In this section, we feature the profiles of Mathizen members who have made outstanding performances in the field of Mathematics to serve as inspiration to others. Get to know our Mathizen Achievers and learn from them.

Mathizen proudly introduces one of its Achievers:

Cody T. Johnson!

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Name: Cody T. Johnson

Country: United States of America

Birthday: 20 January 1997

Elementary School: --

High School: Staples High School, CT USA

Cody is 17 years old and is currently studying at Staples High School in Connecticut, USA.  For college, he wishes to study at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Having friends from other cultures is one thing he loves. He has close friends in Malaysia, Singapore, India, and Brazil among others – and they all share the same passion. That passion is Mathematics! He is actually one of the founders of Proofathon.org, a proof-based competition held online. With his mathematical prowess, you might expect him to always be buried under piles of books. Think again, he also finds time for entertainment. Cody is a proud Whovian, a fanatic of Doctor Who.

To find out more about our newest Achiever, read on below.

An Inside Look at our Mathizen Achiever
Q & AWhat do his friends say about him
What do you think is your secret to success?
Absolute dedication to a subject is the secret to my – and thus to anyone’s – success. When I’m interested in learning a subject, I immerse myself in the subject, potentially disruptive to my important studies such as schoolwork. But anything that interests me overwhelms my thoughts, impossible to get off my mind. That’s why it’s necessary to like something to learn it well rather than being forced to learn it. For example, with my negative attitude against English in freshman and sophomore year, I never excelled in the subject. But once I realized that English was interesting, I started to get better at the subject. With a fascinated attitude towards math and computer science, I quickly mastered the subjects, absorbing every detail of every exercise that I practiced.
Describe yourself.
I am a very diverse person who loves the diplomacy of mathematics perhaps more than the subject itself. Mathematics, especially in the foundation of Proofathon, has given me the wonderful opportunity of working with amazing mathematicians from places all around the globe. Allow me to describe my close friends, as they best express who I am. My friend Zi Song Yeoh is an incredible Malaysian boy! He is only age 12 and he has been admitted into the Malaysian IMO training camp. He knows English, Mandarin, and Malay – Malaysia has such a splendid overlap of cultures between Chinese and English influences! Another Malaysian friend of mine, Pi Han Goh, once called me just to say 晚安 (wan an) to me. ♥ My friend Wei Liang Gan from Singapore shares a similar culture with Zi Song. He has been to the IOI! But now, he’s doing national service – did you know that Singapore has mandatory national service because it’s such a small country? He also tells me that Singaporeans listen to American pop music – see the diffusion of culture? My friends Nicolae Sapoval and Dionys Nipomici from Moldova are very great mathematicians. They have both been to the IMO twice with Moldova and are going to attend it for a third time this year. Nicolae has seemingly unlimited Olympiad resources and also a taste of music surprisingly similar to mine. Dionys once told me of what the colors of the Romanian and Moldovan flags meant – blue is for the blue sky symbolizing liberty, yellow is for the wheat fields symbolizing justice, and red is for the blood of the nation meaning fraternity. My friend Kishlaya Jaiswal from India is an amazing web designer and mathematician. Literally, he can do everything in web design; together he and I are unstoppable! Also, he qualified for INMO and came up with an amazing synthetic solution to a non-trivial problem that I posed and could not find a synthetic solution to (if you’re curious, it was finding the zeros of cos x + cos 3x + cos 5x = 1/2). Kishlaya and I are true yaar. My friend Tim Vermeulen from the Netherlands is very much like me. He and I share the same humor and are great friends. I remember when we used to have Skype video calls and solve problems from Titu Andreescu’s 104 Problems in Number Theory. He was only one point away from making the Dutch IMO Training Camp in his first year of Olympiad! My friend Gabriel Merces from Brazil is a pretty great chess (xadrez) player. We play game after game, and we are pretty much equal in skill. He is also the founder of a pretty popular math Facebook page – Studying Maths – and he always posts the best problems to that page (and also to Brilliant.org). My friend Yan Yau Cheng from Hong Kong is only 13 years old and has founded his very own mathematics competition, the Junior Online Math Olympiad (JOMO). He’s on the path to training for Hong Kong’s own IMO team, and he will surely succeed in the future! I have many other best friends from many countries, but if I were to list them all then this response would be a book many pages long.
What do you want to be in the future?
——-
How many are you in the family? Describe your family.
My sister’s in college, and I live with my mother, who likes math too.
Describe the kind of support that your parents gave you.
My mother was always very encouraging, sending me to the best schools and giving me access to the best of resources. One time I woke up at 6:30 and remembered that I had a math competition in Orlando, and she drove me 2-3 hours all the way to Orlando from Palm Beach (2-3 hours)!
Who are your idols?
I don’t have any idols because idols are people that you admire as superior to you. On the other hand, if you strive to achieve a similar status as someone you admire, then your admiration is the basis for improvement, and that’s acceptable. So I admire Ciprian Manolescu for having three perfect scores at the IMO and anyone who’s really good at synthetic geometry.
What are some of your favorite books?
Mathematical Olympiad Treasures started my Olympiad math skills and Problems from the Book helped me get into hard math. Anything by Titu Andreescu!
What is your advice to other Math enthusiasts who want to succeed in life?
If you do a ton of problems, then you will know a lot of interesting techniques of solving problems. And actually attempt the problems before looking at the solutions! Also, never use barycentric coordinates. Never.
Who is your mentor?
I have no mentor.
What is your philoshophy in life?
Absorb everything you see, especially culture!
What is the most memorable moment in your life?
Hopefully my most memorable moment will occur at the IMO 2014 South Africa!
Information to be uploaded later.
Achievements
AchievementsAffiliations
Math-Related Achievements:
  • National Champion, Perfect Scorer, Academic Games, 2008
  • 2nd place, International Physics Online Olympiad (IPhOO) 2013
  • 2nd place, IPhOO 2013
  • 11th place, Online Math Open (OMO), Winter 2013
  • 13th place, National Internet Math Olympiad (NIMO), Contest 8, 2013
  • 16th place, NIMO, Revenge 9, 2013
  • 12th place, NIMO, Contest 12, 2014
  • 17th place, NIMO, Revenge 13, 2014
  • 5th place, OMO, Spring 2014
  • Competitor, Princeton University Mathematics Competition (PUMaC), 2014
  • Competitor, Lehigh University Mathematics Competition (LUMaC), 2014
  • Honorable Mention, Purple Comet, 2014
  • Qualifier, Connecticut American Regions Math League (ARML), 2013
  • Qualifier, Connecticut ARML, 2014
  • 2nd place, Fairfield Startup Weekend Business Competition, 2013
  • 1st place, Perfect Scorer, Connecticut State American Math League, 2014
  • 1st place, Perfect Scorer, Connecticut Community College Math Competition, 2014
  • Silver division, United States of America Computing Olympiad (USACO), 2014

