Brief

Prof. Loh is a social entrepreneur and inventor. He combines math, science, and technology with firsthand exploration of the human condition. Across the global landscape of work, AI, and education. Major newspapers have covered his diverse innovations. His latest unites math stars and actors to transform education.

He won silver for Team USA at the 1999 International Math Olympiad, and served a decade as National Coach. He is a Hertz Fellow — in a community of broadly innovative scientists with roots in the Manhattan Project and Space Race.

He personally speaks in an unprecedented 100+ cities per year on education-after-AI. Conferences. Substitute-teaching in K–12 classrooms. Visiting companies and labs. Public lectures. Learning while sharing ideas with students, parents, researchers, and policymakers. All while teaching at one of the world's foremost universities in AI (Carnegie Mellon) and running his own EdTech social enterprise.

Distinctions

As an academic, Prof. Loh has earned distinctions ranging from an International Mathematical Olympiad silver medal to the United States Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. His pure scientific research considered a variety of questions that lie at the intersection of combinatorics (the study of discrete systems), probability theory, and computer science. As an educator, he was the coach of Carnegie Mellon University’s math team when it achieved its first-ever #1 rank among all North American universities, and the coach of the USA Math Olympiad team when it achieved its first-ever back-to-back #1-rank victories in 2015 and 2016, and then again in 2018 and 2019. His research and educational outreach takes him to cities across the world, reaching over 10,000 people each year through public lectures and events, and he has featured in or co-created videos totaling over 25 million YouTube views.

Early life

Prof. Loh was born in the United States. He grew up on the outskirts of Madison, Wisconsin, 1 mile away from cornfields. He was always fascinated by the outside world and its people, inspired in part by the TV show Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? (which, coincidentally, was co-produced by WQED which is now 1 mile away from where he lives today). His dream was to see the world, and to meet its people.

He attended public schools: Orchard Ridge and Glenn Stephens Elementary, Thomas Jefferson Middle, and James Madison Memorial High School (now Vel Phillips). He discovered his interest in unconventional, challenging math through the National MATHCOUNTS Competition, where he placed 3rd in the nation in 8th grade. Perhaps the most valuable part of that experience was meeting people who were so much better than him at everything he did.

He kept in touch, to learn from them. AOL Instant Messenger had just been released, and it became his channel to this growing network. He became fascinated with the power of networks, as through them he discovered all of the opportunities he later pursued. That supported his exploration of computer programming, debate, and organizing people. Driven primarily by the love of meeting up with these nationally-distributed friends, he somewhat accidentally made it onto the USA International Math Olympiad team.

Young Po-Shen Loh
Young Po-Shen Loh