Meet The Faculty
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Dr. Titu Andreescu
University of Texas at Dallas, AMSP Director

  • US IMO Team Leader (1995 – 2002)
  • Director, MAA American Mathematics Competitions (1998 – 2003)
  • Director, Mathematical Olympiad Summer Program (1995 – 2002)
  • Coach of the US IMO Team (1993 – 2006)
  • Member of the IMO Advisory Board (2002 – 2006)
  • Chair of the USAMO Committee (1996 – 2004)
  • MAA Sliffe Award winner for Distinguished Teaching
Dr. Mircea Becheanu
University of Bucharest, Romania

  • Deputy Chairman of the Romanian Mathematical Society (1995 – present)
  • Coach of the IMO Romanian team (1996-2002)
  • Leader of the IMO Romanian team (1988, 1995-2002)
  • Member of the IMO Advisory Board (1998-2002)
  • Member of the IMO Problem Selection Committee (2003, 2004, 2005)
M. Tip Phaovibul
University of Illinois

I received my bachelors degree in mathematics from California State University at Long Beach in 2008 and my doctorate degree from the University of Illinois, specializing in number theory, in 2015. In 2004-2008, I was an assistant coach for the Long Beach Math circle and Southern California ARML (the A team usually finishes in the top 8 in the nation). During my time at the University of Illinois, I served on the Undergraduate Math competition committee, which helps train for the Putnam contest and other competitions. Over the past three years, I’ve been working for AwesomeMath and have enjoyed teaching young students how to succeed in mathematics competitions. For more information about me, you can visit my page at mtip341.wordpress.com.
Bogdan Enescu
National College BP Hasdeu, Romania

  • IMO Gold Medalist (1978), Bronze Medalist (1977, 1979)
  • Coach of the Romanian IMO team (1989 – present)
  • Deputy Leader of the Romanian IMO team(1995 – present)
  • MOSP invited speaker(1999, 2001, 2002)
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Dr. Jonathan Kane
University of Wisconsin-Whitewater

  • Member of the AIME Committee (2004 – present)
  • Co-founder of the Purple Comet! Math Meet (formerly the UWW-UTD Math Meet)
Dr. Oleg Mushkarov
Bulgarian Academy of Science; Institute of Mathematics and Informatics

Dr. Mushkarov is a full professor at the Institute of Mathematics and Informatics, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (IMI-BAS) and a corresponding member of BAS. Currently, he is the Head of the Analysis, Geometry and Topology Department and Deputy Director of IMI-BAS. His main research interests are in the areas of Complex Analysis, Complex Differential Geometry, and Twistor theory.
Another important aspect of Oleg’s professional involvements is his work with mathematically gifted high school students. He himself benefited from the Bulgarian system of identifying mathematical talents at an early age leading to his participation in IMO’1969, Romania. Since then he has been involved in numerous activities dealing with nurturing and developing young mathematical talents.
  • Coach of the Bulgarian Balkan Mathematical Olympiad Team (1989 – 1993)
  • Coach of the Bulgarian IMO Team (1994 – 1998)
  • Vice President of Union of Bulgarian Mathematicians (2001 – 2013)
  • Deputy Director of IMI-BAS (2007 – present)
Dr. Mirroslav Yotov
Florida International University, Department of Mathematics and Statistics

  • IMO Bronze Medalist (1981)
  • Instructor for COSMOS-UC Irvine (2000-2004)
  • Math Circles leader in Miami (2005 – present)
  • Teacher Math Circle network member (2008-present)
Cerasela Tesleanu
Stanislas College, Canada

