Instructors

Ashley Reiter Ahlin
Ashley has loved math as long as she can remember. In 1987, she was the first female to win a medal at National MATHCOUNTS, placing third. In high school, she was on the US Chemistry Olympiad team, attended RSI (Research Science Institute), and won first place in the Westinghouse Science Talent Search. She later served on the MATHCOUNTS problem writing committee and spoke at the national awards banquet. She has taught at the high school and college levels, as a guest lecturer in WOOT, and in summer programs for all age levels. She finished her Ph.D. in math at the University of Chicago in 2001, and now she gets to stay at home with her three kids.

Jeremy Copeland
Jeremy joined AoPS in 2009. He earned his Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Chicago in 2006 and was on the math faculty at MIT from 2006 to 2009. He specializes in turning hard problems in geometry, algebra, and mathematical physics into easy problems in combinatorics and graph theory. He has spent most of this decade teaching gifted students at top tier colleges and brings this perspective to the AoPS staff. He secretly believes that every problem somehow reduces to the Chinese remainder theorem.

Mike Greenberg
Mike Greenberg earned a BA in mathematics from New York University and an MS in mathematics from Brown University. He participated in many competitions while in middle and high school, and was invited to National MATHCOUNTS and the Math Olympiad Summer Program (for being a top performer on the American Mathematics Competitions series of contests). He teaches math full-time at the Art Institute of California - San Francisco and started teaching at AoPS in 2009. In his free time, he takes flying trapeze lessons.

Bryce Johnson
Bryce Johnson has a BA in mathematics and physics from Washington University in St. Louis and an MS in mathematics from the University of Chicago. Bryce has taught and tutored students in mathematics since high school, ranging from preteens to undergraduates. He attended the Math Olympiad Summer Program in 1997 and wishes he could still take part in math contests. Bryce owns BZJ Innovations Inc., a very small consulting firm for CPG companies. In his spare time he enjoys making dessert, crosswords, Scrabble, and attempting to solve various board and card games.

Sean Markan
Sean joined AoPS in 2007. He participated in numerous math and science programs in high school, including the Math Olympiad Summer Program in 2001 and the US Physics Team in 2000 and 2002. He also won the Mandelbrot Competition in 2002. He graduated from MIT with a degree in Physics in 2006, and enjoys playing the piano and ultimate Frisbee in his free time.

Marcus Neal
Marcus has been a leading contributor to the AoPS Community since 2003, both as an educator and as a problem solver. He graduated from Princeton University in 1999 with an A.B. degree in Mathematics. Since 2003, he has been teaching high school mathematics to very fortunate students in South Carolina. He has been a problem writer and coach for the South Carolina ARML team, and is a co-founder of the Columbia Area Math Circles for Middle and High School students.

Ari Nieh
Ari studied mathematics at Harvey Mudd College and UC Berkeley, completing his PhD in quantum topology in 2007. As an undergraduate, he was an Outstanding Winner of the 2001 COMAP Mathematical Contest in Modeling. He won both the Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor Award and Teaching Excellence Award for his teaching at UC Berkeley. He has worked at Canada/USA Mathcamp since 1998 as a counselor, instructor, and choir conductor, and joined the AoPS staff in 2009. In his spare time, he enjoys cooking, photography, comics, and puzzles.

Dave Patrick
Dave joined AoPS in 2004. He is the author of Art of Problem Solving's Introduction to Counting & Probability, Intermediate Counting & Probability, and Calculus textbooks, and is the current director of the USA Mathematical Talent Search. Dave earned the sole perfect score on the American High School Mathematics Examination (AHSME) in 1988 and was a USA Mathematical Olympiad winner that year. He attended the Research Science Institute (RSI) in 1987, and the Math Olympiad Summer Program in 1988, where he first met fellow student Richard Rusczyk. He also finished in the top 10 on the Putnam exam in 1991. Dave graduated from Carnegie Mellon in 1992 with a BS in Mathematics/Computer Science and an MS in Mathematics. He went on to earn his Ph.D. in mathematics from MIT in 1997. He was an acting Assistant Professor at the University of Washington from 1997 to 2001. Dave enjoys hockey, playing Go (he has a real wooden Go board), and poker.

Paul H. Ryu
Paul joined AoPS in 2009. He was a third-place winner at National MATHCOUNTS, a two-time perfect scorer on the American Mathematics Contest (AMC) 12, a participant at the Research Science Institute, and a prize winner at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. He has also helped students achieve success at Intel Science Talent Search and Siemens Westinghouse Science and Technology Competition. He attended Harvard and has developed an information structure informally referred to as the health graph as part of Firefly Health.

