| Reid W. Barton | |
|---|---|
| Born | May 6, 1983 Arlington, Massachusetts |
| Nationality | United States |
| Fields | Mathematics |
| Alma mater | MIT Harvard University |
| Academic advisors | Charles E. Leiserson |
| Notable awards | Morgan Prize (2004) 4× IMO Gold Medallist 2× IOI Gold Medallist 4× Putnam Fellow |
Reid W. Barton (born May 6, 1983) was one of the most successful performers in the International Science Olympiads.[1][2] He is an MIT alumnus.
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Barton is the son of two environmental engineers.[1] Officially homeschooled since third grade, Barton took part time classes at Tufts University, in chemistry (5th grade), physics (6th grade), and subsequently Swedish, Finnish, French, and Chinese. Since eighth grade he worked part-time with MIT computer scientist Charles E. Leiserson on CilkChess, a computer chess program.[1]
Barton was the first student to win four gold medals at the International Mathematical Olympiad,[1] culminating in full marks at the 2001 Olympiad held in Washington, D.C., shared with Gabriel Carroll, Xiao Liang and Zhang Zhiqiang.[3]
Barton has been placed among the five top ranked competitors (who are themselves not ranked against each other) in the William Lowell Putnam Competition four times (2001–2004),[4] a performance matched by six others (Don Coppersmith (1968–71), Arthur Rubin (1970–73), Bjorn Poonen (1985–88), Ravi D. Vakil (1988–91), Gabriel D. Carroll (2000–03), Daniel Kane (2003–06)). Barton was a member of the MIT team which finished second in 2001 and first in 2003 and 2004.[4]
Barton has won two gold medals at the International Olympiad in Informatics. In 2001 he finished first with 580 points out of 600, 55 ahead of his nearest competitor,[5] the largest margin in IOI history at the time.[6] Barton was a member of the 2nd and 5th place MIT team at the ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest, and reached the finals in the TopCoder Open (2004), semi-finals (2003, 2006), the TopCoder Collegiate Challenge (2004), semi-finals (2006), TCCC Regional finals (2002), and TopCoder Invitational semi-finalist (2002).[7]
Barton has won the Morgan Prize awarded jointly by the American Mathematical Society and the Mathematical Association of America for his work on packing densities.[8]
Barton has taught at various academic olympiad training programs for high schoolers, such as the Mathematical Olympiad Summer Program.[9]