Physics Students Achieve Top-10 Finish at PLANCKS Competition

5 Mar 2026

A team of students from the School of Physics – Ailish McHugh, Tara O'Donoghue, Coren Hughes, and Leo Healy – recently represented the university at the prestigious PLANCKS,  held this year at the University of Kent in Canterbury.  

Over the course of an exciting weekend, participants attended guest lectures, social events, and tackled the competition’s centrepiece: a demanding four-hour theoretical physics exam. The questions pushed students to their limits, covering imaginative and complex scenarios involving flying pigs, magnetic monopoles, and even quantum-entangled snails. One highlight was a zombie-apocalypse themed social evening where students teamed up with peers from universities across the UK and Ireland.

The weekend concluded with the awards ceremony, where the School of Physics team achieved an impressive 10th place overall. The result placed them ahead of teams from several leading universities and made them the second-highest ranked Irish university at the competition.

In an exam where the overall mean score was 28%, the team significantly outperformed the average with an excellent 35% score, reflecting both their dedication and strong problem-solving abilities.

Commenting on the achievement, Paul Callanan, Head of the School of Physics, said:

“We are very proud of these students – Ailish, Tara, Coren, and Leo – and the way they represented the School of Physics. Competing at this level against many experienced teams and achieving a top-ten finish is a great accomplishment. Their success reflects the talent, enthusiasm and commitment we see across all of our students.”

The team expressed their gratitude to the School of Physics and to the Institute of Physics for supporting their participation in the competition. Inspired by this year’s success, they are already looking ahead, with ambitions of breaking into the top five next year.

The School of Physics congratulates Ailish, Tara, Coren, and Leo on their excellent performance and looks forward to supporting future students in continuing this growing PLANCKS tradition.