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Leonardo Marciaga (MATH 2nd Year) has been participating in international math competitions since he was a youngster, attending middle school in his hometown of Chitré, Panama. He says competing has fueled his passion for mathematics and instilled valuable skills for a research career.

“They have helped me develop problem-solving skills in a way that would have been incredibly difficult to develop otherwise,” Leonardo says. “Crafting a correct solution requires a combination of experience—including knowledge of mathematical rigor—logic, and existing ideas, as well as ingenuity, the ability to draw upon previous ideas to create a new one that helps solve the problem. These skills are incredibly useful even beyond a career in mathematics.”

At Leonardo’s first national competition in Panama, he learned about international math contests such as International Math Olympiad (IMO). Contestants in the IMO hail from all around the world, who face problems across all areas of mathematics, concentrated in four categories: algebra, combinatorics, geometry, and number theory. The IMO consists of two tests with three problems each to be solved in four and a half hours, over the course of two days.

He later participated in the Putnam Competition, sponsored by the Mathematical Association of America, where contestants from universities in the U.S. and Canada compete in the most prestigious university-level mathematical competition in the world. It consists of two six-problem tests done in a single day, each lasting three hours. These problems add analysis and probability to the mix of topics.

“I definitely wouldn’t have gotten into math if it wasn’t for my participation in math contests, and I still find astonishing both the amount of far-reaching applications math can have, as well as the myriads of beautiful ideas that mathematics has to offer,” Leonardo says. “That’s the reason I decided to continue with math—to discover those beautiful ideas and apply them to address real-world problems.”

These competitions have allowed Leonardo to travel to places that he never would have seen otherwise, including a trip to Bath, England, for IMO, where he did all sorts of activities, from observing the majesty of the Salisbury Cathedral to walking the streets of Bristol, England.

“Getting to know the local culture is always a crucial part of the activities in every contest,” he says. “By far, the best part of the experience was the people I met. The IMO, as well as other international math competitions, bring together students from basically everywhere in the world, all of them with a common passion for math. Often, I even ran into people I met in previous contests. The joy of such a reencounter is hard to match.”

Spending a week with fellow math enthusiasts and sharing the experience of stressful tests, fun cultural excursions, and activities, as well as the joy and pains of receiving the results, have fostered lifelong friendships for Leonardo.

“I still remember a shy 12-year-old me on the way to the Central American and Caribbean Mathematical Olympiad, my first international competition,” he says. “Even at the airport in Panama, I could already see people from Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Honduras, for example, also heading to the competition. Up to that point, I had only heard of these competitions, but now I was actually in one of them. And I couldn’t believe it.”

Leonardo says he is grateful for the help that he received to participate in these contests, including from his teachers and professors, friends, teammates, trainers, and family who helped him drive four hours to Panama City in his home country to get training for the competitions.

These competitions helped him prepare to conduct research as an undergraduate student at ��ɫӰ��, as well as cultivate a love of mathematics.

“I’m inclined toward a research-oriented career and going on to pursue a Ph.D., but what I can assure is that I aim to continue this passion for mathematics, in one way or another,” he says. “I want to help others in any way I can, guiding them through everything that mathematics and problem-solving has to offer to their lives.”