Romanian Master of Mathematics is a competition featuring representatives of countries participating in the International Mathematical Olympiad, which is reflected in a very high difficulty level – it is considered the most demanding mathematical contest for school students in the world. This year’s competition, held on 11-16 October, was, exceptionally, open to first year university students who have just left high school.
The Polish representation achieved their best result in history. Gold medals were awarded to Antoni Buraczewski (35 points), Łukasz Orski (35 points) and Kosma Kasprzak (34 points). Juliusz Banecki (29 points) and Radosław Żak (26 points) collected silver medals, whereas Marek Zbysiński (21 points) won bronze. Paweł Gadziński (14 points) received an honorary mention.
With 98 points, Poland took third place in the official team ranking, bested only by Russia and China, which scored 102 points each, and outperforming all other participants, including teams from the United States (91 points) and South Korea (79 points), who took fourth and fifth place, respectively. It is worth noting that Poland won only four gold medals in all the previous competitions, while this year the Polish team collected as many as three of them, which is more than any other team.
The Polish team was led by Wojciech Nadara, PhD student from the University of Warsaw, whose deputy was Justyna Jaworska, 2nd year student of Analytical Computer Science at the Jagiellonian University. Due to the pandemic, this year’s competition was held in a hybrid mode. During the contest participants from the same country were seated in one place and monitored by cameras. The Polish team was based at the JU Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science. Four team members: Juliusz Banecki, Łukasz Orski, Radosław Żak, and Paweł Gadziński have already finished high school. The first three of them have just started studying Mathematics at the Jagiellonian University, whereas the latter one has recently become a student of the Inter-faculty Individual Studies in Mathematics and Natural Sciences at the University of Warsaw. The fifth Polish participant Kosma Kasprzak is a student of the 5th High School in Kraków, but he already attends lectures at the Jagiellonian University.
From this year on, foreign participants of the Romanian Master of Mathematics can apply for the Mertens Scholarship on equal terms with international Olympiad participants.
