IMO 2017 brings together students from 111 countries in Rio.

[two_thirds]

The oldest and most prestigious scientific competition for high school students, the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO), will, for the first time, have a green and yellow color scheme. Hosted in Rio de Janeiro and organized by the Institute of Pure and Applied Mathematics (IMPA), its 58th edition will have a record participation of 623 students from 112 countries across five continents. From July 17th to 23rd, they will transform Brazil into the world center of mathematics.

Teams of up to six top-performing math students will tackle the most challenging problems, repeating a ritual that began in 1959 in Romania with just seven countries. Since then, the world meeting has been held annually – except in 1980 – with the aim of encouraging the development of mathematics through competition and the exchange of experiences between representatives of different cultures.

Brazil began participating in the IMO in 1979 and has already won 22 medals and 29 honorable mentions. In 2016, it achieved its best ranking in the history of the competition: 15th place in the overall team ranking, with five silver medals and one bronze medal. Each team of up to six students has a leader and a vice-leader.

The Brazilian team was selected by IMPA and the Brazilian Mathematical Society (SBM) from a group of 30 students who have been receiving intensive training since last year. They are medalists in national and international mathematics competitions: André Yuji Hisatsuga, 17, and Pedro Henrique Sacramento de Oliveira, 18, from São Paulo; Bruno Brasil Meinhart, 16, and George Lucas Alencar, 18, from Ceará; João César Campos Vargas, 19, from Minas Gerais; and Davi Cavalcanti Sena, 17, from Pernambuco.

The Brazilian team was presented in June during the official announcement of the 2017-2018 Brazilian Mathematics Biennium, which has the support of the Ministries of Science, Technology, Innovation and Communications and Education, and sponsorship from BNDES. Established in November 2016, the Biennium brings together the main world events in the field – the IMO and the 2018 International Congress of Mathematicians – and a series of actions to encourage the study of the discipline, popularize it, and promote activities that bring the public closer to mathematics. As part of the Biennium's activities, the Mathematics Biennial and the Mathematics Festival have already taken place, bringing together 18,000 people in Rio over four days and showing how the discipline can be accessible and fun.

To encourage female participation in the competition, IMPA suggested creating an award that will debut at this edition of the IMO and will be incorporated into the Olympiad. The IMPA Girls' Olympic Trophy will honor the five students who contribute most to their teams' results.

The role of women in science will be the topic of a roundtable discussion at 5 PM on the 22nd. The event aims to identify obstacles and opportunities for successful careers for female academics, executives, and entrepreneurs. Linguist and professor at PUC-Rio, Branca Vianna, will moderate the debate, which will include IMPA researcher Carolina Araújo; the founder of the Mapa da Educação Movement, Tábata Amaral; and Larissa Lima, IMO medalist in 2002 and member of the NGO Primeira Chance, among other participants.

“This supposed pressure usually turns into support. We are very capable, but competitions like the IMO also reward those who think about solutions in a way that is different from the usual.” He wants to pursue a career in Mathematics and, this year, was selected to go to Princeton University in the United States. He dreams of gold in Rio, but says he is not anxious about it: João César Campos Vargas, 19 years old, has been collecting medals since he was a young boy, when he participated in his first Brazilian Mathematics Olympiad for Public Schools (OBMEP) as a public school student in the small town of Passa Tempo (MG). A seven-time champion in the competition, he also won gold in the last two editions of the Brazilian Mathematics Olympiad (OBM) and secured a bronze medal (2015) and a silver medal (2016) for Brazil in previous editions of the IMO.

The thrill of winning an award at the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) is something that 18-year-old Pedro Henrique Sacramento de Oliveira, from São Paulo, knows very well. He experienced it in the last two years, bringing silver medals back to Brazil. His path to the top of mathematics competitions was built with dedication and resulted in more than 50 awards in knowledge tournaments. In 2016, in addition to being part of the team that secured Brazil's best historical ranking at the IMO – 15th overall – the student also won first place overall in the 2016 Brazilian Mathematical Olympiad (OBM). Pedro wants to study Mathematics and Computer Science in college. Regarding the IMO, he says he doesn't have gold as his goal. "I prefer to keep improving instead of having a fixed objective. If I set that as my goal and achieved it, it would end any motivation for mathematics. I prefer to challenge myself."

For the second consecutive year, George Lucas Diniz Alencar, an 18-year-old from Ceará, will face the challenge of finding solutions to high-level mathematical problems in an IMO exam. In the last edition of the largest student competition in the field, in Hong Kong, he won a bronze medal. 2016 was a year of many victories for the student. In addition to his excellent performance in the IMO, he achieved the second-highest score in the entire country at level 3 (high school students) of the Brazilian Mathematical Olympiad (OBM). He also secured a silver medal at the 31st Ibero-American Mathematical Olympiad (OIM) in Chile, where Brazil competed against 22 countries and came in first place overall. Regarding the challenge in July 2017, he says: "I want to participate in another IMO to give my best again."

After three consecutive years of medals at the Brazilian Mathematical Olympiad (OBM) – gold (2014), bronze (2015), and silver (2016) – Bruno Brasil Meinhart, a 16-year-old from Ceará, will join the Brazilian Olympic team at the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO). He already has experience in other international mathematics competitions, with very positive results. In 2016, he won a bronze medal at the Rioplatense Mathematical Olympiad and, in 2015, achieved 5th place overall at the Mathematical Olympiad of the Community of Portuguese-Speaking Countries in Cape Verde. Bruno debuted in knowledge olympiads in the 5th grade. He is passionate about Computer Science and says that the knowledge acquired in mathematics tournaments will be essential for good performance in the field.

Davi Cavalcanti Sena, a 17-year-old from Pernambuco, debuted in mathematics competitions in 2012. He took the Brazilian Mathematics Olympiad (OBM) exam without much expectation, without studying, and received an honorable mention. From then on, he never stopped competing. For three consecutive years, he was a medalist at the OBM, winning a gold (2014), a silver (2016), and a bronze (2015). In 2013, the student from a private school in Caruaru, in the Pernambuco hinterland, won a bronze medal at the International Mathematical Olympiad in Mayo and repeated the feat in 2015. Last year, he won a bronze at the Iranian Advanced Geometry Olympiad and, this year, he brought home a gold from the Asia-Pacific Mathematics Olympiad. Davi finds himself challenged by the creativity of the exams used in the tournaments.

[two_thirds]
[clear]