The Canadian Association of Physicists sponsors the national Lloyd G. Elliott University Prize Exam each year.
The University of Alberta was well represented at the 2019 Lloyd G. Elliott University Prize Exam, also known as the "CAP exam" after the Canadian Association of Physicists, which sponsors it.
Of the 66 students from across Canada who wrote the exam, six were University of Alberta students: Benjamin Lamoureaux (who placed 10th overall), Kevin Patel, Nurlan Rzayev, Zhi Han, Alejandro Salzar Lobos, and Adam Prus-Czarnecki.
Coaching the group was Andrzej Prus-Czarnecki. Besides being Adam's father, Professor Prus-Czarnecki is a theoretical particle physicist at the University of Alberta and a longtime champion of the CAP exam.
"It's an ideal competition: the skills that it tests are the same core skills that physics exams test for," says Prof. Prus-Czarnecki. "The CAP exam is carried out year after year, so in a sense, it tests the whole of the physics curriculum. It's a win-win situation."
The CAP exam is given once a year, usually in February. CAP sends the exam to Canadian universities and colleges, which administer the tests locally, all on the same day. To help University of Alberta students prepare for the exam, Prof. Prus-Czarnecki and his colleagues organize training sessions starting as early as September. Students can sign up for training any time. They can also write the CAP exam if they were not able to attend any of the training sessions, but they do need to contact the Physics department to register.
Writing the CAP exam not only trains students for further physics studies, it also helps to train students for life beyond school. "I talked to someone who was working in industry who said they like to hire physicists because of their problem-solving skills," says Prof. Prus-Czarnecki. "Physics students are trained to solve new problems that don't have prior solutions. The CAP exam requires these skills. The problems aren't routine. They're of a type that students haven't encountered."
Learn more about writing the CAP Exam at the University of Alberta.