Posted Monday 16 March 2009

Leou Shian received his Erdös Award on Friday 13 March 2009 at a special ceremony at National Kaohsiung Normal University. The Award was presented by Peter Taylor on behalf of the WFNMC Executive. In the photo are from left Pak-Hong Cheung (Hong Kong), Asia regional representative of WFNMC, Leou Shian, Peter Taylor and NKNU President Professor Tsai.

Citation

Professor Leou was a long time professor of Mathematics at the National Kaohsiung Normal University, where he also served as Vice President and Dean of the College of Science. He holds a PhD from Indiana University.

In 1999 he founded the Invitational World Youth Mathematics Intercity Competition, which attracts entries from all around the world but is particularly strong in southern and eastern Asia. This event is for students up to year 9, and has been hosted by cities in Taiwan, Philippines, India and China. He gave a plenary lecture on this event at WFNMC-3 in Zhong Shan, China, 1998.

In 1998 Professor Leou founded the Regional Internet Mathematics Competition in Taiwan to arouse the interest in mathematics of students from primary schools to senior secondary schools in Taiwan and to appreciate the links between mathematics and everyday life. This contest now attracts 8000 students annually.

Since 1993 Professor Leou has served as a member of the Taiwan Mathematical Olympiad Committee and has been actively involved in training students to represent Taiwan in the IMO and APMO and served as leader and deputy leader of Taiwan teams on a number of occasions.

Professor Leou has also enabled Taiwan students to enter other international competitions and has organised winter camps to provide popularisation and enrichment activities in mathematics for students in Kaohsiung and Pingtung Counties and assisting primary schools in southern Taiwan to prepare teams for participation in the annual international mathematics competition in Hong Kong for primary students.