[cmath] 40TH CANADIAN MATHEMATICAL OLYMPIAD WINNERS

[Graham Wright]

For release: May 26, 2008

40TH CANADIAN MATHEMATICAL OLYMPIAD WINNERS

Eight students receive top honours in the 40th Canadian Mathematical 
Olympiad (CMO). The CMO, Canada?s premier mathematics competition, is 
organized and administered by the Canadian Mathematical Society (CMS). 
A total of 96 students from 58 schools wrote the 2008 CMO, selected on 
the basis of their performance in the 2007 Sun Life Financial Canadian 
Open Mathematics Challenge (COMC) (November 21, 2007), the CMS 
Correspondence Training Programme and other mathematics competitions. 
Students had to solve five difficult questions during the three-hour 
2008 CMO examination held on March 26, 2008. "Preparing for the 
Olympiad gives students the opportunity to explore mathematics beyond 
the regular curriculum. The candidates become very knowledgeable and 
skilled at mathematics, and I congratulate the winners of this year's 
Canadian Mathematical Olympiad." said Dr. Edward Barbeau, University 
of Toronto, and Chair of the CMS Canadian Mathematical Olympiad 
Committee.

2008 Prize Winners: The top winners in the 40th Canadian Mathematical Olympiad 
are:

FIRST PRIZE and the Sun Life Financial Cup: Chen Sun, A.B. Lucas 
Secondary School, London, ON; SECOND PRIZE Jonathan Schneider, 
University of Toronto Schools, Toronto, ON; THIRD PRIZE Yan (Cynthia) 
Li, Dr. Norman Bethune Collegiate Institute, Toronto, ON; HONOURABLE 
MENTIONS were awarded to: Dimitri Dziabenko, Don Mills Collegiate 
Institute, Toronto, ON; Neil Gurram, Indus Center for Academic 
Excellence, Troy, MI, USA; XiaoLin (Danny) Shi, Sir Winston Churchill 
High School, Calgary, AB; Chengyue (Jarno) Sun, Western Canada High 
School, Calgary, AB; and Tianyao Zhang, Sir John A. Macdonald 
Collegiate Institute, Toronto, ON.

Over 7300 students wrote the 2007 Sun Life Financial Canadian Open 
Mathematics Challenge and the winners of the 2007 Open and the 2008 
CMO will be honoured at the CMS Awards Banquet which will take place 
in the Festival Ballroom, South Campus Hall, University of Waterloo, 
on Thursday, June 12, 2008, from 5:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

"All of these winners have done extremely well in a very challenging 
competition. The students who participate in these competitions 
develop the creative problem-solving skills so valuable in today's 
workplace." said Dr. Graham Wright, Executive Director, Canadian 
Mathematical Society.

The Society is very grateful for the support received from Sun Life 
Financial; the Imperial Oil Foundation; Alberta Learning; Manitoba 
Education, Citizenship and Youth; Department of Education (New 
Brunswick); the Department of Education (Newfoundland and Labrador); 
the Department of Education (Northwest Territories); the Department of 
Education (Nova Scotia); the Ministry of Education (Ontario); the 
Department of Education (Saskatchewan); Nelson Thomson Learning; John 
Wiley and Sons Canada Ltd.; A.K. Peters Ltd.; Maplesoft; the 
Department of Mathematics, University of Toronto; the Department of 
Mathematics and Statistics, University of Ottawa; the Department of 
Mathematics and Statistics, University of Calgary; the Department of 
Mathematics and Statistics, University of Regina; the Department of 
Mathematics and Statistics, York University; the Centre for Education 
in Mathematics and Computing, University of Waterloo; and the 
Department of Mathematics, Wilfrid Laurier University.

Problems, solutions and other contest information are available at: 
www.cms.math.ca/Competitions/CMO/

For more information, contact:

Dr. Graham P. Wright
Canadian Mathematical Society Executive Director
director at cms.math.ca
(613) 562-5702

or

Dr. Edward Barbeau
Chair, CMS Canadian Mathematical Olympiad Committee
Department of Mathematics
University of Toronto
barbeau at math.toronto.edu
(416) 653-1961