Berkeley Math Circle

The Berkeley Math Circle works with over 50 students throughout each year (since 1998), with weekly lecture attendance averaging 25 students. The program is partially supported through MSRI, UC Berkeley, and parents' donations, and meets on Tuesday evenings on the UC Berkeley campus.

Math circles originated in Hungary more than a century ago. They soon spread over Eastern Europe and Asia, and since then have produced many of the great scientists from those parts of the world, in mathematics and in other disciplines. The math circles also led eventually to the start of many national and international math contests, including the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) in 1959 in Romania. It is widely believed that it is the presence of these circles that has enabled the youth of countries such as Russia, Bulgaria and Romania on the average to outperform the United States at the IMO.

Given the success of math circles in Russia and Eastern Europe, it is surprising that it has taken so long for the United States to develop similar programs. The Berkeley Math Circle was founded in 1998 to begin to correct this situation. The San Francisco Bay Area and Berkeley in particular were natural choices for the site of a math circle, both because of the large number of talented high school students in the area, and because of the proximity of world-class institutions such as UC Berkeley from which experienced lecturers could be drawn.

Each year the majority of the Berkeley Math Circle students participate in the Bay Area Math Olympiad. Although it has existed for nine years, the Berkeley Math Circle and the Bay Area Mathematical Olympiad have become known to thousands of people in the San Francisco Bay Area and across the country, through both word-of-mouth and the media. The program's success has been phenomenal; for instance, 250 students from approximately 45 schools (35% of them girls) participated in the last round of the BAMO exams 1999-2006. Thus, BAMO and BMC have good visibility with high schools and to the outside world by virtue of media coverage and previous students' positive experiences. It frequently receives requests from schools and universities across the U.S. for help in setting up their own circles. Circles have been started in San Jose, Stanford, and several other locations throughout the Bay Area. Several dozen mathematics teachers and researchers are involved in the math circles and BAMO each year.

The success of Berkeley Math Circle in identifying and fostering talent is striking. Although the BMC only started in 1998, the 6-member team at the International Math Olympiad (held in Washington, D.C., July 2001) included 3 members from this program:

Gabriel Carroll, graduated from Harvard as a math major and currently attending the Ph.D. program in Economics at MIT. He has won 2 Gold and 1 Silver medals at the IMO (including one perfect score in 2001), and won the Putnam competition 4 times. He was the grand prize BAMO winner 3 times.

Tiankai Liu, now at Harvard, won 3 Gold medals at the IMO. He attended the Research Experience for Undergraduates Program at Duluth, Minnesota in Summer 2007.

Oaz Nir has won 1 gold and 1 silver medal and has graduated from Duke University as a math major.

The three Berkeley Math Circle students contributed to the USA's second-place finish among over 80 countries at the International Mathematics Olympiad in 2001. In 2002, students from the Berkeley Math Circle and BAMO continued to do exceptionally well in mathematics competitions. Over the years, a number of Berkeley Math Circle students were among the top twelve winners of the USA Math Olympiad, and one was among the five students in the US with a perfect score: Inna Zakharevich (Henry Gunn High School, Palo Alto, Currently a student at Harvard University). Several other Circle students qualified for the summer training program of the US team several years in a row.

The 2007 Champion at the Scripps National Spelling Bee, Evan O'Dorney, qualified among the top 24 students for the training of the USA Math Team in 2007 while only in the 8th grade. He has won silver medals at the International Math Olympiad in 2008 and 2009, the Clay Math Institute award for a brilliant solution at the USA Math Olympiad in 2008, and BAMO grand prizes in 2007 and 2009.

Among other famous alumni of BMC and BAMO, it is worth mentioning Maxim Maydanskiy who tied for first place with Gabriel Carroll at BAMO 2001. Maxim was admitted to UC Berkeley, and upon recommendation from the BMC circle coordinator, Dr. Stankova, his Circle and Olympiad activities played a major role in awarding him the Regent's scholarship, the most prestigious UC Berkeley scholarship for entering undergraduates. While at UC Berkeley, he also attended the Research Experience for Undergraduates Program at Duluth, Minnesota, and is currently a postdoc at Stanford, having earned his Ph.D. in Mathematics from MIT. Maxim shared some thoughts on his experience in BMC and BAMO:

	“The impact of the program on my personal mathematical development is hard to overestimate. It was, and continues to be, the single most vibrant source of mathematical activity for high school students in the Bay Area. The lectures introduced me to many areas of mathematics, a number of which came up again in my later studies. The opportunity to meet a variety of people from fellow students to professors, the college campus setting, the overall atmosphere – all of that made the Math Circle unique. The program helped me to shape my plans for the undergraduate education. It was an experience no other sources could provide.”

	“I think the program has a great effect on mathematical youth in the Bay Area. It provides an interaction media and stimulating environment, both encouraging further involvement from students already interested in mathematics and promising mathematics to a wider audience. It is a great project that should be continued.”

The most prestigious world-wide university level mathematics olympiad is the Putnam Competition. Former BMC members Austin Shapiro, Maxim Maydanskiy and Boris Bukh contributed to the nationwide 4th place finish of the UC Berkeley team at the Putnam Competition in 2001 and 2002. The teams placing first, second and third nationwide, from Harvard, Duke and Princeton, also were heavily populated by former BMC and BAMO participants. It is worth mentioning again that Gabriel Carroll won the Putnam four times, once while in High School.