Brilliant young minds selected for IMO training camp at ASSMS

Pakistan News & Features Services

The 29 top students, short-listed on the basis of the results of the country-wide open competition held on November 10, have been provisionally selected to receive the International Mathematic Olympiad (IMO) training at the Abdus Salam School of Mathematical Sciences (ASSMS), GC University Lahore, located in New Muslim Town, from December 3 to 13. 

The list is dominated by the students of Lahore (13) and Karachi (11) with Islamabad (3) and Quetta (2) also joining the elite group. They will now be trained and groomed by world class coaches. 

The top 10 students who excel in these camps will receive certificates and prizes. The selected students will represent the country at the IMO 2013, to be staged at Santa Marta, Colombia, in July next. 

They will also become eligible for various fellowships for higher studies in sciences. The ASSMS organized the contest with key objective to secure recognition at the highest level to the talented students. It provided the students, desiring to become a world class scientist, an excellent opportunity to start with. The competition was open to students born on or after July 16, 1993. 

According to the results, the short-listed students from Lahore for the IMO camp are Ali Hamza, Awais Mohammad Chishti, Ayesha Majid, Hamza Arif, Hamza Shafiq, Haris Bin Adnan, Omar Ali Jahangir, Ramesha Akhtar, Raza Adeel Agha, Saadullah Aamir, Sarah Khawaja, Wardah Rafaqat and Zuhair Saleem while those from Karachi are Aiman Khan, Areeb-ur-Rahman Siddiq, Hassan Ahmed, Hassan Saeed, Mohammad Faiz Taufiq, Mohammad Musab Usman, Mohammad Sehan Khawar, Mohammad Zain Qasmi, Mustafa Mansoor, Shayan Ahmed Farooqui and Uzair Irfan Farooqui. 

Awais Khalid, Javeria Khalid and Zain Humayun have made the cut from Islamabad while Mohammad Naurez Shaukat and Shahzaib Shaukat have qualified from Quetta. 

The International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) is the World Championship Mathematics Competition for High School students and is held annually in a different country. The first-ever IMO was held in 1959 in Romania, with seven countries participating. It kept expanding gradually and there was a record participation of 565 students from as many as 104 countries in 2009 when its 50th edition was organized at Bremen, Germany. 

The 52nd IMO at Amsterdam, Netherlands, in 2011 had 564 entries from 101 countries while 548 students from exactly 100 countries contested the 53rd IMO at Mar del Plata, Argentina, earlier this year. 

The Abdus Salam School of Mathematical Sciences (ASSMS), established by the Government of Punjab under the aegis of the GC University Lahore, has been pursuing the goal of becoming a Centre of Excellence for research and advanced studies in Mathematical Sciences. It is acclaimed as one of the fastest growing doctoral schools in the world. 

The GC University Lahore is among the oldest educational institutions of the country, which will be turning 149 in one month time. It had started its journey as Government College Lahore on January 1, 1864.