Junyao (Peter) Peng won a Gold Medal at the 2016 International Math Olympiad (IMO)
Princeton International School of Mathematics and Science (PRISMS) is pleased to share the news that one of our seniors, Junyao (Peter) Peng, has won a Gold Medal at the 2016 International Math Olympiad (IMO) held in Hong Kong in July. He was one of the six members of the US Math Olympiad Team and helped the US Team come in 1st for the second year in a row.
Founded in 1959, the IMO has become the most important math competition for high school students worldwide. This year 109 teams of up to six members each competed in two days of exams made up of six problems, each worth seven points. The problems involved high school level topics in math, including geometry, number theory, combinatorics and algebra. Former IMO participants have gone on to become prominent mathematicians and scientists, several winning the prestigious Fields Medal, the highest international award for young mathematicians.
The Head of our PRISMS Math Department, Joseph Li, has been Peter’s coach for the past two years. His skillful coaching helped Peter first win a Gold Medal in the prestigious Romanian Master of Mathematics competition (RMM), the run up to the IMO this past spring, and then prepared him for the exams that secured Peter’s place on the US Math Olympiad team.
Mr. Li has his own distinction of being one of the most successful IMO coaches in the world. As Deputy Leader of the Chinese team, Mr. Li has personally coached over a dozen students to Gold Medals at the IMO and many other national and international math competitions. He created The PRIME (The PRISMS Invitational Math Event), the highly regarded math competition for middle school students run by PRISMS students and scored by IMO Gold Medalists. Last year The PRIME sold out with competitors from 4 states. This year The PRIME, which will feature Peter, will be held on Saturday, January 14, 2017.