Ironboy

Profile: Robert E. Woodrow, University of Calgary
Profile by -Ed.

Mathematicians don't have the forum of the Olympics to show off their grit, determination, patience, discipline, heart, courage and harmony between physical and mental endurance. In fact, this is not entirely right. There are aspiring mathematics students who participate in local contests leading up to national mathematical olympiads. A small number of them take part in national training programs. Six students are sent each year to the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO)⁰⁸.
Robert Woodrow is the Olympiad Corner Editor of Crux Mathematicorum with Mathematical Mayhem, a Canadian problem-solving journal at the senior secondary and university undergraduate levels with an international following of those who practice or teach mathematics. For more on CRUX with MAYHEM see Professor Woodrow is a Canadian logician who works in a branch of Model Theory called the Theory of Relations. One of his interests is in the study of homogeneous structures such as the Random Graph (the graph almost surely obtained on the natural numbers when the existence of an edge between two vertices is decided (independently) by flipping a coin).
Woodrow took over writing the Olympiad Corner from Murray Klamkin a decade ago. While Klamkin is well known as a problem poser, problem solver, and coach of winning Olympiad teams, (and a member of one of the first winning teams of the Putnam competition), Woodrow came to the Editorship without having made any great splash on the contest scene. His interest is in fostering student interest in problem solving and in mathematics, with the major international contests being only the tip of the iceberg.
Of course contests are not the only way that students come to mathematics-some of the best mathematicians approach the subject entirely differently. Over the years Woodrow has been involved in other work of the Canadian Mathematical Society⁰⁹.

Andrew J. Irwin 2001-03-19