Stanford Math Circle

Stanford University Stanford Math Circle




Stanford Math Circle The Stanford Math Circle is jointly sponsored by the Stanford University Education Program for Gifted Youth (EPGY) and the Stanford University Department of Mathematics.


TedTed Alper

is the current director of the Stanford Math Circle. Ted has worked at EPGY for the past 15 years as an instructor in secondary mathematics, university mathematics, and java programming. From 1995 to 2007, he was the head coach for the San Francisco Bay Area teams in the American Regions Mathematics League, coaching them to four national championships. He is the founder of the Polya Mathematics Competition and is the author of papers on foundations of measurement in mathematical psychology and a coauthor of papers on the use of technology in mathematics education.

His awards include the Samuel Greitzer Distinguished Coaching Award from the American Regions Mathematics League, the Edith May Sliffe award for distinguished middle school mathematics teaching from the Mathematical Association of America, and the Young Investigator of the Year Award from the Society for Mathematical Psychology.

Ted's undergraduate degree in mathematics is from Harvard University, and he has an M.S. in mathematics from Stanford University.



DanaDana Paquin

directed the Stanford Math Circle from April 2010 until June 2011. As a high school student, Dana attended the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, a residential high school for academically gifted juniors and seniors with a particular emphasis on advanced mathematics and science. She did her undergraduate work in mathematics at Davidson College, a small liberal arts college in North Carolina, and spent her senior year studying mathematics in Budapest, Hungary through the Budapest Semesters in Mathematics program. Dana completed her Ph.D. in mathematics at Stanford University in 2007, and is currently the Head of Mathematics Programs at EPGY while on leave as an Assistant Professor of Mathematics at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, CA.



Ravi Vakil

is the faculty advisor for the Stanford Math Circle. As a high school student, Ravi placed first in the USA Mathematical Olympiad, and won two gold medals and one silver medal at the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO). In 1987, he wrote a perfect paper at the IMO. As an undergraduate student at the University of Toronto, Ravi was the winner of the the top award of Putnam Fellow in the Putnam Math Competition in each of his four years. Ravi earned his PhD in mathematics at Harvard University in 1997, and is currently a Professor of Mathematics at Stanford University.