Richard Rusczyk ( or ; ; born September 21, 1971) is the founder and chief executive officer of Art of Problem Solving Inc. (as well as the website, which serves as a mathematics forum and place to hold online classes) and a co-author of the Art of Problem Solving textbooks. Rusczyk was a national

Mathcounts Mathcounts, stylized as MATHCOUNTS, is a nationwide middle school mathematics competition held in various places in the United States. Its current lead sponsors are Raytheon Technologies and the U.S. Department of Defense STEM. Topics covered inc ...

participant in 1985, and he won the USA Math Olympiad (USAMO) in 1989. He is one of the co-creators of the

Mandelbrot Competition Named in honor of Benoit Mandelbrot, the Mandelbrot Competition was a mathematics competition founded by Sam Vandervelde, Richard Rusczyk and Sandor Lehoczky that operated from 1990 to 2019. It allowed high school students to compete individually ...

, and the director of the USA Mathematical Talent Search (USAMTS). He also founded the San Diego Math Circle. Every month, Rusczyk works on the Mathcounts website to create Mathcounts Minis, where he explains problems and concepts.

Art of Problem Solving

In 1994, Rusczyk and Sandor Lehoczky wrote the Art of Problem Solving books, designed to prepare students for mathematical competitions by teaching them concepts and problem-solving methods rarely taught in school. These books lent their name to the company he founded in 2003. After working for four years as a bond trader for D. E. Shaw & Co., Rusczyk created the Art of Problem Solving website, which provides resources for middle and high school students to develop their mathematics and problem-solving abilities. These include real-time competitions to solve math problems and online tools to learn how to solve problems with increasing difficulty as well as math forums. As of May 26, 2021, there have been 709,491 students, 1,322,594 topics, and a total of 15,182,054 posts on the site. Rusczyk has also published the Art of Problem Solving series of books aimed at a similar audience. The site also provides fee-based online mathematics classes, which range from Prealgebra to

Group Theory In abstract algebra, group theory studies the algebraic structures known as group (mathematics), groups. The concept of a group is central to abstract algebra: other well-known algebraic structures, such as ring (mathematics), rings, field ...

and

Calculus Calculus, originally called infinitesimal calculus or "the calculus of infinitesimals", is the mathematical study of continuous change, in the same way that geometry is the study of shape, and algebra is the study of generalizations of arithm ...

. Additionally, Art of Problem Solving offers

Python programming Python is a high-level, general-purpose programming language. Its design philosophy emphasizes code readability with the use of significant indentation. Python is dynamically-typed and garbage-collected. It supports multiple programming par ...

classes and Olympiad level classes in mathematics, physics, and chemistry, called WOOT. Rusczyk founded and serves on the board of the nonprofit Art of Problem Solving Initiative, which manages the United States of America Mathematical Talent Search (USAMTS) and finances numerous local math initiatives around the United States. In 2012, Rusczyk won the Mathcounts distinguished alumnus award. In 2014, Rusczyk won the

Paul Erdős Award The Paul Erdős Award, named after Paul Erdős, is given by the World Federation of National Mathematics Competitions for those who "have played a significant role in the development of mathematical challenges at the national or international leve ...

from the World Federation of National Mathematics Competitions. Art of Problem Solving also has a vast community of over 500,000 math, computer science, and physics enthusiasts. In 2020, Mathcounts was canceled due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. In its stead, Art of Problem Solving hosted the online Mathcounts Week. Art of Problem Solving also hosted the second round of the

American Invitational Mathematics Examination The American Invitational Mathematics Examination (AIME) is a highly selective and prestigious 15-question 3-hour test given since 1983 to those who rank in the top 5% on the AMC 12 high school mathematics examination (formerly known as the AHSME) ...

as the American Online Invitational Mathematics Examination. Art of Problem Solving also hosted the

American Mathematics Competitions The American Mathematics Competitions (AMC) are the first of a series of competitions in secondary school mathematics that determine the United States team for the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO). The selection process takes place over th ...

from November 10–16, and had hosted the it in February 2021.

Website

The Art of Problem Solving website hosts online math courses. Sets of problems are included which is for homework. The website also hosts a large number of forums, where users can post math problems and play math & strategy games. The Art of Problem Solving wiki contains numerous formulas and additional information. During the

, the website additionally began hosting several math and science competitions. These include the

United States of America Mathematical Olympiad The United States of America Mathematical Olympiad (USAMO) is a highly selective high school mathematics competition held annually in the United States. Since its debut in 1972, it has served as the final round of the American Mathematics Compe ...

, the

Putnam Competition The William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition, often abbreviated to Putnam Competition, is an annual mathematics competition for undergraduate college students enrolled at institutions of higher learning in the United States and Canada (regar ...

, F=ma examination,

USA Biolympiad The USA Biolympiad (USABO), formerly called the USA Biology Olympiad before January 1, 2020, is a national competition sponsored by the Center for Excellence in Education to select the competitors for the International Biology Olympiad. Each year, ...

, and

Textbooks

Richard Ruscyzk has both authored and co-authored several textbooks for students in grades 5-12, including Pre-algebra, Introduction to Algebra, Introduction to Geometry, and many others. During his studies at Princeton University, he also wrote the Art of Problem Solving Volumes 1 and 2 with Sandor Lehoczky.

Other

Rusczyk studied

chemical engineering Chemical engineering is an engineering field which deals with the study of operation and design of chemical plants as well as methods of improving production. Chemical engineers develop economical commercial processes to convert raw materials int ...

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

and graduated Summa Cum Laude in 1993. He previously served on the board for ARML and managed the Western ARML site.

References

External links

The Art of Problem Solving

The Mandelbrot Competition

Rusczyk's blog

The Art of Problem Solving Initiative

USAMTS website

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rusczyk, Richard Living people American non-fiction writers Princeton University alumni 1971 births Mathematics popularizers