MEDIA RELEASE — May 14, 2009

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Canadian Mathematical Society

MEDIA RELEASE

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May 14, 2009

41^st Canadian Mathematical Olympiad Winners

The CMO, Canada’s premier mathematics competition, is organized and administered by the Canadian Mathematical Society (CMS). A total of 81 students from 52 different schools (47 Canadian schools and 5 from outside Canada) wrote the 2009 CMO, selected on the basis of their performance in the 2008 Sun Life Financial Canadian Open Mathematics Challenge (COMC) (November 19, 2008), the CMS Correspondence Training Programme and other mathematics competitions. Students had to solve five difficult questions during the three-hour 2009 CMO examination held on March 25, 2009.

“The Canadian Mathematics Olympiad is a very important venue through which selected students from all across Canada have the opportunity to enhance and develop their problem solving skills and to significantly increase their mathematical knowledge. Preparing for this competition takes a lot of dedication and hard work, I am very proud of all the students who have been part of this unique and wonderful experience, and I congratulate the winners of the 2009 Olympiad." said Dr. Kalle Karu, University of British Columbia, and Chair of the CMS Canadian Mathematical Olympiad Committee.

2009 Prize Winners: The top winners in the 41^st Canadian Mathematical Olympiad are:

FIRST PRIZE and the Sun Life Financial Cup – Jonathan Schneider, University of Toronto Schools, Toronto, ON;
SECOND PRIZE – XiaoLin (Danny) Shi, Sir Winston Churchill High School, Calgary, AB;
THIRD PRIZE – Chengue (Jarno) Sun, Western Canada High School, Calgary, AB;
HONOURABLE MENTIONS were awarded to: Ahmad Abdi, Sabouhi Academy of Art & Design, Toronto, ON; Yu (Robin) Cheng, Pinetree Secondary School, Coquitlam, BC; Nikita Lvov, Marianopolis College, Westmount, QC; Hunter Spink, Western Canada High School, Calgary, AB; Chen Sun, A.B. Lucas Secondary School, London, ON.

Over 8,200 students wrote the 2008 Sun Life Financial Canadian Open Mathematics Challenge (the Open) and the winners of the 2008 Open and the 2009 CMO will be honoured at the CMS Awards Banquet which will take place in the Festival Ballroom, South Campus Hall, University of Waterloo, on Thursday, June 11, 2009, from 5:15 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

“All of these winners have done extremely well in an extremely challenging competition. The students who participate in these competitions develop the creative problem-solving skills so valuable in today's competitive workplace.” said Dr. Graham Wright, Executive Director, Canadian Mathematical Society.

The Society is very grateful for the support received from Sun Life Financial; Alberta Learning; Department of Education (Manitoba), Department of Education (New Brunswick); the Department of Education (Newfoundland and Labrador); the Department of Education (Northwest Territories); the Department of Education (Nova Scotia); the Ministry of Education (Ontario); the Department of Education (Saskatchewan); Nelson Thomson Learning; John Wiley and Sons Canada Ltd.; A.K. Peters Ltd.; Maplesoft; the Department of Mathematics, University of British Columbia; the Department of Mathematics, University of Toronto; the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Ottawa; the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Calgary; the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Regina; the Department of Mathematics, Simon Fraser University, the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, York University; the Centre for Education in Mathematics and Computing, University of Waterloo; and the Department of Mathematics, Wilfrid Laurier University.

Problems, solutions and other contest information are available at:
     http://www.cms.math.ca/Competitions/CMO/

For more information, contact: