Hello, there.
Welcome to the official site for all
the information fit to print concerning
Robert Geretschläger
(Please note that this
page is constantly being edited and changed around. The information contained
herein is probably correct, but if something seems less than perfect to you,
the critical reader, I beg your forgiveness. I also request you to excuse the
presence of any and all omisons, spellling
mistykes, unwords and
things of this ilk.)
"Who is this person?“ you may well ask. Allow me to list some defining bygone
moments.
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born Toronto, Canada, Wednesday,
November 13th, 1957 |
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visitied various school in Canada and Austria; graduated
from the Bundesgymnasium und Bundesrealgymnasium
Bruck/Mur, Austria in June 1975 |
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studied mathematics at Karl-Franzens University, Graz and descriptive geometry at the
University of Technology, Graz |
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graduated as Mag.rer.nat. (teaching
degree in mathematics and descriptive geometry) 1980; Theses titled "Asymptotisches Verhalten von Kontraktionshalbgruppen" and "Normalenflächen von Quadriken laengs ebener Schnitte" |
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employed as apprentice teacher at Bundesrealgymnasium Keplerstrasse
in Graz 1981-82, simultaneously as part-time teacher at Bundesgymnasium
und BORG Dreihackengasse, Graz |
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first full-time teaching position
1982-84 at HTL (technical high school) Weiz |
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since 1984, teaching full-time at
BRG Keplerstrasse in Graz |
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graduated as Dr.phil. in mathematics 1985; title of dissertation: "Fréchet-
und Gateaux-differenzierbarkeit Nicht-linearer
Kontraktionshalbgruppen und ihrer Infinitesimalen Generatoren" |
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married to Zita Hauptmann, May
13th, 1989 |
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daughter Lisa born August 22nd,
1990 (more at http://www.imdb.com/name/nm4823100/?ref_=rvi_nm and http://www.vimeo.com/LZG
and https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisa_Zoe_Geretschläger) |
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conferred title “Oberstudienrat” 2014 |
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Retired from active teaching Dec.
1st, 2022 |
In
case you are so inclined, you can also check out my Wikipedia page (currently
only available in German) at https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Geretschl%C3%A4ger
In the course of an academic
life-time, a number of things get written, and some even get published. If you
make the effort to dig up any of these publications and actually read them, I would
love to hear from you.
Books
and Articles in Proceedings
My main scientific interests are in
the areas Mathematical Aspects of Paper Folding, Polyhedra and Mathematical
Competitions and Problem Mathematics (inequalities, geometry,...)
As if you couldn't tell by looking at the list of publications ...
To further these interests, I am a
member of the following organisations:
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Mathematical Association of America (MAA) (http://www.maa.org) |
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Canadian Mathematical Society (CMS) (https://cms.math.ca/) |
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Österreichische
Mathematische Gesellschaft (OeMG) (http://www.oemg.ac.at) |
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World Federation of National Mathematics
Competitions (WFNMC) (http://www.wfnmc.org/) |
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Origami
USA (http://www.origami-usa.org) (http://origamiusa.org/thefold) |
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British Origami Society (https://www.britishorigami.info/) |
A few words with respect to some of
my professional activities:
ÖMO - Österreichische Mathematikolympiade
and
IMO - International Mathematical Olympiad
I have been working actively for the
Austrian Mathematical Olympiad for about 40 years. From the start and until the
2021/22 school year, I prepared students for various levels of competition at
BRG Kepler. For most of this time, I have also been working with students at
the national level, teaching at the annual preparatory seminar of the national olympiad (3. round), for many
years mostly on inequalities (download my text
on the theory of inequalities (in german) here).
For six years (2000: Taejon, South
Korea, 2001: Washington, USA, 2002: Glasgow, UK, 2003; Tokyo, Japan, 2004:
Athens, Greece, 2005: Merida, Mexico) I was deputy leader of the Austrian team
at the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO). In 2006 (Ljubljana, Slovenia)
I was one of five members of the problem selection committee. After this (2007:
Hanoi, Vietnam, 2008: Madrid, Spain, 2009: Bremen, Germany, 2010: Astana,
Kazakhstan, 2011: Amsterdam, Netherlands, 2012: Mar del Plata, Argentina, 2013:
Santa Marta, Colombia, 2014: Cape Town, South Africa, 2015: Chiang Mai,
Thailand, 2016: Hong Kong, 2017: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; 2018: Cluj-Napoca,
Romania; 2019: Bath, UK; 2020: St. Petersburg, Russia/Exam Center Vienna, 2022:
Oslo, Norway, 2023: Chiba, Japan), I participated as Austrian team leader.