  • Master in Education with a focus on the Didactics of Mathematics – University of Quebec at Montreal
  • Specialized Graduate Diploma (DESS) in Human Behavioral Intervention for children on the Autism Spectrum Disorder – University of Quebec at Montreal
  • Undergraduate Diploma in International Business and Business Management – Haute École Commerciale Montreal;
  • Bachelor in Mathematics – University of Bucharest – Romania
  • Presently, I work as a Mathematics teacher at Stanislas College in Montreal, Canada, specializing in various Math and Algorithmics courses for students with varying levels of development
  • AwsomeMath Summer Program 2019-Instructor
  • In Romania I was a mathematics coach successfully training gifted students for national and international competitions. In 2008, four of my students qualified in the Romanian Math Team for the JMBO and obtained Gold and Silver Medals in the same competition
  • Recipient of the Prize of Excellence in Education by the Ministry of Education in Romania, in 2007 and 2008 and by the Prime-Minister of Romania in 2008
Radu Bumbacea
Leeds University, UK

Radu is a former IMO gold medalist (2010,2012) and silver medalist (2011). Having studied mathematics and philosophy at Cambridge University, he now divides his time between training gifted students in mathematics, both for the Romanian team and at AwesomeMath, and pursuing philosophy further.
Dr. Enrique Trevino
Lake Forest College

Dr. Enrique Trevino is an associate professor of mathematics at Lake Forest College. Dr. Trevino completed his Ph.D at Dartmouth College in 2011 working in analytic number theory. He participated in the Mexican Mathematical Olympiad in 2000 and 2001 earning silver and gold medals, respectively. Since 2003 he has been preparing students from Chihuahua to compete in the Mexican Mathematical Olympiad. Starting in 2016, Dr. Trevino has been part of the Mexican Mathematical Olympiad Committee. He also participated as a problem coordinator in the International Mathematical Olympiad in 2005, the Ibero-American Mathematical Olympiad in 2009, and the Mexican Mathematical Olympiad in 2015.
Michaela Hlasek
Charles University in Prague, Czechia

Misha is a math educator currently living in California. She earned her Bachelor’s Degree in General Mathematics at Charles University in Prague (Czech Republic) and Postgraduate Certificate in Education at UCL Institute of Education (United Kingdom). Misha is Associate Editor for AIME Editorial Board and proofreads and translates problems to Czech for Purple Comet! Math Meet. She previously was a TA at AwesomeMath Summer Program in 2015, 2016 and Instructor in 2017. In her free time, Misha likes to run, play volleyball, sing and juggle.
Patrick McClintock
University of Texas at Dallas

Patrick McClintock has been teaching competitive math for three years. He currently is an instructor at the AwesomeMath Academy, Assistant Director of Curriculum at a local Mathnasium, and a private tutor. He was formerly a fencing coach and dance instructor and still loves to do both when he has time. He loves the interesting problems that come from competition math and the depth of mathematical concepts he gets to teach to young and interested minds.
John Lin
University of New South Wales

Mr. John Lin attended University of New South Wales in Australia where he received Bachelor of Computer Engineering and Master of Biomedical Engineering. He developed passion for mathematics during his high school and college days, particularly discrete mathematics and linear transforms. He has been working at Microsoft as Principle Software Engineer for the past 17 years, working on diverse areas including Compilers, Operating System, Distributed Database and Online Security. Outside of work, Mr. Lin has been coaching for math clubs at local schools over the past 5 years, where his students achieved top honors in local and state math competitions, including WA State Math Championship, MATHCOUNTS, AMC8, AMC10 and AIME. He was the recipient of the PTSA Outstanding Educator Award last year. He loves to guide students through challenging problems to learn new and fun ways of problem solving.
Branislav Kisačanin
NVIDIA Corporation

  • Distinguished computer scientist, specializing in computer vision and artificial intelligence, especially for autonomous driving
  • Passionate teacher of mathematically gifted students
  • Over the years taught all first-level classes at the AwesomeMath Summer Programs
  • Created and teaching all three levels of Physics Problem Solving at the AwesomeMath Academy
  • Co-author (with his double-gold USAPhO medalist student Eric K.Zhang) of the book “F=ma Contests: 2011-2018 Official Solutions Manual” (about to be published by AAPT)
  • Co-author (with Dr.Titu Andreescu) of the “Math Leads for Mathletes” series of books
  • Author of the book “Mathematical Problems and Proofs”
  • Author, co-author, or editor or five books on computer vision and control theory and a guest editor for several special issues of top computer vision journals
Alok Kumar
Bachelor of Technology, IIT Kanpur

