Asperger syndrome (AS), also known as Asperger's, is a neurodevelopmental condition characterized by significant difficulties in social interaction and nonverbal communication, along with restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior and interests. The syndrome is no longer recognized as a diagnosis in itself, having been merged with other conditions into autism spectrum disorder (ASD). It was considered to differ from other diagnoses that were merged into ASD by relatively unimpaired spoken language and intelligence.
The International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) is a mathematical olympiad for pre-university students, and is the oldest of the International Science Olympiads. It is one of the most prestigious mathematical competitions in the world. The first IMO was held in Romania in 1959. It has since been held annually, except in 1980. More than 100 countries participate. Each country sends a team of up to six students, plus one team leader, one deputy leader, and observers.
Richard Ewen Borcherds is a British mathematician currently working in quantum field theory. He is known for his work in lattices, group theory, and infinite-dimensional algebras, for which he was awarded the Fields Medal in 1998.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is a 2003 mystery novel by British writer Mark Haddon. Its title refers to an observation by the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes in the 1892 short story "The Adventure of Silver Blaze". Haddon and The Curious Incident won the Whitbread Book Awards for Best Novel and Book of the Year, the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book, and the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize. Unusually, it was published simultaneously in separate editions for adults and children.
Sir Simon Philip Baron-Cohen is a British clinical psychologist and professor of developmental psychopathology at the University of Cambridge. He is the director of the university's Autism Research Centre and a Fellow of Trinity College. In 1985, Baron-Cohen formulated the mindblindness theory of autism, the evidence for which he collated and published in 1995. In 1997, he formulated the foetal sex steroid theory of autism, the key test of which was published in 2015.
Daniel Tammet is an English writer and savant. His memoir, Born on a Blue Day (2006), is about his early life with Asperger syndrome and savant syndrome, and was named a "Best Book for Young Adults" in 2008 by the American Library Association's Young Adult Library Services magazine. His second book, Embracing the Wide Sky, was one of France's best-selling books of 2009. His third book, Thinking in Numbers, was published in 2012 by Hodder & Stoughton in the United Kingdom and in 2013 by Little, Brown and Company in the United States and Canada. His books have been published in over 20 languages.
Gabriel Drew Carroll is an Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Toronto. He was born to tech industry worker parents in Oakland. He graduated from Harvard University with B.A. in mathematics and linguistics in 2005 and received his doctorate in economics from MIT in 2012. He was recognized as a child prodigy and received numerous awards in mathematics while a student.
The British Mathematical Olympiad (BMO) forms part of the selection process for the UK International Mathematical Olympiad team and for other international maths competitions, including the European Girls' Mathematical Olympiad, the Romanian Master of Mathematics and Sciences, and the Balkan Mathematical Olympiad. It is organised by the British Mathematical Olympiad Subtrust, which is part of the United Kingdom Mathematics Trust. There are two rounds, the BMO1 and the BMO2.
Akshay Venkatesh is an Australian mathematician and a professor at the School of Mathematics at the Institute for Advanced Study. His research interests are in the fields of counting, equidistribution problems in automorphic forms and number theory, in particular representation theory, locally symmetric spaces, ergodic theory, and algebraic topology.
Societal and cultural aspects of autism or sociology of autism come into play with recognition of autism, approaches to its support services and therapies, and how autism affects the definition of personhood. The autistic community is divided primarily into two camps; the autism rights movement and the Pathology paradigm. The pathology paradigm advocates for supporting research into therapies, treatments, and/or a cure to help minimize or remove autistic traits, seeing treatment as vital to help individuals with autism, while the neurodiversity movement believes autism should be seen as a different way of being and advocates against a cure and interventions that focus on normalization, seeing it as trying to exterminate autistic people and their individuality. Both are controversial in autism communities and advocacy which has led to significant infighting between these two camps. While the dominant paradigm is the pathology paradigm and is followed largely by autism research and scientific communities, the neurodiversity movement is highly popular among most autistic people, within autism advocacy, autism rights organizations, and related neurodiversity approaches have been rapidly growing and applied in the autism research field in the last few years.
Daniel Mertz Kane is an American mathematician. He is an associate professor with a joint position in the Mathematics Department and the Computer Science and Engineering Department at the University of California, San Diego.
Beautiful Young Minds was a documentary first shown at the BRITDOC Festival on 26 July 2007 and first broadcast on BBC 2 on 14 October 2007. The documentary follows the selection process and training for the U.K. team to compete in the 2006 International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO), as well as the actual event in Slovenia. Many of the young mathematicians featured in the film had a form of autism, which the documentary links to mathematical ability. The team goes on to win numerous medals at the IMO, including four silver and one bronze. It was directed by Morgan Matthews, edited by Joby Gee and featured music by Sam Hooper. It was also screened at the Bath Film Festival in October 2007. The documentary inspired the 2014 film X+Y, which was also directed by Morgan Matthews, based on IMO participant Daniel Lightwing.
Jordan Stuart Ellenberg is an American mathematician who is a professor of mathematics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. His research involves arithmetic geometry. He is also an author of both fiction and non-fiction writing.
Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) or autism spectrum conditions (ASCs) describe a range of conditions classified as neurodevelopmental disorders in the DSM-5, used by the American Psychiatric Association. As with many neurodivergent people and conditions, the popular image of autistic people and autism itself is often based on inaccurate media representations. Additionally, media about autism may promote pseudoscience such as vaccine denial or facilitated communication.
X+Y, released in the US as A Brilliant Young Mind, is a 2014 British drama film directed by Morgan Matthews and starring Asa Butterfield, Rafe Spall and Sally Hawkins.
Po-Shen Loh is a American professor of mathematics at Carnegie Mellon University. In 2004, he earned a B.S. in Mathematics in the California Institute of Technology, and he would then go on to study at Cambridge University. Loh is the national coach of the United States' International Math Olympiad team. Also, he is the founder of educational website Expii and learning service Live, and the lead developer of NOVID, a COVID-19 contact-tracing app.
Jason Haynes is a fictional character from the BBC medical drama Holby City, played by Jules Robertson. He first appeared in the series eighteen episode "A Partnership, Literally", broadcast on 9 February 2016, and stayed until the show's final episode: "Episode 1102", which was broadcast on 29 March 2022. the Jason arrives at Holby City hospital to work as a porter after being introduced as the nephew of Consultant Serena Campbell. Robertson was cast after he impressed producers after auditioning against several other actors. Jason has Asperger syndrome and Robertson is the first non-neurotypical actor to play a non-neurotypical character in an ongoing role. Robertson has stated that his own experience with autism helped him portray Jason accurately. He is characterised as a nice man, who Robertson describes as "geeky and shy" and lacking a sense of humour.
Zhuo Qun Song, also called Alex Song, is a Chinese-Canadian who is currently the most highly decorated International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) contestant, with five gold medals and one bronze medal.
