Zhuo Qun Song

Zhuo Qun Song (Chinese: 宋卓群; pinyin: Sòng Zhuōqún; born 1997), also called Alex Song, is a Chinese-Canadian who is currently the most highly decorated International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) contestant, with five gold medals and one bronze medal.

Zhuo Qun Song
宋卓群
Song in 2015
Born1997 (age 25–26)
Tianjin, People's Republic of China
NationalityCanadian
Other namesAlex
Alma materPrinceton University
Phillips Exeter Academy
Known forMost highly decorated IMO contestant with 5 golds and 1 bronze medal
Zhuo Qun Song
Chinese宋卓群

Early life

Song was born in Tianjin, China in 1997.[1] He and his parents moved to Canada in 2002.[1] Song was brought up in Waterloo, Ontario.[2][3]

Song was interested in mathematics at a very young age where he started participating in competitions in first grade. By fourth grade, Song was participating in competitions such as the Canadian Open Mathematics Challenge and the American Mathematics Competitions. In fifth grade, Song became interested in solving Olympiad type questions and started training to solve them.[1] Song participated in MATHCOUNTS in middle school and was a National Countdown Round semifinalist in 2010.[4]

In 2011, Song moved to the United States to attend Phillips Exeter Academy.[3]

International Mathematical Olympiad

In 2010, when Song was in the seventh grade, he represented Vincent Massey Secondary School in the Canadian Mathematical Olympiad where he finished first place.[1][5]

In the same year, Song represented Canada in the 2010 IMO where he won a Bronze Medal.[5] He would continue to represent Canada for 5 subsequent IMOs where he obtained a gold medal each time. He obtained a perfect score on his final run in 2015, the only contestant to do so that year.[2][3][6] The performances made Song the most decorated contestant of all time.[2][3][7] In 2015, Song was also one of the twelve top scorers of the United States of America Mathematical Olympiad, representing Phillips Exeter Academy.[8]

Results
Year Venue Result
2015 Thailand Chiang Mai Gold medal (P)[9]
2014 South Africa Cape Town Gold medal[10]
2013 Colombia Santa Marta Gold medal[11]
2012 Argentina Mar del Plata Gold medal[12]
2011 Netherlands Amsterdam Gold medal[13]
2010 Kazakhstan Astana Bronze medal[14]

Post-IMO

Song graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy in 2015.[2][3]

Song attended Princeton University where he graduated in 2019 with a Honors Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics.[15]

During his time at Princeton, Song was part of the team that participated in the Putnam Competition. His team won second place in 2016[16] and third place in 2017.[17]

Song was previously a Quantitative Researcher at Citadel LLC.[18] He is currently a PhD student at the University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign.[19] He also has been lead coach for the Canadian IMO team since 2020. [20]

Publications
  • Kaushansky, Vadim; Reisinger, Christoph; Shkolnikov, Mykhaylo; Song, Zhuo Qun (11 October 2020). "Convergence of a time-stepping scheme to the free boundary in the supercooled Stefan problem". arXiv:2010.05281 [math.PR].
  • Song, Zhuo Qun (26 July 2019). "The Convergence of a Time-Stepping Scheme for a McKean-Vlasov Equation with Blow-Ups". {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  • Liu, Yang; Park, Peter S.; Song, Zhuo Qun (1 December 2017). "Bounded gaps between products of distinct primes". Research in Number Theory. 3 (1): 26. doi:10.1007/s40993-017-0089-3. ISSN 2363-9555. S2CID 37218431.
  • Liu, Yang; Park, Peter S.; Song, Zhuo Qun (11 December 2016). "The "Riemann Hypothesis" is true for period polynomials of almost all newforms". Research in the Mathematical Sciences. 3 (1): 31. arXiv:1607.04699. doi:10.1186/s40687-016-0081-x. ISSN 2197-9847. S2CID 44531385.

See also

References
  1. "Team Biographies" (PDF). Canadian Mathematical Society. 2012.
  2. Casey, Liam (27 July 2015). "Canadian math whiz wins international competition". CTVNews. Retrieved 25 November 2021.
  3. International, Radio Canada (27 July 2015). "Alex Song tops International Math Olympiad". RCI | English. Retrieved 25 November 2021.
  4. . Raytheon Company. 7 May 2010 https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/mark-sellke-indiana-8th--grader-and-california-team-named-national-mathematics-champions-at-2010-raytheon-mathcountsr-national-competition-93139374.html. Retrieved 26 September 2023. {{cite news}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  5. "Calgary mathlete brings home gold". CBC News. 15 July 2010.
  6. Kilkenny, Carmel (29 July 2015). "Alex Song and the Canadian Math Team". Radio Canada International. Retrieved 27 November 2021.
  7. "Hall of Fame". International Mathematics Olympiad. Retrieved 27 November 2021.
  8. "Winners of the 2015 USA Mathematical Olympiad Announced". Mathematics Association of America. 27 May 2015. Retrieved 27 November 2021.
  9. "Alex Song '15 Breaks IMO Record with Five Golds". Phillips Exeter Academy. 21 July 2015. Retrieved 28 November 2021.
  10. Hammer, Kate (16 July 2014). "Canada's mathletes ninth in the world at math Olympiad in South Africa". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 28 November 2021.
  11. Hickey, Walt (14 August 2013). "Three American High Schoolers Swept An International Competition By Crushing These Math Problems". Business Insider. Retrieved 28 November 2021.
  12. "53rd International Mathematical Olympiad Mar del Plata, Argentina — July 4 – 16, 2012". Canadian Mathematical Society. Retrieved 28 November 2021.
  13. "52nd International Mathematical Olympiad Amsterdam, Netherlands — July 16 – 24, 2011". Canadian Mathematical Society. Retrieved 28 November 2021.
  14. "51st International Mathematical Olympiad Astana, Kazakhstan — July 5 – 14, 2010". Canadian Mathematical Society. Retrieved 28 November 2021.
  15. "Congratulations Class of 2019! | Math". www.math.princeton.edu. Retrieved 25 November 2021.
  16. "2016 results".
  17. "2017 results".
  18. "Six Top Mathletes Selected for Math Team Canada 2021". CMS-SMC. Retrieved 27 November 2021.
  19. "IDEA MATH". ideamath.education. Retrieved 19 November 2022.
  20. "International Mathematical Olympiad". www.imo-official.org. Retrieved 19 November 2022.
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