A Conversation with Po-Shen Loh, Head Coach of the U.S. Math Olympiad Team: Preparing Children for an AI-Enabled Future

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Won third place in the MATHCOUNTS competition at the age of 14;

Won a silver medal at the International Mathematical Olympiad at the age of 17;

At 18, she received a full scholarship and entered Caltech to study mathematics.

Graduated at 22 and became the deputy leader of the U.S. Math Olympiad team;

At the age of 23, he earned a master's degree from the University of Cambridge in the UK and welcomed the birth of his first daughter with his wife.

At the age of 28, he earned a Ph.D. in Mathematics from Princeton University and joined the faculty of the Department of Mathematics at Carnegie Mellon University.

At the age of 31, he became the head coach of the U.S. Mathematical Olympiad team and led them to victory in 2015, 2016, 2018, and 2019.

Became a tenured professor in the Department of Mathematics at Carnegie Mellon University at the age of 37...

Do you know which big shot this dazzling resume points to?—That's right, he is the father of three children, who recently made it to the Wall Street Journal for carrying 170 pounds of luggage while sprinting across North America on a tour—[Professor Roberson].

As a tech company founder, tenured professor in the mathematics department at Carnegie Mellon University, head coach of the U.S. Mathematical Olympiad team, and recipient of the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring, Po-Shen Loh remains remarkably humble when discussing his academic abilities.

Paul's family is a typical overseas intellectual household. He and his younger siblings were born and raised in the United States. Their parents, originally from Guangdong, were both born in Singapore and immigrated to the U.S. in their early years. This background provided the children with the opportunity to receive an education that blends Eastern and Western influences.

Starting with Father Luo (Prof. Wei-Yin Loh), the academic prowess of this family is truly astonishing. At the end of the last century, after earning his bachelor's and master's degrees in mathematics from the University of Singapore (now merged with Nanyang University to form the National University of Singapore), he went on to pursue his Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley). He currently serves as a professor of statistics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and has received numerous awards.

Paul Loh's mother, Theresa Loh, also worked as a math teacher in Singapore. After moving to the United States, with three children to care for, she began to focus on their lives and education. Upon first arriving in the U.S., uncertain about where they would eventually settle, Mrs. Loh was concerned that the American math curriculum might be too simple. Worried that if they returned to Singapore, her children might fall behind their peers, she continued to teach them using Singaporean textbooks.

Mother Luo also places great emphasis on teaching children how to think, rather than just having them engage in repetitive practice. Through carefully selected problems, she helps children develop a mindset for tackling difficult challenges, continuously exercising their creativity in problem-solving, while also honing their patience and perseverance.

Starting from middle school, Professor Luo and his younger siblings began participating in various fun and challenging math competitions such as AMC and MATHCOUNTS. Nowadays, he often jokes that his own results weren't actually the best—for example, he "only" placed third nationally in MATHCOUNTS, while his younger brother, Luo Boru, won the national championship three years later, and his younger sister, Luo Boling, also achieved an outstanding second place nationally after that.

MATHCOUNTS is the most influential middle school math competition in the United States. The reasons it captivates Po-Shen Loh lie in these three aspects: people, challenge, and thinking.

Professor Luo once said that in the school's competition team, he made a group of like-minded friends. The coach at the time, Terry Gerhardt, was the father of a teammate—a very enthusiastic and encouraging person. The coach’s main task was to provide full support for each team member and create an environment where everyone could fully immerse themselves. "Every Sunday afternoon, he would take us ten middle school students to his office for three wonderful hours. We would solve problems together, discuss solutions, share pizza, and make friends. It was a learning party, where the tense sense of competition was replaced by friendly collaboration. Everyone progressed together amid laughter and joy, and each person thoroughly enjoyed the experience."

Upon entering high school, Po-Shen Loh also began participating in the American Mathematics Competitions (AMC) organized by the Mathematical Association of America. Through his own efforts and passion for mathematics, he advanced step by step and eventually earned a spot in the Math Olympiad Program (MOP). This is the national training camp for the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO), where 30 high school students lived together for a month, studying mathematics collectively. This unforgettable experience became a significant turning point in his life.

There, Po-Shen Loh encountered more classmates and coaches who were genuinely passionate about mathematics. "Everyone's enthusiasm for math was so incredible that it often amazed me. Sometimes, even their jokes were related to clear mathematical logic and reasoning." Influenced by diverse cultures and having learned various innovative methods, Professor Loh developed his own unique mathematical thinking framework. At the time, he didn't realize that this creative thought process was actually the embryonic form of academic mathematical research.

After that, in 1999, Po-Shen Loh joined the six-member national team and, alongside his teammates, represented the United States at the IMO in Romania. Surprisingly, 19 years later, the IMO returned to Romania, and Professor Loh, along with a former member of the Chinese team, reappeared as the head coaches of the U.S. and Chinese teams, respectively. The friends he made back then, even as they now navigate different professional fields and busy schedules, still make time to meet up regularly.

