in the sky, but your feet on the ground. As 14 y/o me would say, just give it a try - you never know what you might find hidden among the stars!
The path to IOAA is one of self discovery. The experience has made me grow as a person and open up a whole new world of possibilities. IOAA is valuable because it is difficult. As the saying goes, "Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you will land among the stars."
Rigorous, beautiful, intense and exciting. My Olympiad journey in astronomy is full of surprises, struggles, and memories that I now look back and cherish. Astrophysics is not taught in school. It all comes down to your persistent curiosity and willingness to ask and answer your own deep questions. This is a level playing field, and you might be the next winner.
Thanks to IOAA, my world became a whole lot bigger. Along the journey, I've had many amazing experiences, learnt various things and made a lot of unexpected friends. To potential contestants: just try even if you think it's impossible to acheive the result you want. In my first MOAA, I did just that and was pleasantly surprised.
Malaysia began to take part in IOAA in 2013. Until 2016, students were selected from a few schools in Penang, Kuala Lumpur, and Selangor through concurrent examinations at the respective states. Our first honorable mention in IOAA was won by student Justin Tan in 2015.
Star-Finder Astronomical Society has managed the selection process since 2017 by inviting students from all secondary schools nationwide to take part in MOAA. Malaysia's first bronze medal was won by student Tan Jia Qing at Beijing in 2018.
The IOAA Junior competition is for students below the age of 16. Malaysia registered in the first IOAA-Jr 2020. However, IOAA-Jr 2020 was cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. IOAA2020 was also cancelled and replaced by GeCAA2020 (Global electronic Competition on Astronomy & Astrophysics 2020). Malaysia was represented by the top 10 students from MOAA2019.
The Academic Council of MOAA was formed during the pandemic. Council members comprise of Malaysia's professional and amateur astronomers working around the world, students studying astronomy in universities, former students and team leaders of IOAA. The council is responsible to set the questions in MOAA examinations, provide lectures before MOAA, and training the IOAA students.
MOAA2021 was held online during the pandemic so was the IOAA2021. Student Chooi Je Qin was announced to have won a silver medal during the closing ceremony. However, after the points were recalculated, he was awarded the gold medal. This is the first IOAA gold medal for our country.
Two of our IOAA2024 students were below the age of 16. They participated in IOAA2024-Jr and student Lucas Cheah Hoe Yeen has succeeded to win a silver medal in Nepal. This is Malaysia first silver medal and first IOAA Junior medal. He participated in IOAA2025 the following year and also won a silver medal.
17th - 27th August 2024