Awards Presented to 2012 USAMO Winners

June 8, 2012

The 41st U.S.A. Mathematical Olympiad Awards Ceremony, honoring the 12 winners of the premier high school mathematics competition, took place on June 4 at the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington, D.C.

“The USAMO is the pinnacle event in a sequence of increasingly challenging mathematical contests administered by the MAA’s American Mathematics Competitions program,” MAA President Paul Zorn said. “We celebrate your success and your hard work.”

The 12 winners are (in alphabetical order):

  • Andre Arslan, a junior at Hunter College High School, New York, NY. He previously qualified for the 2011 USAMO and attended 2011 Mathematical Olympiad Summer Program.
  • Joshua Brakensiek, a sophmore, homeschooled in Chandler, AZ. He received a perfect score on the 2008 AMC 8. He also qualified for the 2011 USAMO and attended 2011 MOSP.
  • Calvin Deng, a junior at North Carolina School Science & Mathematics, Durham, NC. Winner of a silver medal at the 2010 IMO, he was one of the 12 winners of the 2010 USAMO and a National MathCounts Quarter Finalist in 2008.
  • Xiaoyu He, a senior at Acton-Boxborough Regional High School, Acton, MA. One of the 12 winners of the 2010 USAMO, He went on to win gold medals at the 2010 IMO and 2011 IMO.
  • Ravi Jagadeesan, a sophmore at Phillips Exeter Academy, Exeter, NH. One of the 12 winners for the 2011 USAMO, Jagadeesan has taken part in the US Physics Olympiad and the North American Computational Linguistics Olympiad.
  • Mitchell Lee, a senior, homeschooled in Oakton, VA. One of the 12 winners of the 2011 USAMO and 2010 USAMO, Lee was a member of the winning team at the 2011 Romanian Master of Mathematics and Science and a finalist in the 2011 USA Computing Olympiad.
  • (Alex) Zhuo Qun Song, a first-year at Phillips Exeter Academy, Exeter, NH.
  • Thomas Swayze, a junior at Canyon Crest Academy, San Diego, CA. He received a perfect score on the 2008 AMC 8. He also qualified for the 2011 USAMO and attended 2011 MOSP.
  • Victor Wang, a junior at Ladue High School, St. Louis, MO. He was a member of the winning team at the 2011 Romanian Master of Mathematics and Science.
  • David Yang, a junior at Phillips Exeter Academy, Exeter, NH. A gold medal-winner at the 2011 IMO, Yang was one of the top 12 winners at the 2011 USAMO and 2009 USAMO and a 2009 National MathCounts Written Competition first place and individual second place winner.
  • Samuel Zbarsky, a junior at Montgomery Blair High School, Silver Spring, MD.
  • Alex Zhu, a senior at Academy Advancement Science & Technology, Hackensack, NJ.

    • John P. Holdren, assistant to President Obama for science and technology and director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, attended the evening dinner and read a congratulatory message from President Obama.

    John P. Holdren talks to the winners of the 2012 USA Mathematical Olympiad.


    Earlier in the evening, Zorn and American Mathematics Competition Director Steven Dunbar presented the winners with the USAMO Medal, named in honor of Gerhard C. Arenstorff, a two-time winner of the USAMO and a member of the first U.S. team to compete in the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO).

    The 12 winners also received the Robert P. Balles Olympiad Prize. Mr. Balles, a lifelong student of mathematics, retired community college math instructor, retired businessman, and currently a private investor, established this award in 2005 to recognize and reward these high-achieving students of mathematics.

    Five contest participants tied for the top score in this year’s Olympiad, and all five received the Samuel L. Greitzer/Murray S. Klamkin Award for excellence in mathematics. They are Xiaoyu He, Mitchell Lee, Thomas Swayze, Samuel Zbarsky, and Alex Zhu. Tom Ruff, vice president of public sector at Akamai Technologies, presented these exceptional students with first-place Akamai Foundation Scholarship Awards.

    Glen Van Brummelen, a historian of mathematics at Quest University in Vancouver, Canada, presented the annual USAMO Address, “From the Heavens to the Earth: The Mercurial Tale of Spherical Trigonometry” (Audio). Van Brummelen is author of the book The Mathematics of the Heavens and the Earth: The Early History of Trigonometry (Princeton University Press, 2009).

    Glenn Van Brummelen presents the Olympiad Address, “From the Heavens to the Earth: The Mercurial Tale of Spherical Trigonometry.” Listen to the full audio here.


    On the day after the awards ceremony, the USAMO winners traveled to Lincoln, Nebraska, to participate, along with about 50 other students, in the Mathematical Olympiad Summer Program (MOSP). Funded in part by the Akamai Foundation, MOSP provides the students with in-depth training in mathematical problem solving.

    Several of the USAMO winners had been selected earlier to be members of the USA International Mathematical Olympiad team, which will compete against teams from more than 100 nations July 4-16 in Mar del Plata, Argentina. The six-member IMO team consists of Xiaoyu He, Ravi Jagadeesan, Mitchell Lee, Bobby Shen, Thomas Swayze, and David Yang. They will continue their training at MOSP before heading for Argentina.

    The MAA is grateful to the following organizations for their generous support of the USAMO and the AMC program: Akamai Foundation, D. E. Shaw & Co. L.P., Delta Airlines, Art of Problem Solving, Math for America, Academy of Applied Science, American Mathematical Society, Awesome Math, Casualty Actuarial Society, Jane Street Capital, Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics,  Mu Alpha Theta, and Pi Mu Epsilon.

    USAMO table sponsors and supporters include the American Statistical Association, National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, American Mathematical Association of Two-Year Colleges, Conference Board of the Mathematical Sciences, and Mu Alpha Theta.

    Watch a slideshow of the 2012 USAMO Award Ceremony in Washington, D.C.

    About USAMO

    The USAMO is the pinnacle event in the sequence of increasingly challenging mathematical contests administered by the MAA's American Mathematics Competitions program. It serves to indicate the talent of those who may become leaders in the mathematical sciences of the next generation. More than 220,000 worldwide took the first contest (AMC 10 and/or AMC 12). More than 10,000 were invited to compete in the second contest, the American Invitational Mathematics Examination (AIME), and just 273 of these participants made it to the highly selective and prestigious USAMO.

    About AMC

    The mission of the MAA's American Mathematics Competitions is to increase interest in mathematics and to develop problem solving through a fun competition. Teachers and schools benefit from the chance to challenge students with interesting mathematical questions that are aligned with curriculum standards at all levels of difficulty. In addition, students gain the opportunity to learn and achieve through competition with students in their school and around the world.

    Thanks to Our Sponsors

    The MAA would like to thank the organizations that sponsor the USAMO and MOSP programs, including: Akamai Foundation, DE Shaw & Co., Art of Problem Solving, Robert Balles, Math for America, Academy of Applied Science, American Mathematical Society, Awesome Math, Jane Street, Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, American Statistical Association, National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, American Mathematical Association of Two-Year Colleges, Casualty Actuarial Society, Conference Board of the Mathematical Sciences, Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, Mu Alpha Theta, Pi Mu Epsilon.

    Related Links

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