Academic Achievements

  • 5, Advanced Placement (AP) Calculus BC
  • 5, AP Physics C: Mechanics
  • 5, AP Statistics
  • Taking the following AP exams this year
    • Physics C: Electricity & Magnetism
    • Physics B
    • Calculus AB
    • Computer Science
    • Chemistry
    • English Language & Composition
    • Microeconomics
    • Macroeconomics
    • European History
    • United States History
    • World History
    • Psychology
    • Human Geography
  • Projected Connecticut AP State Scholar, 2014
  • Suncoast High School Physics Award
  • 2nd place, Regionals, National History Day (NHD)
  • 1st place, Connecticut State, NHD
  • Competitor, Nationals, NHD

Extracurricular Activities

  • Founder, Proofathon.org
  • Professional Web Developer and Designer
  • Professional Tutor
  • Taken the college course Web Development and Design
  • Taking the college course Differential Equations
  • Fluent in English, French, and Latin
  • Proficient in Spanish
  • Can program in the following languages:
    • ActionScript 3
    • PHP
    • JavaScript
    • Java
    • Mathematica
    • C++
    • Python
  • Member, Math Team
  • Member, Chess Club
  • Member, Mu Alpha Theta (Math Honors Society)
  • Founder, Rubik’s Cube Club
  • Member, Guitar Club
  • Founder, Responsae (a charity)
  • Member, ThinkPink (a charity)
  • Researcher, Collatz Conjecture
  • Programmer, Dr. George Einstein’s HIV Research
  • Band member, Mental Silence, Outlier, Albino Black Sheep, solo
  • Member, Worldwide Online Olympiad Training (WOOT)
  • Tennis player
  • Freerunner, The Gymnastics Revolution
Information to be uploaded later.