Alok Kumar has loved mathematics for as long as he can remember. Though he trained to be an engineer, earning his degree from Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur (IITK), a center of excellence in India, his heart was into math and he soon found himself inexorably gravitating towards training students for National and International Mathematical Olympiads. He has been teaching courses at AwesomeMath Summer Programs since 2015.

As a high school student, he won fourth place in the Indian National Mathematics Olympiad (INMO). He has also been submitting problem proposals and solutions to International mathematics magazines. And for more than a decade now, he has been teaching students at IMOTC, the Indian equivalent of MOSP, that trains select students for
IMO. As a recognition of his services, he was given the honor of serving as observer for Indian Delegation to the IMO 2016, Hong Kong.

He has a rare gift of identifying mathematical talent at a very young age and nurturing and mentoring them to reach their best. Some of his personally coached students won medals at the IMO and being admitted to renowned universities like MIT, Stanford, Princeton and Cornell, to name a few.

Joao Cesar Vargas
Princeton University

Joao is currently an undergraduate student in Mathematics at Princeton University, aiming to pursue a career as a mathematician. With a broad background in math, Joao has participated in many international Olympiads over the years, including the IMO where he was three times awarded, obtaining the Bronze (2015) and the Silver (2016, 2017) medals. Besides competitions, Joao has tutored math at an international-competitional level for two years, training members of the Brazilian IMO team in 2017 and 2018. Joao’s main interests are Algebraic Number Theory and Geometry.
Matthew Babbitt
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Matthew earned his Bachelors in Mathematics, with a minor in Computer Science, from MIT in 2018. He has worked as educational staff at the AwesomeMath Summer Program since 2013, and as a faculty member since 2014. In his academic career, Matthew has

  • Qualified for the Mathematical Olympiad Summer Program in 2010 and 2012
  • Earned an Honorable Mention at the 2011 Asian Pacific Mathematics Olympiad
  • Achieved a perfect score at the 2013 American Invitational Mathematics Examination
  • Earned an Honorable Mention at the 2015 William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition
  • Competed as a Finalist in the 2017 MIT Battlecode competition.

In his free time, Matthew is an advisor and coach for the Albany Area Math Circle, performs in the Hudson River Shakespeare Company, and learns about anthropology and sociology.

Vlad Matei – Ph.D
University of Wisconsin Madison

Vlad Matei is currently a Ph.D Student in the Mathematics Department at the University of Wisconsin Madison. His research area is Number Theory under the supervision of professor Jordan Ellenberg. He was an active participant in the National Math Olympiads in Romania as a student and afterwards as a trainer and proposer for the IMO training program.
  • Math Olympiad Trainer International Computer High School of Bucharest and National College Tudor Vianu 2010-2012
  • Two olympiads books coauthor: Problems from the Mathematical Olympiads in Romania (2008) and Selected Problems from the Shortlist for the training for the Romanian National Olympiad (2015), Gil Publishing House
  • Trainer for the Romanian IMO team since 2011
  • Master in Mathematics, University of Cambridge 2012
Cosmin Pohoata
PhD student at Caltech

  • AwesomeMath Summer Program instructor
  • Co-author of the “110 Geometry Problems from the IMO” and “Lemmas in Olympiad Geometry” XYZ Press books
  • AwesomeMath Year-Round segment author
  • AwesomeMath Academy visiting instructor
  • 2010 IMO medalist
Dimitar Grantcharov, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Mathematics at University of Texas, Arlington
Area of research: Algebra and Geometry