These experiences laid the foundation for his love of mathematics.

Upon entering Caltech, Po-Shen Loh began to more actively engage in teaching work. In 2002, he seized an opportunity to become a teaching assistant for MOP. His job was to grade students' exams, but due to his passion for teaching, he voluntarily signed up to teach many classes for the students. Through this opportunity, he was able to fulfill his earlier wish—to always approach teaching from the perspective of a beginner, using the feelings he experienced when first learning the material as a starting point. This empathetic approach also helped him gradually develop and refine his teaching style, which is characterized by approachability, actively guiding students to think, never mocking any perspective, encouraging bold expression, and fostering collective brainstorming.

During the final week of MOP each year, students organize a fun "Hall of Fame" event. Everyone votes on various aspects of the summer camp, selecting categories such as "Best Soccer Player," "Best Actor," "Most Reluctant to Do Homework," and "Least Humble," among others. To Po-Shen Loh's surprise, he was awarded the title of "Best Teacher." Having ranked only fifth among the six IMO team members that year, he had once thought he might not even meet the threshold to become a teaching assistant at MOP, yet he unexpectedly received this honor.

Luo Boshen said that his growth and progress, as well as his transformation on the path to becoming a mathematician, would not have been possible without the help of this collective. In return, he gradually took on more responsibilities at MOP, hoping that the younger students could gain the most and have the best experience here, as he saw his own reflection in them from years ago.

At this point, he once again felt the increasingly clear and powerful call of the great profession of "educator."

In three days in June 2004, Po-Shen Loh did three things: he got married, attended Caltech's graduation ceremony with his wife the next day, and then rushed off to MOP. His honeymoon with his wife, Debbie Lee (a geophysics major at Caltech), was spent in the MOP dormitory with other coaches and students. Debbie also became a part of MOP, starting as a residential assistant responsible for helping students with their daily lives. Po-Shen Loh once said, "Perhaps because my wife and I started our marriage in this way, to this day, we both believe that working together to share and exchange good educational methods with the world is incredibly important."

In 2005, Po-Shen Loh began his doctoral studies. Over the course of his five-year academic journey, he developed a deep bond with his doctoral advisor, Benny Sudakov, who had a profound influence on him. His approach to mathematics, his understanding of the subject and teaching, and even his professional principles were subtly transformed through this mentorship.

This teacher, who grew up in Georgia (part of the former Soviet Union) and furthered his studies in Israel, is not only exceptionally intelligent, knowledgeable, diligent, and grounded, with a wealth of life experience, but also deeply cares about the growth of every student.

He told Po-Shen Loh, "The goal of mathematics is not only to help people solve the world's problems but, more importantly, to develop new methods and extend them to mathematical applications and other fields. The responsibility of mathematicians is to guide the world in discovering unsolved problems and to determine which issues are worth investing time in, so that the answers deepen humanity's understanding of mathematical structures and the world."

In January 2010, Po-Shen Loh began his role as an assistant professor at Carnegie Mellon University. The students at CMU are highly creative and enthusiastic about bringing every imaginative idea to life. Their strong thirst for knowledge, rigorous approach to learning, and genuine passion for education deepened his love for this profession.

From then on, Po-Shen Loh became even clearer about his career aspirations: to help universities improve the quality of teaching and student recruitment in their mathematics departments; to take on greater responsibilities for the national Olympiad team, guiding team members to achieve their own outstanding results—winning championships was never the goal, but rather doing something impactful for society, something worthy of being featured in *The New York Times* 20 years later; and to help enhance the world's enthusiasm for thinking and mathematics. To this end, he created the LIVE, by Po-Shen Loh online math learning program, giving every child the opportunity to exercise their minds, learn to create through challenging problems and inquiry-based methods, and benefit from the guidance and mentorship of some of the world's most outstanding senior students.

"I ultimately chose a career focused on mathematical research and education, and for me, it all fell into place naturally. One key factor was that, while continuously exploring innovative methods, I thoroughly enjoyed the process of deep contemplation itself and gradually developed my own unique perspective on learning mathematics—not merely striving for quick answers or always relying on clever tricks. Only by viewing each challenging problem as a tool for personal growth and a source of enjoyment in thinking can we truly master it."

Back in my IMO days, several of my teammates have since chosen to pursue careers in academic research. Among the five of them, three are now professors of mathematics, computer science, and economics at well-known universities in the United States. Currently, the main goal of my work in mathematics education is to translate the learning methods that cultivate the ability to solve challenging competition problems into simpler language, making them accessible to a broader audience. I look forward to using this approach to mathematics learning to help more and more students enhance their creativity and thinking skills, enabling them to shine in various fields.