Naoki Sato
Naoki joined AoPS in 2005 after a successful career in investment banking. He won first place in the 1993 Canadian Mathematical Olympiad, and represented Canada at the 1992 and 1993 International Mathematical Olympiads, winning a bronze and silver medal, respectively. He has also served as deputy leader for the Canadian IMO team in 1997, 2002, and 2006. A native of Toronto, Canada, Naoki earned a Bachelor's in mathematics from the University of Toronto, and a Master's in mathematics from Yale University. His interests include cycling and wine tasting.

Valentin Vornicu
Valentin joined AoPS in 2004. He founded the MathLinks site for Olympiad students in 2002. Valentin was a Gold Medal and Special Award winner at the Junior Balkan Math Olympiad in 1998 and a Silver Medal winner at the Balkan Math Olympiad in 2001. He also took 2nd Prize at the IMC in 2003 and 2004. He won first or second prize in the Romanian National Olympiad 1997-2002, and was a member of the Romanian International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) team in 2001 and 2002, winning a bronze medal in 2002. Valentin has coached numerous successful Olympiad students in Romania and abroad and authored the widely used Romanian text "The Math Olympiad, from Challenge to Experience". Valentin is a graduate of the University of Bucharest, Mathematics Department and has a Masters Degree from the same University in Algebra and Number Theory. Valentin enjoys watching the T.V. show 24, San Diego weather and basketball.

Sam Watson
Sam Watson coached MATHCOUNTS teams in Mississippi schools for 8 years, including the team representing the state in the 2009 National Competition. When he was a student himself, he was invited to participate in the USA Mathematical Olympiad and won awards at numerous state and regional competitions. He graduated with a BS in mathematics and physics as well as a BA in Classics from the University of Mississippi, where he helped develop a course to prepare students for the Putnam and wrote questions for the university's annual high school mathematics contest. His work in college earned him a prestigious Gates scholarship to pursue Part III of the Mathematical Tripos at the University of Cambridge. For leisure he plays squash and classical guitar.

Scott Weiss
Scott Weiss graduated from Carnegie Mellon University in 1992 with a B.S. in Mathematics/Computer Science. He holds a Masters of Science in Computer Science from the Johns Hopkins University. For the past twelve years, he has taught at Mount Saint Mary’s University in Emmitsburg, Maryland in the Mathematics and Computer Science department. He has taught nearly every computer science course including computer literacy, introductory programming, computer architecture, discrete mathematics, game development, artificial intelligence, operating systems, graphics, and networks. He has experience with Java, Python, C++, C, Lisp, and ML among other languages. He has been instrumental in the development and grading of the Advanced Placement Computer Science exam. This summer, he will be in charge of the grading for the alternate exam. Prof. Weiss is an avid puzzle solver and is a 3-time Jeopardy! champion.

Dan Zaharapol
Dan has taught math at numerous programs across the country. He has been an instructor at Canada/USA Mathcamp, at the Boston Math Circle, and with the Splash and HSSP programs at the MIT Educational Studies Program. He is now starting a nonprofit organization called Learning Unlimited to help college students across the country run intense educational programs for middle and high school students. In high school, Dan participated in numerous local and national math competitions and was a finalist in the 1999 USA Computing Olympiad. He holds an SB from MIT in mathematics and two MS's from the University of Illinois in mathematics and teaching mathematics. He enjoys many different board games and playwriting in his free time.

Joshua Zucker
Joshua Zucker joined AoPS as a part-time instructor in 2007. He discovered his love for number theory at Dr. Arnold Ross's summer program at Ohio State University over 20 years ago. Joshua has been a Math Olympiad Summer Program invitee, a member of the first US Physics Olympiad team, and a top-10 scorer on the Putnam. He holds a BS in physics and an MS in mathematics from Stanford, as well as an MS in astrophysics from UC Berkeley. He has taught at levels ranging from summer camps for gifted elementary school students through remedial arithmetic at community college. A former problem writer for MATHCOUNTS, Joshua is also the proud father of three children. He currently directs the Julia Robinson Mathematics Festivals, the Bay Area Mathematical Olympiad, and (beginning in fall 2010) the USAMTS. In what spare time remains from those activities, he enjoys Nikoli-style puzzles, cooking, juggling, bicycling, and playing Go.