[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 95 (Wednesday, July 20, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: July 20, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
              MASSACHUSETTS STUDENTS WIN WORLD MATH TITLE

  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I am proud to call the attention of the 
Senate to the extraordinary success of two brilliant young math 
students from Massachusetts. Noam Shazeer of Swampscott and Jonathan 
Weinstein of Lexington were members of the U.S. gold medal winning team 
in the 35th International Mathematical Olympiad held recently in Hong 
Kong.
  These two Massachusetts high school seniors have been friends and 
rivals in State and national competitions for several years. They and 
their four teammates all received perfect scores on the demanding 
Olympiad problems in Hong Kong, and became the first team in the 
history of the competition to do so. The winning U.S. team defeated 600 
top young mathematicians from 70 countries and territories. Our team is 
the best in the world, and I am proud that Massachusetts provided two 
of its members.
  It is especially appropriate to honor these outstanding students as 
the Senate prepares to consider the Improving America's Schools Act. 
Our bill places particular emphasis on math and science education, and 
provides strong Federal support to strengthen math and science 
instruction in schools throughout America. Not every student can equal 
the brilliant and inspiring accomplishments of our Olympiad team, but 
all students deserve an education that develops their full potential.
  I congratulate Noam Shazeer and Jonathan Weinstein and their 
teammates, parents and teachers, and I wish these remarkable students 
well in their future careers. I ask unanimous consent that an article 
on their achievement from today's Boston Globe may be printed in the 
Record.
  There being no objection, the article was ordered to be printed in 
the Record. as follows:

                 [From the Boston Globe, July 20, 1994]

 Friendly Rivals Add to U.S. Math Miracle--Local Youths Help Team Beat 
                               the World

                         (By Michael Grunwald)

       The US hockey team had its Miracle on Ice. The US soccer 
     team had its Miracle on Grass.
       The US high school mathematics team--featuring two 
     graduating seniors from public schools in Greater Boston--
     yesterday completed a bona fide Miracle on Scratch Paper. Not 
     quite so poetic, perhaps, but just as stunning.
       Noam Shazeer of Swampscott, Jonathan Weinstein of Lexington 
     and their four teammates all recorded perfect 42-point scores 
     at the 35th International Mathematical Olympiad in Hong Kong 
     yesterday, the first team in the history of the competition 
     to win without a single error.
       Tonight, the two Bay State brainiacs will return to Logan 
     Airport with gold medals and the right to call themselves the 
     best in the world, having outcalculated more than 600 
     students from 70 countries and territories.
       ``It's really the fulfillment of a dream for Jonathan,'' 
     said Georgia Weinstein, a professor of organic chemistry at 
     Boston University. ``These kids don't get the attention that 
     athletes do, but they work just as hard.''
       ``We're just thrilled,'' said Miriam Shazeer, Noam's 
     mother. ``This was an amazing accomplishment. We're 
     incredibly proud.''
       Shazeer, who celebrated his 18th birthday yesterday, 
     graduated from Swampscott High School, and will attend Duke 
     on a full scholarship in the fall. Weinstein, who is still 
     17, graduated from Lexington High School, and will attend 
     Harvard. Otherwise, the teen-agers traveled similar paths to 
     Hong Kong.
       Their fathers are both engineers--Dov Shazeer at Draper 
     Laboratories, Clifford Weinstein at MIT's Lincoln 
     Laboratories. Both boys were childhood prodigies--Noam taught 
     himself to add, subtract, multiply and divide by age 3; 
     Jonathan was programming computers at age 5. They are both 
     accomplished musicians--Noam, a violinist, is the 
     concertmaster of the Symphony-by-the-Sea Youth Orchestra; 
     Jonathan plays piano and clarinet. They both play bridge. 
     They both enjoy ultimate frisbee.
       Both youths are science whizzes, too--Noam passed up a 
     chance to represent the United States in an international 
     physics competition in Beijing to compete in Hong Kong; 
     Jonathan skipped last year's Olympiad to attend a program at 
     the Research Science Institute. And both are nice guys. At a 
     black-tie ceremony last night, after a teammate forgot his 
     dress shoes, Noam gave him his right shoe, so that both could 
     walk to the awards podium wearing one sneaker and one dress 
     shoe.
       Since middle school, the two teen-agers have been the twin 
     towers of Massachusetts mathematics, friendly rivals trading 
     victories at statewide and nationwide competitions. ``Dear 
     Nancy,'' Noam began a recent note to Jonathan. ``Love, 
     Tonya,'' he signed off.
       Tonight at 9:21 p.m.--after acing three nationwide tests 
     that cut a field of 340,000 students down to six; after 
     surviving an intense month long training session in 
     Annapolis; after outdoing the world's best and brightest 
     students of advanced algebra, advanced geometry, and number 
     theory--Noam and Jonathan will arrive at Logan. A large 
     crowd, possibly including Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, is expected 
     to greet them.
       Reached by phone in his Hong Kong hotel room last night, 
     Dr. Walter Mientka, the US team leader, said he was trying to 
     arrange a team meeting with President Clinton.
       ``These are outstanding students and outstanding 
     Americans,'' said Mientka, a University of Nebraska 
     professor. ``If the president can make time for basketball, 
     he should make time for mathematics.''

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