Romania helps Uganda on its way to the International Mathematical Olympiad

Sergiu Moroianu

doi:10.4171/mag-25

Abstract

Romania helps Uganda on its way to the International Mathematical Olympiad

Highlights

At a conference held in January 2005, Lawrence Summers, president of Harvard University, hypothesized that a major reason for the paucity of women mathematicians among the tenured faculty of elite research universities in the USA might be sex-based differences in “intrinsic aptitude” for mathematics, especially at the very high end of the distribution [36]
The names of the top scorers were determined from the following sources: Putnam top twentyfive, articles published annually in the American Mathematical Monthly that summarize the results of the Putnam; country-by-country International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) members, the medals they won and team ranks, IMO Compendium Group and IMO official websites [21], [22]; and USA Mathematical Olympiad (USAMO) top twelve award winners, American Mathematics Competitions (AMC) website [39]
Since only three of these eleven recent Putnam top twenty-five women were born in the USA, much of this increase is due to exceptional foreign students matriculating to colleges in the USA and Canada following the collapse of the Soviet Bloc and the opening up of China

Summary

Introduction

At a conference held in January 2005, Lawrence Summers, president of Harvard University, hypothesized that a major reason for the paucity of women mathematicians among the tenured faculty of elite research universities in the USA might be sex-based differences in “intrinsic aptitude” for mathematics, especially at the very high end of the distribution [36] This commonly held belief is largely based upon data from standardized tests such as the quantitative section of the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) I. [it] is probably an expression of a combination of both endogenous and exogenous variables.” Since these tests lack questions that require creative thinking and insight into higher-level mathematical concepts, they do not identify children with extremely high innate ability in mathematics, that is, ones who may go on to become top research mathematicians. We conclude that girls with exceptional mathematical talent exist; their identification and nurturing should be substantially improved so this pool of exceptional talent is not wasted

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Discussion

Conclusion