UCC celebrates Best Year for Ireland in International Mathematical Olympiad

22 Sep 2025

From left to right, 1st row: Prof. Roisin Connolly (Owen’s mother, Director of Cancer Research at UCC), Dr. Anca Mustata (UCC Maths Enrichment organiser), Prof. John O’Halloran (UCC president), Owen Barron, Ian Barron (Owen’s father); 2nd row: Dr. Ben Taylor (Head of Statistics Discipline), Catherine Maguire (School of Maths Manager), Prof. Sarah Culloty (Head, College of Science, Engineering and Food Science), Mr Colmán Ó Túama (principal), Mr Niall Brett (mathematics teacher, Coláiste an Spioraid Naoimh), Martin Kilian (Head of School of Maths, UCC), Prof. Robert Osburn (Boole Chair in Mathematics), Michele Power (Manager of the Quercus Talented Students’ Programme).

A School of Mathematical Sciences delegation joined the UCC President’s office on 3rd September 2025.

The ceremony celebrated Owen Barron’s silver medal at the International Mathematical Olympiad 2025. Owen has participated in UCC Maths Enrichment since 2022 and has already competed in 3 IMOs.

Pictured: Owen Barron, Tianci Yan, AngYang Li, Vitalii Halushko, Jack McAuliffe Ben Maguire at IMO 2025.

At IMO 2025 in Sunshine Coast, Australia, he contributed to record breaking results for team Ireland: first time the team won 3 medals, doubling its all-times silver medal count; first time it broke the 100 points barrier, with all team members earning awards; first time to reach the higher echelon of country rankings.

Pictured: Fionn Kimber O’Shea (deputy), Charlotte Walmsley, Aifric Barron, Siobhán McGale, Siqin You, Myrto Manolaki (leader) at EGMO 2025.

Earlier in the year, the European Girls Mathematical Olympiad 2025 was also a record edition for Ireland, with all girls bringing home awards.

Autumn 2025 IMO&EGMO squad training camp participants relaxing after a day of classes in UCC.

These successes are also a credit to more than 80 mathematicians working together under the umbrella of the Irish Mathematical Trust. The UCC School of Mathematical Sciences contributed through its Maths Enrichment programme and training camps for the entire IMO and EGMO squad, with the latest one just before the start of the new school year 2025-2026.

Training camps, mentorship and online classes were organised throughout the year by Anca Mustata (IMO 2025 coach, UCC) and Fionn Kimber O’Shea (EGMO 2025 coach and UCC Maths Enrichment graduate, now at Cambridge). UCC’s own Emily Wolfe, Laura Cosgrave, Liam Waldron, Rory Moore, Suneet Mahajan, Conor Bradshaw, Anca & Andrei Mustata were joined by guest lecturers from Estonia, Lithuania, Ukraine, UK. The EGMO team joined university students competing in the Irish Intervarsities organised by the UCC Maths Society, Ben McKay and Anca Mustata.

This comes to complete a year full of opportunities for young students to engage with Mathematics outside of classroom. UCC offers hundreds of hours of Mathematics Enrichment classes to 400 students per year – from Juniors to Senior/Advanced. In 2025, classes were led by UCC academics Cillian Williamson, Claus Koestler, David Henry, Tom Carroll, Anca & Andrei Mustata; generous guest lecturers Arundhathi Khrishnan (MIC) and David Goulding (MTU); and UCC students Anna Colbert, Bryan Chan, Ciara Fox, Ciaran Fitzgerald, Conor Bradshaw, Dmitri Salyshka, Emily Wolfe, Jack Dakissia, Konrad Tomkow, Laura Cosgrave, Liam Waldron, Rory Moore, Suneet Mahajan, Victor Panayotov.

In addition, the TY Work Experience programme trains participants to help their teachers run Maths Circles, offering fun Maths activities to younger students in school; 90 TY students participated this year. All these activities are part of efforts by the UCC School Mathematical Sciences to raise students’ enthusiasm by highlighting the beauty, elegance and usefulness of Mathematics.

UCC Mathematics Enrichment has benefited from encouragement and recognition at university, college and School level. The programme had a strong supporter in the outgoing head of School of Mathematical Sciences Dr. Kevin Hayes and continues to enjoy strong support from the current management team.

The Irish teams could not have participated in IMO and EGMO 2025 without the support of the Department of Education and Youth. The Irish Mathematical Olympiad was supported by Susquehanna.