Six Top Mathletes Selected for Math Team Canada 2021

OTTAWA, Ontario — The Canadian Mathematical Society (CMS) is pleased to announce that Canada’s six top math students who will compete at the 62nd International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO). The Olympiad is scheduled to take place in St. Petersburg, Russia in July 2021. Because of the global pandemic, participation in the competition will be virtual.

Here are the members of Team Math Canada:

Arvin Sahami, Richmond Hill World School, Richmond Hill, ON

Eric Shen, University of Toronto Schools, Toronto, ON

Kevin Min, Cupertino High School, Cupertino, California

Thomas Guo, Phillips Exeter Academy, Exeter, New Hampshire

Warren Bei, Homeschooled, West Vancouver

Zixiang Zhou, London Central Secondary School, London, ON

The team will be led by former Math Team Canada member, Alex Song. Alex holds the record for having won five (5) gold medals in a row at the International Olympiad and obtaining a perfect score at the 2015 IMO. He is currently a quantitative researcher at the American hedge fund, Citadel Asset Management. Dani Spivak, another IMO medalist is this year’s deputy team leader for Math Team Canada. Dani competed for Canada at the International Mathematical Olympiad in 2012 and 2013 earning a bronze and a silver medal. Dani is a graduate student at University of Toronto’s math department and has been involved with the training of the Canadian IMO and EGMO teams in the past few years. Robert Garbary, a lecturer at University of Waterloo’s the Centre for Education in Mathematics and Computing (CEMC), will be the observer this year.

Each student competes individually to solve six questions, in a competition lasting two days, four and a half hours each day. The six students were chosen by the Canadian Mathematical Society IMO Committee, based on the results of the Canadian Open Mathematics Challenge (November 2020), the Canadian Mathematical Olympiad (March 2021) and other national and international mathematics competitions.

The chair of the IMO Committee and former Math Team Canada leader James Rickards (McGill) had the following message for the team:

“Congratulations to the team, who overcame pandemic conditions to qualify for the IMO. I hope that this is the last year of virtual participation!”

The Canadian Mathematical Society wishes the team best of luck in the upcoming competition and training sessions that precede it.

About the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO)

The IMO is the world championship high school mathematics competition. The IMO began in 1959 in Romania with seven participating countries. Math Team Canada expects to compete against the world’s best students from over 100 countries in the 62nd IMO. Canada has earned 36 gold, 58 silver, 94 bronze medals since first competing in 1981.

Canadian Math Team Sponsors

The Canadian Mathematical Society is very grateful to University of Waterloo and the following sponsors for their support of Math Team Canada 2021:
The Canadian Actuarial Foundation; The Casualty Actuarial Society; NSERC PromoScience; the McLean Foundation; the S. M. Blair Foundation; the Samuel Beatty Fund; the Aqueduct Foundation; Centre de recherches mathématiques; the FIELDS Institute; the Government of Ontario as well as individual donations from members and friends of the CMS.

About the Canadian Mathematical Society (CMS)

Founded in 1945, the Canadian Mathematical Society (CMS) promotes the advancement, discovery, learning and application of mathematics. The CMS promotes mathematics through a rich array of activities including scientific meetings, publications, awards, prizes, grants, camps and competitions.

For more information on Math Team Canada, please contact

Dr. Termeh Kousha Executive Director Canadian Mathematical Society tkousha@cms.math.ca

or

James Rickards (McGill) Chair, International Mathematical Olympiad Selection Committee Canadian Mathematical Society chair-imoc@cms.math.ca