  • Session Leader, San Jose Math Circle, 2004-2008
  • Bronze Medal, XXX International Mathematical Olympiad, 1989
  • First place, VI Balkan Mathematical Olympiad, 1989
  • First place, Bulgarian National Mathematical Olympiad, 1989
Nikolay Grantcharov
University of California, Berkeley

Undergraduate student at UC Berkeley studying pure mathematics. He plans to pursue his research interests of Representation Theory and Algebraic Number Theory at a graduate school. Nikolay has been part of AwesomeMath’s faculty since 2013 and greatly enjoys teaching and mentoring students every summer.
Anthony Newberry
University of Texas at Austin

Earned his Master’s degree in Mathematics from the University of Texas at Austin and has been working with the AwesomeMath Summer Program since 2012. He’s been teaching high school mathematics for 20 years during which time he has:

  • Increased IB test takers from 15 to 62 during tenure as International Baccalaureate teacher
  • Math Team coach for 19 years, coaching several teams that have advanced to state in MATHCOUNTS as well as students who have qualified for AIME and USAJMO
  • 2016 recipient of the Edyth May Sliffe Award given by the MAA
  • 2007, 2010 West Foundation Award winner in Wichita Falls given to 20 teachers out of 30 schools
  • Awarded Teacher of the Year at Hirschi High School in 2016
  • Finalist for Wichita Falls ISD secondary teacher of the year award in 2016
  • Coached more than 20 UIL State high school math champions in Texas, as well as 10 middle school champions
  • Named Hirschi High School Teacher of the year by the Sr. Class of 2017
Waldemar Pompe
University of Warsaw in Poland, Institute of Mathematics

  • Leader of the Polish team for the IMO (years 2003-2007, 2012)
  • Composer of 3 problems used at the IMO papers (years 2003, 2004, 2005)
  • Member of the IMO Problem Selection Committee (year 2014)
  • Associate Editor of the Journal “Mathematics Competitions”
  • Chair of the Committee of the Junior Mathematical Olympiad in Poland
Alessandro Ventullo
University of Milan, Italy

Pursuing his master’s degree in Mathematics at the University of Milan, Italy. He is a contributor of mathematical magazines for high school and undergraduate students such as Mathematical Reflections, Gazeta Matematica, Recreatii Matematice and he is also a guest editor for the Crux Mathematicorum. He enjoyed his experience as a teacher for Number Sense at the Awesome Math Summer Program during the last year and he loved sharing his passion for problem solving with his students.  As a private tutor in Italy he also helped high school students to improve their mathematical skills through problem solving.  Besides math, he enjoys computer science, playing chess, playing the piano and learning new languages.
George Catalin Turcas
University of Warwick, United Kingdom

Has completed a Master Degree at the University of Cambridge and is now currently a PhD student in the Mathematics Department at the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom. There, he is doing research in Number Theory under the supervision of professor Samir Siksek. For two years he’s been supervising and teaching problem solving seminars to undergraduate students. As a high-school student, Catalin was an active participant to the Romanian National Olympiad and his participations culminated with winning the First place and Gold medal at the final round in 2010. Since then, he remained actively involved in training students for Olympiads. He was a TA for Dr. Titu Andreescu and Dr. Dorin Andrica in a IMO Training camp in Saudi Arabia, taught several courses at AwesomeMath, coauthored a book for Olympiad training at GIL publishing house and is organizing every year one of the biggest math competitions in his homeland, Transylvania.
Elizabeth Reiland
Johns Hopkins University

Currently a PhD student in the Applied Mathematics and Statistics Department at Johns Hopkins University where she is researching Random Graph Theory under the supervision of Dr. Ed Scheinerman. While at JHU she has taught as the instuctor of record for the undergraduate Discrete Mathematics course and received the Professor Joel Dean Award for Excellence in Teaching. Elizabeth has been teaching Combinatorics and Number Theory at AwesomeMath since 2012 and has served as the Academic Coordinator since 2015.