Titu Andreescu
Titu Andreescu (born 1956) is an associate professor of mathematics at the University of Texas at Dallas. He is also firmly involved in mathematics contests and olympiads, having been the Director of AMC (as appointed by the Mathematical Association of America [1]), Director of MOP, Head Coach of the USA IMO Team and Chairman of the USAMO. [2] He has also authored a large number of books on the topic of problem solving and olympiad style mathematics.
Biography
Titu Andreescu was born in the Romanian city of Timişoara in 1956. From an early age, an interest in mathematics was encouraged by both his father and uncle Andrew, who was a retired university professor. As a high school student, he excelled in mathematics, and in 1973, 1974 and 1975 won the Romanian national problem solving contests organized by the journal Gazeta Matematică. After graduating from the University of Timişoara, Andreescu was appointed a professor of mathematics at the Constantin Diaconovici Loga school of Mathematics and Physics. Between the years 1981–1989 he also worked as the editor-in-chief of the Periodical Revista mathematică din Timişoara. In 1990, as the Eastern Bloc began to collapse, Andreescu emigrated to the United States.
Mathematics coaching and contests
During the 1980s, Titu Andreescu served as a coach for the Romanian IMO team and in 1983 was presented with the national award of "Distinguished Professor". In 1984 he was appointed as "Counselor of the Romanian Ministry of Education". After emigrating to America, Andreescu became involved in Coaching the American IMO team. His most notable success in came in 1994 when the American team obtained a perfect score at the Hong Kong International Mathematical Olympiad, the first time that any team had achieved this. In recognition of this, Titu was awarded a Certificate of Appreciation from the Mathematical Association of America for “outstanding service” as coach of the USA Mathematical Olympiad Program.
AwesomeMath Program
In 2006, Andreescu established a math camp for talented middle and high school mathematicians just below Olympiad level. The first AwesomeMath summer program was very effective, with noted professors serving as instructors, and mentors and assistants who had performed well at Olympiads. The program will continue throughout the year as the AwesomeMath Year-round program.[1]
Metroplex Math Circle
In 2006, Dr. Andreescu founded a mathematical circle hosted by the University of Texas at Dallas. This circle continues to thrive under Dr. Andreescu's leadership serving the needs of talented middle and highschool students in north Texas. Speakers come from around the world and the local community of professors and their most skilled graduate students. Notable participants in the Metroplex Math Circle include Amy Chyao, Michael Ma and Niranjan Balachandar. [2]
Math Rocks! Program
In 2008, the Plano Independent School District in Plano, TX launched a Math Rocks! program, a program for kids with very high-level math skills. For two years, it was piloted successfully. Then, in 2010, PISD made a decision- to open Math Rocks! to the whole part of Plano, not just the west area. Since then, Math Rocks! is at many PISD schools, such as Rice, Schell, Christie, and McCall. Dr. Andreescu helps to direct the program. Subjects of Math Rocks! include simple sums, nice numbers, factorials, math and chess, divisors of numbers, tangrams, magic squares, cryptarithmetic, and digits of numbers. Of course, Plano Independent School District has gotten special permission from the Mathematical Association of America (MAA) for students in Math Rocks! to participate in the American Mathematics Competitions (AMC.) These very-high level math tests include the AMC 8 (8th grade material), AMC 10 (10th grade material), and the AMC 12 (12th grade material.) Students enrolled in Math Rocks! taking the AMC tests include third graders all the way to tenth graders.
References
- T. Andreescu, Mathematical Olympiad Challenges (2000)
- Profile, at U.T. Dallas