Kenneth Co of the Philippine Science High School—Main Campus, Vance Eldric Go of Saint Jude Catholic School, Russelle Guadalupe of Valenzuela City Science High School, Carmela Antoinette Lao of Saint Jude Catholic School, and Henry Jefferson Morco of Chiang Kai Shek College will compete against equally briliant students from different countries.
The Philippine contingent hopes to improve the country’s performance last year by bringing in the gold medal. They will be led by Julius Basilla and Glenn Ong, both from the Mathematical Society of the Philippines (MSP).
Last year’s Philippine campaign to the 51st IMO held at Astana, Kazakhstan, yielded a silver medal, courtesy of Lao, and two honorable mentions from Morco and Zheng Rong wu of Zamboanga Chong Hua High School.
Lao is the first Filipino woman to win a silver medal in the IMO and only the second Filipino to bag such prestigious award.
The Philippines has been on a roll in netting medals from the IMO since 2008 as it yearly gets at least a bronze medal from the hardest math competition in the world.
Filma Brawner, director of the Department of Science and Technology’s Science Education Institute (DOST-SEI), expressed optimism that the Philippine squad to the 2011 IMO will return to the country victorious.
“Victory, not only in terms of getting medals or honorable mentions at the prestigious mathematics competition, but more important, in opening doors for our students to challenge and prove to themselves that they are on a par with, if not better than, their colleagues abroad,” she said.
Brawner noted that it is the hope as well of DOST-SEI that the students will go into science careers after the competition.
“It is our hope that this experience will inspire you to venture into science careers and be part of the dynamic Philippine science community in the future,” she said.
The five were selected from 3,851 aspiring high school students nationwide who participated in the Philippine Mathematical Olympiad (PMO). The top 20 finalists of the PMO were further winnowed down to five after undergoing rigorous training through the Mathematical Olympiad Science Camp (MOSC), a month long summer training program held at the Ateneo de Manila University and the University of the Philippines-Diliman.
The PMO and the selection of the Philippine delegation to the IMO are jointly undertaken by the MSP and DOST-SEI.
