Background

The Simon Marais Mathematics Competition was established in 2017. It is an annual competition that aims to:

• Encourage creative mathematical problem-solving among undergraduate students
• Identify talented students across many regions of the world, including the Asia-Pacific​

• Forge links between academics involved in the Competition
• Promote healthy competition among students as well as between universities

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Who was Simon Marais?
Dr Simon Marais was a South African-born physicist who became a prominent contrarian asset manager in South Africa and later Australia. He maintained a life-long passionate interest in mathematics and mathematical problem solving after completing a Ph.D. in Theoretical Physics at Cambridge University in 1991. Dr Marais passed away on 26 February 2015, after battling metastatic cancer that had been discovered five months earlier. ​

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