Google Gives One Million Euros towards Next Five IMOs

January 21, 2011

The Advisory Board of the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO), headquartered in Amsterdam, has announced that Google has given it one million euros, which will support the annual Olympiad through 2015. 

The International Mathematical Olympiad is the world championship of secondary school mathematics. The first IMO, involving students from seven countries, was held in Romania in 1959. In 2010, Kazakhstan hosted competitors from more than 100 nations. The 2011 competition will take place in the Netherlands; the 2012 contest will be in Argentina. 

The MAA selects the US IMO team.  In one of its better showings in recent years, the USA team placed third in the 2010 IMO. 

Peter Barron, Google’s Director of External Relations, said, “The International Maths Olympiad is an event which demonstrates both the extraordinary abilities of the students who take part and the value to wider society of mathematics. We are delighted to be able to support the event over the next 5 years and to encourage excellence in mathematics around the world.” 

Wim Berkelmans, IMO Director for the 2011 organization, stated, “The IMO brings together young top talents from all over the world to a high level competition. Google helps us to encourage these talents to give their utmost in an international setting.”

Robbert Dijkgraaf, President of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences and Chair of the IMO 2011 Foundation, said, This generous gift of Google will allow the brightest young mathematicians to show their amazing abilities to the world. The scientific community is grateful for this wonderful support of Google and the recognition it expresses of the fundamental importance of mathematics to our society."

Geoff Smith (University of Bath, UK) stated, "This will be a great help to host nations who each bear the cost of running their own IMO." Although hosts for 2013 and beyond are unknown, observed Smith, "whichever nations run those events, their fund raising tasks will be made substantially easier by their share of the pump-priming funds which the IMOAB will pass on from the Google Gift."