Citadel's new initiative: helping low income students win Olympiad competitions

If you're a gifted mathematician, and you want to work in a quantitative role for either hedge fund Citadel or electronic trading firm Citadel Securities, it helps to enter an Olympiad competition.

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As we reported a few months ago, 20-30 Citadel interns a year have typically entered the competitions, which involve working in a team to solve complicated puzzles across mathematics, computing or physics. If you win an Olympiad and you want to work for Citadel, so much the better.

There's only one problem: the training. Few people succeed at Olympiads without training and tuition, and that is more likely to be available to the kinds of students who apply for Citadel's $20k a month internships anyway. It's also more likely to be on offer if you live in countries like Russia or China that have a long history of preparing students for Olympiad success. 

Citadel and Citadel Securities are seeking to remedy this. On Sunday, International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO), announced a donation from the firms to support training camps for students from low income countries. 

Tom Lovering, a senior quantitative researcher at Citadel who himself was once a silver and bronze medallist at IMO, says the competition can serve as a springboard for students around the world, "including those like myself from fairly modest backgrounds." Succeeding at the Olympiad helped propel his career and instilled "a lasting appreciation for the joys of competition, collaboration, and continuous learning,” Lovering added. 

Citadel's support for the IMO is part of a broader commitment to sponsoring emerging mathematical talent. It's also sponsoring the European Girls' Mathematical Olympiad (EGMO). It's not the only firm trying to nurture young mathematicians: XTX Markets has also sponsored Olympiad students and last year donated to a £7m Maths Excellence Fund to help disadvantaged young mathematicians in the UK. 

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