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The IMO problems of the last few years (with
solutions in German) are here: |
IMO 2002 download me (click here) |
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IMO 2003 download me (click here) |
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IMO 2004 download me (click here) |
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IMO 2005 download me (click here) |
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IMO 2006 download me (click here) |
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IMO 2007 download me (click here) |
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IMO 2008 download me (click here) |
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IMO 2009 download me (click here) |
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IMO 2010 download me (click here) |
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IMO 2011 download me
(click here) |
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IMO 2012 download me (click here) |
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IMO 2013 download me (click here) |
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IMO 2014 download me (click here) |
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IMO 2015 download me (click here) |
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IMO 2016 download me (click here) |
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IMO 2017 download me (click here) |
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IMO 2018 download me (click here) |
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IMO 2019 download me (click here) |
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IMO 2020 download me (click here) |
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IMO 2021 download me (click here) |
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IMO 2022 download me (click here) |
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IMO 2023 download me (click here) |
Information about the Austrian
Mathematical Olympiad is available at http://www.oemo.at.
Information about the International
Mathematical Olympiad is available at https://www.imo-official.org/
In 2020, I was also leader of the
Austrian tem at the inaugural Cyberspace Mathematical Competition. Information
about the CMC is available at https://artofproblemsolving.com/contests/cmc
Känguru der
Mathematik
Mathematical Kangaroo
Kangourou sans Frontières
Since 1998 I have been the Austrian
representative in the international committee of the "Kangourou
des Mathematiques". I am also president of the
Austrian Kangaroo Society (Känguru der Mathematik - Österreich). From 2004 to
2008, I was a board member of the international organisation "Kangourou Sans Frontières"
(KSF), and I was elected to the board again in October 2011. Since the
organisation has adopted new statutes on May 1st, 2018, I am now
treasurer of this organisation. Together with Monika Noack
and Alexander Unger (Germany) and Hansjürg Stocker
and Meike Akveld
(Switzerland) I have helped produce five collections of Kangaroo problems that
were published by Verlag Hanser, as well as one published by
Lemberger Verlag.
In October 2007 I was head of the
organising committee for the international meeting of KSF in Graz. Some
documents pertaining to this meeting can be downloaded here.
Information about this competition
is available at http://www.kaenguru.at
and http://www.aksf.org.
World Federation of National Mathematics Competitions (WFNMC)
I have been taking part regularly in
the meetings of the WFNMC (http://www.wfnmc.org/) since ICME-7 in Québec, Canada in 1992. I was
vice-president of this organisation from 2008, Senior Vice-President from 2018
and was elected as President in July 2022. I was in charge of organising the 8th
meeting of the WFNMC, which took place in Graz and Semriach
(Austria) from July 18th to 24th, 2018. The next congress
of the WFNMC will take place in Kuala
Lumpur (Malaysia) in 2026.
Various other Competition-Related Activities
Beside my work on these
competitions, I also help to organize various other mathematical competitions.
For instance, for the last 30 years, I have been president of the local
organizing committee of the "International Tournament of the Towns" (http://www.turgor.ru/) for Graz. I am also responsible
for the Mediterranean Mathematics Competition in Austria.
International Meetings
In the course of my work, I have
also taken part in a number of international meetings. Click here for the complete list. I presented a paper at
meetings marked with *, and several of these papers are available for download.
Invited Talks/Positions
I was invited speaker twice at the
mathematical-didactical seminars at the Palacky
University in Olomouc (Czech Republic). On Nov. 26th, 1996 I spoke on the
subject "Work with Gifted Students in Austria - Pflege
von Mathematiktalenten in Österreich"
(together with Gottfried Perz), and on Sep. 22nd,
1998 I spoke on the subject "3rd Congress of WFNMC, China, July 22-27,
1998".
On invitation of the Australian
Mathematics Trust I was
a guest member of the
committee for the Australian Mathematics Competition and the Australian Mathematics
Challenge in March 1999.
I was Howard Lyons Invited Speaker at the CMC annual
seminar for high school students at the University of Waterloo (Canada) in June
2003.
On invitation of PIMS (Pacific
Institute for the Mathematical Sciences) I was a speaker at the Math Fair
workshop at BIRS (Banff International Research Station) in April 2005. (you can download the powerpoint presentation of my talk here)
In June and July of 2006, I was one
of five members of the Problem Selection Committee for the 47th IMO
(International Mathematical Olympiad) in Ljubljana, Slovenia.
In November 2010 I held an invited
talk on origami geometry at the Didaktikkolloquium at
the Friedrich-Schiller-Universität in Jena, Germany.
In September 2012 I held an invited
talk on origami geometry at the “23. Schweizerischer
Tag über Mathematik und Unterricht” in Zürich, Switzerland. (Information on this day,
including the materials relevant to my talk, can be found at http://www.math.ch/TMU2012/ .)
