Department Highlighted in Fields Notes

July 30, 2012 By

For it’s involvement in the Mathematics Pavilion at this year’s Science Rendezvous the department received a nod and a two page spread of photos from this year’s event.

The full article can be found here (starting on page 12)

For the past three years the Math department has had an ever growing pavilion at Science Rendezvous.  This near exponential growth has been in good part due to the efforts of the Fields Institute and their generous usage of space and resources.  This year’s event saw over 300 visitors and allowed them to freely tour the Fields Institute and be up close and personal with a wide variety of math activities and personel.

We look forward to next year’s event and the continued growth of this wonderful pavilion.

Filed Under: Community, Events, In-the-News, Staff, Students

Math Kangaroo Featured in CMS Notes

July 30, 2012 By

The CMS notes recently ran an article written by the board members of the Canadian Math Kangaroo competition detailing the potential competition like this have for popularizing the field of Mathematics for our up-and-coming mathematicians.

The article provides an overview of the competition, sample problems and background on the competition.  It also talks of how the competition helps to involve and inspire students to be involved with mathematics in a context outside the typical classroom.

The full article can be found here (starting on page 8 )

This year the GTA section of the competition saw over 900 students participate across the three UofT campuses (UTSC, UTM and St George) and had over 50 staff and students volunteer to make it a success.

More information on UofT’s involvement with the competition can be found here

Filed Under: Competitions, In-the-News, Staff, Students

Canadian IMO Team Strikes Gold…

July 26, 2012 By

… and Silver and Bronze!

This year’s Canadian IMO (International Mathematics Olympiad) had a clean-up year for medals at this year’s competition.  The team, coached by Lindsey Shorser (an instructor with the Math Department), along with David Arthur, Ralph Furmaniak, and Alex Fink, won 6 medals (one for each of the team members).  In addition, the team leader was Jacob Tsimerman, who was a former U of T undergraduate math specialist.

In total the Canadian team walked away with 3 gold medals, 1 silver and 2 bronze medals.  This success ranks Canada 5th in the world out of 100 countries which is the best standing Canada has received since it started participating in the IMO in 1981.

The full story, complete with a picture of the team and a breakdown of the medals, can be found here

Further Stories

Our congratulations go to the team, its leaders and its coaches!  Great work!

Filed Under: Alumni, Awards, Competitions, Faculty, In-the-News, Students

Azrieli Fellowship Prize

July 16, 2012 By

Congratulations go to Pinaki Mondal, a postdoctoral fellow with the Department, for being award one of this year’s Azrieli Fellowship Prizes.

From their website:  The Azrieli Foundation is a Canadian philanthropic organization that supports a wide range of initiatives and programs in the fields of education, architecture and design, Jewish community, Holocaust commemoration and education, scientific and medical research, and the arts.

From their poster: The Azrieli Fellows Program welcomes the best and brightest postdoctoral scholars who wish to undertake postdoctoral research in Israel in any field of study. … The fellowships are awarded on the basis of academic excellence.  Candidates are assessed on their potential to make cutting-edge contributions to their respective fields.

The full poster can be found here

Our congratulations go to Pinaki who joins other talented students for their prestigious prize.

Filed Under: Awards, Students