Over the years, the Obama Administration has made an effort to promote STEM education, including a tradition of inviting championship-winning teams to Washington. Therefore, this week U.S. Senators Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) along with U.S. Representative Jim Himes (D-Conn) sent a request to President Obama asking him to invite the Olympiad team to the White House to honor their success achievement.
Their letter to the White House states, “The entire country should be proud of the way the U.S. IMO team represented our country on an international stage; honoring them at the White House would appropriately recognize them and send a message about the value of academic achievement.”
The U.S. team members are Ryan Alweiss, Allen Liu, Yang Liu, Shyam Narayanan, and David Stoner, all of whom were awarded gold medals, and Michael Kural, who earned a silver medal, just one point away from the gold.
Participants on the U.S. team were selected through a series of competitions organized by the Mathematical Association of America (MAA). The school-based competitions start as early as grade 8, and increase in breadth and difficulty, culminating with the U.S.A. Mathematical Olympiad, and a training program (Mathematical Olympiad Summer program, or MOSP). The programs are organized and sustained by the MAA, with the support of a number of donors including the Akamai Foundation and the Simons Foundation.
The full text of the letter can be found here: http://www.murphy.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/murphy-blumenthal-himes-call-on-obama-to-recognize-us-mathematical-olympiad-team-for-academic-achievement-.
More information about participation in the MAA’s American Mathematics Competitions can be found at http://www.maa.org/math-competitions.
About MAAThe Mathematical Association of America is the largest professional society that focuses on mathematics accessible at the undergraduate level. Formed in 1915, the association members include university, college, and high school teachers; graduate and undergraduate students; pure and applied mathematicians; computer scientists; statisticians; and many others in academia, government, business, and industry who are interested in the mathematical sciences.
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