Sherry Gong is an undergraduate student at Harvard University with emphasis on mathematics and physics. She is the second U.S. woman (after Alison Miller) to win a gold medal in the International Mathematical Olympiad, which she won in 2007, earning a tie for seventh place out of 536 participants[1] (she scored a 32). She was the only woman on the U.S. team that year.[1] She also tied for first place in the China Mathematical Olympiad for Girls in 2007.[1] Gong attended a mathematics Olympiad for the first time when she was in the sixth grade — the 3rd Olympiada Matematica de Centroamerica y el Caribe, in Puerto Rico.[2] There she received a silver medal and also a special award for the most original solution. It was the first such award in the history of that Olympiad.[2] Sherry has also participated in IMO in every age from 12 to 17 winning 1 HM, 1 bronze,3 silver and 1 gold. In 2005 she was named the 2005 Clay Olympiad Scholar; the Clay Olympiad Scholar Award recognizes the most original solution to a problem on the US American Mathematics Olympiad (USAMO).[2] In 2006 she earned a silver medal at the 2006 International Physics Olympiad.[3]
As a Harvard freshman, Gong scored over 100 in Harvard’s famous problem solving course, Math 55, which required perfect scores on all assignments, tests, bonus problems, and the final exam.[4] In 2010 Gong helped coach the U.S. team that competed in the China Girls’ Mathematical Olympiad; five team members won gold medals.[5] In 2011 she won the Alice T. Schafer Prize for Excellence in Mathematics by an Undergraduate Woman.[5]
Sherry Gong was born in New York as the daughter of two mathematics professors; she grew up in Toronto, Puerto Rico, and New Hampshire.[4]