Patricia Fauring, Argentina

Maria Falk de Losada receives Patricia's award on her behalf from Professor Hyman Bass, President of ICMI, in Copenhagen on Tuesday 06 July 2004.

Citation

For more than sixteen years Patricia Fauring has been at the centre of mathematics competition activities in Argentina, working with students at all levels. Under her leadership and guidance Argentina has created and developed national and international events.

At the national level she is the central figure in a series of annual competitions involving more than one hundred thousand students each year. She has been the dominant figure in the development of the Ibero-American, South American and Southern Core nations competitions which are novel, innovative, and have had a significant impact on the development of mathematical problem-solving abilities among young Spanish and Portuguese-speaking students.

Among these are the Olympiad de Mayo or May Olympiad, held by correspondence for students aged thirteen to fifteen years, and the Olympiada Rioplatense which brings together students from grade six to grade thirteen from the countries of the Rio de la Plata. Possibly the most innovative of her creations is the Frontier Tournament group of competitions, involving students in towns along the borders of Argentina and its neighbours, and designed to stimulate mathematical activity in outlying areas.

Patricia has been the principal mathematician involved in traning Argentine teams for the IMO and other international events, where they have done respectably. She was also the organiser of the very successful 1997 IMO in Mar del Plata and has been elected to the IMO Executive Board.