Silver medal for a young Slovenian mathematician

Silver medal for a young Slovenian mathematician

Who are the best young female mathematicians in Europe?

In the competition of 213 of the best young female mathematicians from all over the world, 14 competitors collected all 45 possible points at the European Mathematical Olympiad for Girls (EGMO) in Portorož. The team from China collected the most total points, followed by the team from the United States of America and Australia. The competitors from the European teams (a total of 151 competitors) won 13 gold, 28 silver and 39 bronze medals and 33 honourable mentions.

The competitive part of the week took place on Saturday and Sunday, when the girls spent four and a half hours each day solving three tasks prepared by top mathematicians.

Competitor Katarina Grilj from Slovenska Bistrica won a silver medal at the EGMO, while three other Slovenian competitors received honourable mentions.

"Realistically speaking, if you solve a task at home and it's an hour or two and you can't solve it, you won't continue for another two hours, you go to bed and do nothing. Just thinking for four and a half hours is a lot of time for you to be focused," explained this year's best Slovenian participant Katarina Grilj, who already has two bronze medals from the previous Olympiads.

"You have to figure out how you would solve the task, because you have no idea how you would reach the result. The data is given, and then you try to calculate and prove it," Ema Hojan from Velenje described the provess of solving the problems. Along with Kaja Rajter from Maribor and Neca Camlek from Ljubljana, Ema received the honourable mention.

Socializing with peers and encouraging girls for STEM careers of the future

With the aim of encouraging girls for the STEM professions of the future, the organizers of the Olympiad included a series of events in the program where the contestants could socialize, create mandalas, learn salsa and get to know Slovenia. In the days after the competition, they went on an excursion to Postojna Cave and Ljubljana, and some sponsors of the competition actively participated in the preparation of additional activities.

With the ceremonial awarding of medals and awards, EGMO officially ended, and next year it will be hosted by Georgia. Under the honorary patronage of the President of the Republic Nataša Pirc Musar, in addition to DMFA, the University of Primorska, the University of Ljubljana and the University of Maribor participated in the organization of the competition. The event was supported by the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport and the Ministry of Labour, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities

You can view the results of the competition here: www.egmo.org.

More photos are available here: https://egmo2023.dmfa.si/galleries/.