The transformation of the girl who achieved the highest score in the International Math Olympiad in Vietnam

Fifteen years after winning a silver medal at the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO), Do Thi Thu Thao graduated with a PhD in Mathematics from MIT and switched from research to working for a financial company.

Thu Thao, 34, has been a quantitative researcher at Akuna Capital, a data-driven, automated high-frequency trading financial firm based in Chicago, since 2019. According to Thao, this is a big shift for her, from research to applied mathematics.

"After more than 10 years, I realized that doing research is not just doing professional math. I can love math in another way: applying it to solve life's problems," Thao said.

Specifically, Thao is in charge of building mathematical models to predict the stock market. The job requires an understanding of financial markets, programming skills, and statistical probability. Of which, the latter two factors apply a lot of mathematical knowledge, so Thao can still live with passion.

Do Thi Thu Thao in the US. Photo: Character provided

With parents who are both math teachers, Thao loved and showed her talent for math from an early age. She often studied with her mother when her brother, who was over 3 years old, taught math and understood most of the knowledge. Thao was also curious to read her parents' stacks of books, especially the "Mathematical Stories" series, which tells about the lives of mathematicians from ancient times. Impressed by the French mathematician Évariste Galois, she thought that doing math was something profound and determined to conquer it.

In high school, Thao passed the entrance exam to the Math class at Nguyen Trai High School for the Gifted, Hai Duong . After that, she continuously passed the excellent student competitions, becoming one of six representatives of Vietnam to compete in IMO in 2008. Thao admits that she is competitive, so she is not afraid to try her hand at math competitions.

The only girl on the team won a silver medal with 29/42 points, ranking 57/535 contestants that year. To this day, this is still the highest score a Vietnamese female contestant has achieved at an IMO. Thao regrets that the question she lost points on was about plane geometry, which is her strength.

"At that time, I regretted not winning a higher prize, but thinking back now, what I regret more is that at that time I was not good enough at English to communicate with international friends," Thao said.

She also recalled happy memories during the IMO competition in Spain. The whole team was amazed to see their friends eating avocados and kiwis that they had never seen before, or admired that they could walk dozens of kilometers to visit the city of Madrid without getting tired.

Her achievements at IMO opened up opportunities to study abroad, something Thao had never thought of before. In 2010, she went to the US to study Mathematics at Stony Brook University, with a government scholarship. The scholarship supported tuition of $15,000/year and $1,000 for living expenses per month, for the entire four years. Learning new knowledge, Thao loved math even more, registered for some graduate classes and actively participated in research. With an average score of 3.94/4, she graduated from university with honors.

Thao then became a PhD student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2014. She researched discrete geometry, specifically contact geometry, which counts the contacts between points and other geometric objects such as lines, circles, etc. in space.

At this time, besides doing research and working as a teaching assistant, Thao participated in PRIMES and RSI, two programs that guide high school students to do research at school, helping them achieve high results in math and technology competitions. Realizing the benefits of the summer camp model combined with scientific research, she wanted to implement this idea in Vietnam. After several meetings with friends in the Vietnamese student association at MIT, Thao and three other international students founded MaSSP - Math and Science Summer Camp for students.

The program is now in its 8th year, attracting a large number of students who love natural sciences. Although she no longer teaches directly, Thao still writes for MaSSP, sharing fun applications of mathematics in life.

In 2018, near the end of her PhD program, she interned at a financial company. At this time, Thao realized that she was no longer suitable for research. The reason was that her research field at that time was quite narrow, with few people working with her. She was also not urged by anyone, often relying on her curiosity and long-standing passion to continue.

"I suddenly found the research path very lonely, especially when there are still not many women studying and working in the STEM field," Thao confided, saying that from the time she majored in Mathematics until she started working, the number of female friends and colleagues could be counted on one hand.

So, after graduating, Thao decided to change direction.

Thu Thao with her parents on the day she received her PhD at MIT, 2019. Photo: Character provided

Vu Minh Chau, the "golden girl" of the International Chemistry Olympiad, is the co-founder of the summer camp with Thao. The two met during the international Olympic team exchanges. Knowing that pursuing mathematics is a difficult path, especially when Thao often works with outstanding mathematicians in the world, she admires her friend very much.

"Just thinking about it is enough to understand how much pressure a little girl from Vietnam feels. You are always humble, but I know that to have those achievements, you have had to try very hard," Chau said.

She also commented that you are very humorous, friendly, have an artistic soul, far from the "nerdy" image that people often think of when studying Math.

Thao enjoys painting, playing the piano, playing chess, and indoor rock climbing. She sees math in all her hobbies, so she learns quickly. For example, a painting with depth requires knowledge of projective geometry, and a good piece of music is a combination of notes with rules.

After nearly 15 years of pursuing Mathematics, Thao believes that the beauty of Mathematics is what makes her interested and passionate. Whether she does Mathematics professionally or not, studying Mathematics still guides all of her work and life.

“Math is my identity,” she said.

Phuong Anh

Source: https://vnexpress.net/buoc-chuyen-cua-co-gai-dat-diem-thi-olympic-toan-quoc-te-cao-nhat-viet-nam-4732890.html