MEDIA RELEASE May 15, 2001

OTTAWA, Ontario -- Nine students receive top honours in the 33rd Canadian Mathematical Olympiad (CMO). The CMO, Canada's premier mathematics competition, is organized and administered by the Canadian Mathematical Society (CMS). A total of 85 students from 48 Canadian schools were invited to write the 2001 CMO based upon their performance in the 2000 Canadian Open Mathematics Challenge (COMC) (November 29, 2000), the CMS Correspondence Training Programme and other mathematics competitions. Students had to solve five difficult questions during the three hour 2001 CMO examination held on April 4, 2001.

"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 a standard school curriculum. It also helps students gain a greater understanding and appreciation of the role of Mathematics in the workplace."

2001 Prize Winners: The top winners in the 33rd 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 Roger Mong, Don Mills Collegiate Institute Toronto, Ontario. Third Prize goes to Nima Kamoosi, West Vancouver Secondary School, West Vancouver, British Columbia. Honourable Mentions were awarded to Olena Bormashenko, Don Mills Collegiate Institute, Toronto, Ontario; Alexander Fink, Queen Elizabeth High School, Calgary, Alberta; Kenneth Ho, Don Mills Collegiate Institute Toronto, Ontario; Liang Hong, University of Toronto Schools, Toronto, Ontario; Dennis Wei, University of Toronto Schools, Toronto, Ontario; Robert Ziman, William Lyon MacKenzie Collegiate Institute, Toronto, Ontario.

The 2000 Canadian Open Mathematics Challenge was written by more than 5,000 students and those that excelled in the 2000 Open, and those that won prizes in the 2001 CMO will ne honoured at the CMS Awards Banquet which will take place at the University of Waterloo on Tuesday, June 12, 2001 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 which are so crucial in today's highly competitive global economy" said Dr. Graham Wright, Executive Director, Canadian Mathematical Society. "Daniel Brox also won the First Prize last year and he is only the fourth person to have won consecutive First Prizes in the 33 years of the CMO".

The Society is grateful for the support from the Sun Life Financial as the Major Sponsor of the 2001 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