A new beginning

After fifty-nine years, the International Mathematical Olympiad remains a very respectable event and one of the most long-lived international educational and scientific competitions. The first international olympiad was organized and held in Romania in 1959 and, as a participant, I still remember with emotion the atmosphere of the contest. The beginning was modest as far as concerns the number of participants, but it soon became a large international competition and a veritable school for gifted students in mathematics and professional mathematicians.

Mathematics has always been a fresh and dynamical field of human creativity and a fundamental science to the benefit of scientific knowledge and technical achievements. It is the role and duty of young mathematicians to bring and develop new ideas and to construct new bridges between mathematics and other scientific fields.

This is the reason we welcome this prestigious international event with hope and pride.

By a happy coincidence, this edition of the international olympiad is held in Cluj-Napoca in the year when Romania celebrates its centenary unity, a corner stone of the Romanian history.

We wish good luck to the participants and to their mentors and a fruitful experience in our country!

Viorel Barbu
President of the Mathematics Department Romanian Academy