A Google Gift for IMO

A Google Gift for IMO

 

Amsterdam, 20th January 20011. Today the Advisory Board of the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) announces that Google has given the organisation one million euros to support the next five annual International Mathematical Olympiads (2011-2015).

 

This grant will help cover the costs of this global event and ensure students from around the world can continue to demonstrate their passion for mathematics.

 

The International Mathematical Olympiad is the world championship of secondary school mathematics, designed to test ingenuity and insight and tax the sharpest minds in the world.

 

It is held each July at a location which moves around the world. In 2011 IMO will be held in the Netherlands, and an IMO Foundation will be set up in that country to administer donations to future IMOs.

 

Dr Geoff Smith (University of Bath, UK) said:

"The IMOAB is thrilled with this generous gift. This will be a great help to host nations who each bear the cost of running their own IMO."

 

"In these difficult economic times, this extraordinary gift will help the IMO to flourish for the next five years. We do not yet know the hosts for 2013 and beyond, but whichever nations run those events, their fundraising tasks will be made substantially easier by their share of the pump-priming funds which the IMOAB will pass on from the Google Gift."

 

"The elected IMOAB chair, Nazar Agakhanov (Moscow, Russia) is unable to be here today for technical reasons. He has asked me to pass on his warm thanks to Google for this remarkable act of generosity."  

Robbert Dijkgraaf (President of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences and Chair of the IMO 2011 Foundation):

"Mathematics is a field in which talents can shine at a very young age. This generous gift of Google will allow the brightest young mathematicians to show their amazing abilities to the world. The scientific community is grateful for this wonderful support of Google and the recognition it expresses of the fundamental importance of mathematics to our society."

 

Wim Berkelmans, IMO Director for the 2011 organization, stated: “The IMO brings together young top talents from all over the world to a high level competition. Google helps us to encourage these talents to give their utmost in an international setting.”

 

Peter Barron, Google’s director of External Relations, said: “The International Maths Olympiad is an event which demonstrates both the extraordinary abilities of the students who take part and the value to wider society of mathematics. We are delighted to be able to support the event over the next 5 years and to encourage excellence in mathematics around the world”

 

__________

 

About the International Mathematical Olympiad

 

The International Mathematical Olympiad is the world championship of secondary school mathematics. It is held each July at a location which moves around the world.

Each nation can send up to six students, who compete for medals at the IMO. The IMO is not run for profit, but rather it is a world movement dedicated to providing each successive

generation with demanding mathematical contests.

 

The students sit two papers, each consisting of three problems. The students have four hours thirty minutes to address each paper. This is a competition between individuals. The problems are designed to test ingenuity and insight, rather than a narrow curriculum, and tax the sharpest minds in the world.

 

The IMO has been running since 1959 when seven countries participated in Romania.

 

The competition has expanded over the years, and now about a hundred nations participate each year. IMO 2010 was held in Kazakhstan, IMO 2011 will be in the Netherlands and IMO 2012 in Argentina.

 

Many of the very best mathematicians in the world have competed at IMOs in the past. The equivalent of the Nobel Prize for mathematics is the Fields Medal. Three of the last four Fields Medallists were IMO medallists in their youth.

 

Each participating nation sends one juror to the IMO. The jury elects a small committee, the IMO Advisory Board, to look after the interests of the IMO between competitions. Representatives of impending IMOs also sit on the IMOAB.

 

For further information, pleasecontact:

 

      Peter Barron, Director of External Relations, Google (through Mark Jansen, +31615129329)

      Wim Berkelmans, Director of IMO 2011 in the Netherlands (+31 6 53323968, wim@imo2011.nl)

      Robbert Dijkgraaf, President of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.

      Geoff Smith, University of Bath, UK. Elected member of the IMO Advisory Board (+44 7941147895 G.C.Smith@bath.ac.uk)

 

The official IMO site is http://www.imo-official.org/ which provides a detailed historical record.