I was again guest member of the
committee for the Australian Mathematics Competition and the Australian Mathematics
Challenge on invitation of the Australian Mathematics Trust in March 2013.
In September 2023 I held an invited
talk on Folding Strips at the “33. Schweizerischer
Tag über Mathematik und Unterricht” in Sursee,
Switzerland. (Information on this day, including the materials relevant to my
talk, can be found at http://www.math.ch/TMU2023/
.)
Didactics Activities
Teaching at BRG Kepler, Graz
From 1981
until 2022, I taught mathematics and descriptive geometry („Darstellende
Geometrie“ and „Geometrisches Zeichnen“) at BRG
Kepler in Graz (with a brief interlude in the early 80s). This included preperatory courses for the mathematical olympiad (Österreichische
Mathematikolympiade) and in my early years there, I
also taught some chess classes.
I enjoyed
teaching at BRG Kepler a great deal, and retain fond memories of my time there.
You can find links to information about Math Fairs and the
”BRG Kepler Tag
der Mathematik” here.
Textbook Project "Elemente der Mathematik"
From 2002 to 2007 I was involved in
the creation of a high school mathematics text book series titled "Elemente der Mathematik",
published by E. Dorner (Vienna). This is the Austrian edition of the German
series of the same name (published by Schroedel Verlag). Approximately one third of the text was written
specially for the Austrian version, with the remaining parts adapted from the
German versions to fit the Austrian curriculum. The complete series was
available for use in the classroom from 2007, although the books are no longer
current due to changes in the Austrian examination system.
ÖMG - Österreichische Mathematische
Gesellschaft
In the Austrian Mathematical Society
(Österreichische Mathematische
Gesellschaft), I was head of the "teachers'
division" for several years. In this context, meetings were arranged for
students and teachers in Graz and Innsbruck with the goal of making the variety
of mathematical research better known to a wide audience. Due to a lack of interest in the
teaching community, the teachers' division was closed after a few years of
activity.
Until 2023 I was a member of the didactics commission of the ÖMG,
a group that meets several times a year to discuss matters relating to mathematics
teaching in Austria.
Further information about the ÖMG is
available at http://www.oemg.ac.at
Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Mathematik an AHS - Steiermark/Landesfachkoordinator
After working for years as one of three
members of the "team" leading the working group (ARGE) for
mathematics in high schools (AHS) in Steiermark
(Styria), I was invited to accept a role as a “Landesfachkoordinator”,
which includes some of the responsibilities formerly connected with the ARGE. In this conext,
I was also a member of both
a national and a regional working group that developed material on "Standards in
mathematics at secondary level II" for eight years, in preparation for current
projects on standards in mathematics and the centralised final examinations in
mathematics at AHS (Allgemeinbildende höhere Schulen – general arts and
sciences schools).
Until the end of the 2021/22 school
year, I was one of two "Landesfachkoordinatoren für Mathematik" for AHS in
Styria, responsible for math competitions and matters pertaining to working
with mathematically gifted students.
Teacher Training at the Karl-Franzens
University in Graz
Since 1997 I have been involved in
teacher training at the KF-University in Graz. I have taught courses on
Mathematical Competitions (with Erich Windischbacher)
and preparatory courses for practise teaching (with Richard Perko).
After changes in the university curriculum, I taught alternating summer
semester courses in descriptive geometry and working with gifted students for
several years. (Materials for these courses and subsequent ones can be found here.) This continued with more courses
for working with gifted students and various geometry courses (together with
Bernd Thaller, Günter Lettl
and Michaela Kraker).
PISA
When the international student
assessment study PISA was in its inaugural phase, there was a national
"mathematics expert group" in Austria, of which I was a member. I
participated in many PISA-related activities, including problem development,
translation and framework development. I was no longer involved in the project
from the time of its actual implementation in the schools, however.
Curriculum Development
I was also a member of the 6-member
group originally responsible for the current mathematics curriculum for grades
9-12 (5.-8. Klasse, AHS). Yes, it is partly my fault,
although this is mitigated by the fact that the curriculum has now been
replaced by a modified version that was produced without my participation.
Mathematik Macht Freu(n)de
In the academic years from 2019/20
to 2021/22, I worked actively on producing teaching materials for the project “Mathematik Macht Freu(n)de”
at the University of Vienna. The material produced by this project can be
accessed at https://mathematikmachtfreunde.univie.ac.at/
Talk to me
If you feel an urge to get in touch
with me after reading all this, you can send me an e-mail at
If you really must, this will get
you to a trivia page.
This page was last revised on August 14th, 2024.