The

International Mathematical Olympiad The International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) is a mathematical olympiad for pre-university students, and is the oldest of the International Science Olympiads. The first IMO was held in Romania in 1959. It has since been held annually, except i ...

(IMO) is an annual international

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

mathematics competition Mathematics competitions or mathematical olympiads are competitive events where participants complete a math test. These tests may require multiple choice or numeric answers, or a detailed written solution or proof. International mathematics compe ...

focused primarily on pre- collegiate

mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

, and is the oldest of the

international science olympiad The International Science Olympiads are a group of worldwide annual competitions in various areas of the formal sciences, natural sciences, and social sciences. The competitions are designed for the 4-6 best high school students from each partic ...

s. The awards for exceptional performance include medals for roughly the top half participants, and honorable mentions for participants who solve at least one problem perfectly. This is a list of participants who have achieved notability. This includes participants that went on to become notable

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change. History On ...

s, participants who won medals at an exceptionally young age, or participants who scored highly.

Exceptionally young medalists

High-scoring participants

The following table lists all IMO Winners who have won at least three gold medals, with corresponding years and non-gold medals received noted (P denotes a perfect score.)

Notable participants

A number of IMO participants have gone on to become notable

s. The following IMO participants have either received a

Fields Medal The Fields Medal is a prize awarded to two, three, or four mathematicians under 40 years of age at the International Congress of the International Mathematical Union (IMU), a meeting that takes place every four years. The name of the award ho ...

, an

Abel Prize The Abel Prize ( ; no, Abelprisen ) is awarded annually by the King of Norway to one or more outstanding mathematicians. It is named after the Norwegian mathematician Niels Henrik Abel (1802–1829) and directly modeled after the Nobel Prizes. ...

, a

Wolf Prize The Wolf Prize is an international award granted in Israel, that has been presented most years since 1978 to living scientists and artists for ''"achievements in the interest of mankind and friendly relations among people ... irrespective of natio ...

or a

Clay Research Award __NOTOC__ The Clay Research Award is an annual award given by the Oxford-based Clay Mathematics Institute to mathematicians to recognize their achievement in mathematical research. The following mathematicians have received the award: {, class=" ...

, awards which recognise groundbreaking research in mathematics; a

European Mathematical Society Prize European, or Europeans, or Europeneans, may refer to: In general * ''European'', an adjective referring to something of, from, or related to Europe ** Ethnic groups in Europe ** Demographics of Europe ** European cuisine, the cuisines of Europe ...

, an award which recognizes young researchers; or one of the

American Mathematical Society The American Mathematical Society (AMS) is an association of professional mathematicians dedicated to the interests of mathematical research and scholarship, and serves the national and international community through its publications, meetings, ...

's awards (a

Blumenthal Award {{Short description, Award of the American Mathematical Society The Blumenthal Award was founded by the American Mathematical Society in 1993 in memory of Leonard M. and Eleanor B. Blumenthal. The award was presented to the individual deemed to h ...

in Pure Mathematics,

Bôcher Memorial Prize The Bôcher Memorial Prize was founded by the American Mathematical Society in 1923 in memory of Maxime Bôcher with an initial endowment of $1,450 (contributed by members of that society). It is awarded every three years (formerly every five year ...

in Analysis, Cole Prize in Algebra, Cole Prize in Number Theory, Fulkerson Prize in Discrete Mathematics, Steele Prize in Mathematics, or Veblen Prize in Geometry and Topology) recognizing research in specific mathematical fields.

Grigori Perelman Grigori Yakovlevich Perelman ( rus, links=no, Григорий Яковлевич Перельман, p=ɡrʲɪˈɡorʲɪj ˈjakəvlʲɪvʲɪtɕ pʲɪrʲɪlʲˈman, a=Ru-Grigori Yakovlevich Perelman.oga; born 13 June 1966) is a Russian mathemati ...

proved the

Poincaré conjecture In the mathematics, mathematical field of geometric topology, the Poincaré conjecture (, , ) is a theorem about the Characterization (mathematics), characterization of the 3-sphere, which is the hypersphere that bounds the unit ball in four-dim ...

(one of the seven

Millennium Prize Problems The Millennium Prize Problems are seven well-known complex mathematical problems selected by the Clay Mathematics Institute in 2000. The Clay Institute has pledged a US$1 million prize for the first correct solution to each problem. According ...

), and

Yuri Matiyasevich Yuri Vladimirovich Matiyasevich, (russian: Ю́рий Влади́мирович Матиясе́вич; born 2 March 1947 in Leningrad) is a Russian mathematician and computer scientist. He is best known for his negative solution of Hilbert's t ...

gave a negative solution of

Hilbert's tenth problem Hilbert's tenth problem is the tenth on the list of mathematical problems that the German mathematician David Hilbert posed in 1900. It is the challenge to provide a general algorithm which, for any given Diophantine equation (a polynomial equat ...

. G denotes an IMO gold medal, S denotes a silver medal, B denotes a bronze medal, and P denotes a perfect score. IMO medalists have also gone on to become notable

computer scientists Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to practical disciplines (including th ...

. The following IMO medalists have received a

Nevanlinna Prize The IMU Abacus Medal, known before 2022 as the Rolf Nevanlinna Prize, is awarded once every four years at the International Congress of Mathematicians, hosted by the International Mathematical Union (IMU), for outstanding contributions in Mathematic ...

, a

Knuth Prize The Donald E. Knuth Prize is a prize for outstanding contributions to the foundations of computer science, named after the American computer scientist Donald E. Knuth. History The Knuth Prize has been awarded since 1996 and includes an award of US ...

, or a

Gödel Prize The Gödel Prize is an annual prize for outstanding papers in the area of theoretical computer science, given jointly by the European Association for Theoretical Computer Science (EATCS) and the Association for Computing Machinery Special Inter ...

; these awards recognise research in theoretical computer science. G denotes an IMO gold medal, S denotes a silver medal, B denotes a bronze medal, and P denotes a perfect score.

Notes

References

* *{{cite magazine , last=Lord , first=Mary , title=Michael Jordans of Math , magazine=U.S. News & World Report , year=2001 , postscript=

External links

General information on the IMOInternational Mathematical Olympiad
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