COMMUNIQUÉ May 16, 2000

OTTAWA, Ontario -- Nine students receive top honours in the 32^nd Canadian Mathematical Olympiad (CMO). The CMO, Canada's premier mathematics competition, is organized and administered by the Canadian Mathematical Society (CMS). A total of 100 students from 67 Canadian schools were invited to write the 2000 CMO based upon their performance in the 1999 Canadian Open Mathematics Challenge (COMC) (November 24, 1999), the CMS Correspondence Training Programme and other mathematics competitions. Students tackled five questions during the three hour examination held on April 5, 2000

"To be an olympiad winner is a remarkable achievement" said Dr. Daryl Tingley, University of New Brunswick at Fredericton, and Chair of the CMS Mathematical Competitions Committee. "A real benefit of contests like the CMO is the motivation it gives students to explore problems not encountered in the standard school curriculum. It also helps students gain a greater understanding and appreciation of the role of Mathematics in the workplace."

2000 Prize Winners: The top winners in the 32^nd Canadian Mathematical Olympiad are:

First Prize and the Sun Life Cup goes to Daniel Brox, Sentinel Secondary School, West Vancouver, British Columbia. Second Prize goes to David Arthur, Upper Canada College, Toronto, Ontario. Third Prize goes to David Pritchard, Woburn Collegiate Institute, Scarborough, Ontario. Honourable Mentions were awarded to David Goodman, Kelvin High School, Winnipeg, Manitoba; Keon Choi, A.Y. Jackson Secondary School, North York, Ontario; Robert Barrington Leigh, Vernon Barford Junior High School, Edmonton, Alberta; Roger Mong, Don Mills Collegiate Institute, Don Mills, Ontario, Bogdan Moldovan, George S. Henry Academy, North York, Ontario; Paul Cheng, West Vancouver Secondary School, West Vancouver, British Columbia.

Approximately 200 students from the United States, Turkey, Kuwait, China and Trinidad and Tobago also wrote the 1999 Canadian Open Mathematics Challenge and one student from India and one from China were invited to write the 2000 CMO.

The prizes will be presented at the CMS Awards Banquet which will take place at the University of Waterloo on Tuesday, June 13, 2000 from 5:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

"All of these winners have done extremely well in a very challenging competition. They have shown the creative and critical problem solving skills that are so essential in today's highly competitive global economy" said Dr. Graham Wright, Executive Director, Canadian Mathematical Society.

The Society is grateful for the support from the Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada as the Major Sponsor of the 2000 Canadian Mathematical Olympiad and the other sponsors which include: the Ministry of Education, Ontario; the Ministry of Education, Quebec; Alberta Learning; the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of New Brunswick at Fredericton; the Centre for Education in Mathematics and Computing, University of Waterloo; the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Ottawa; the Department of Mathematics, University of Toronto; the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Simon Fraser University; Nelson Thomson Learning and John Wiley and Sons Canada Ltd..

Dr. Graham P. Wright
Canadian Mathematical Society Executive Director
(613) 562-5702

Dr. Daryl Tingley
Chair, CMS Mathematical Competitions Committee
Department of Mathematics and Statistics,
University of New Brunswick
(506) 453-4768