Three students from the Indonesian province of Papua have been presented with a national award for their achievements in physics.
The trio were George Saa, who had won the international students' competition in physics in 2004, Anike Boare who won the same competition last year, and Rudolf Surya Bonay who won The First Step to the Nobel Prize Competition in Poland in May.
They received the Lencana Wirakaya award from President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
The newly-elected Governor of Papua, Barnabas Suebu, says he hopes the recognition the students have achieved will motivate other Papuan students to study equally hard and to follow in their footsteps.
Governor Suebu says the provincial government has made a commitment to improve the quality and availability of education in Papua.
