Scotch College

International Mathematics Olympian

Alexander Hua

International Mathematics Olympian

Alexander Hua of Year 12 has been selected to represent Australia in this year's International Mathematics Olympiad, to be held in Athens.

After intense training, e joins five other students from Australia to do battle against more than 80 teams with a total of over 500 competitors from around the world. Alex's classmate, James Wan, narrowly missed out on a place, and having performed superbly throughout 2004, is understandably disappointed.

Alex's scholastic ability has been carefully nurtured by his parents who live in Sale. Both Mr and Mrs Hua were Vietnamese refugees, and like so many others in their situation in the 1970s, entered Australia under duress. From Darwin the family moved to Adelaide and then Victoria in an attempt to reshape their lives. This they have done wonderfully well.

Alex won a music scholarship to Scotch in Year 9. At an early age he gained his LMusA in violin and Grade 8 in piano, showing his enormous talent in other disciplines. while training for the Mathematics Olympiad team, he also trained with the Physics Olympiad team in January 2004. He chose to focus closely on mathematics and therefore withdrew from the physics training team.

Earlier this year, lex was nominated for the Global Young Leaders' Conference, to be held in Washington this year. He gained nomination based on his almost perfect SAT scores (which are used for entry to American universities). He has deferred his participation until 2005, giving him time to focus on his mathematics and VCE studies. Alex has already been offered several university places in the USA - before he has even completed his year 12 studies.

Alex's grandmother, ho lives in Sale, had no opportunity for schooling, but values education above nearly everything else. This appreciation for learning underpins the Hua family's life. Alex is encouraged to work with younger members of the family so they, oo, ill have the opportunity to do as well as he has.

We congratulate Alex on his outstanding achievements, and wish him well as he represents Australia in the Olympiad in July.

Alexander Hua