DHAKA, Aug 30, 2026 (BSS) – A team of young Bangladeshi students has won the 13th edition of CERN’s prestigious Beamline for Schools (BL4S) competition, marking Bangladesh’s first victory in the global science contest.

The Bangladeshi team, Polaris, secured the distinction alongside winning teams from the United States, United Kingdom, Türkiye and India, according to a press release issued by the Bangladesh Permanent Mission in Geneva.

The achievement came in a highly competitive field, with 712 teams from 89 countries participating in this year’s BL4S competition, one of the world’s prestigious science competitions for school and college students.

The winning Bangladeshi team comprises students from colleges in Noakhali, Rangpur and Dhaka.

The students were welcomed by the Bangladesh Permanent Mission in Geneva, where they shared their journey from conducting scientific experiments with limited facilities at home to carrying out their final experiment at the University of Bonn and CERN.

Their experiment focused on polysiloxane-based plastic scintillators for high-energy electron beam profiling and was conducted at the ELSA accelerator of the University of Bonn.

Congratulating the students, Bangladesh Permanent Representative in Geneva Ambassador Nahida Sobhan described their achievement as a powerful demonstration of the talent, creativity and global potential of Bangladesh’s young generation.

She recalled that the foundation for Bangladesh-CERN cooperation was laid in 2012 when the Bangladesh Permanent Mission in Geneva facilitated the signing of an Expression of Interest (EoI) between Bangladesh and CERN.

The engagement was further strengthened through the signing of an International Cooperation Agreement (ICA) in 2014.

The initiatives opened new opportunities for Bangladeshi scientists, engineers, researchers and students to participate in CERN’s scientific and training programmes, the press release said.

The Permanent Mission described the students’ success as a reminder that Bangladesh’s people, particularly its youth, remain the country’s greatest strength.