Jeck Lim

Jeck Lim is a mathematician working in discrete geometry and additive combinatorics. He represented Singapore at the International Mathematical Olympiad five consecutive years (2009-2013), winning bronze, silver and then three golds, capped by a perfect 42 and world 1st in 2012; he also won IPhO gold in 2013. He completed an MMath at Trinity College, Cambridge, a PhD at Caltech advised by David Conlon (2025), and postdocs at Oxford (2025-2026) before a Hausdorff Postdoc at the University of Bonn from Fall 2026.

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• Will take up a Hausdorff Postdoc at the University of Bonn in Fall 2026 working with Lisa Sauermann, after a 2025-2026 postdoc in combinatorics at Oxford with Peter Keevash - a fast move up the European pure-math ladder.Sep 1, 2026
• PhD in Mathematics at Caltech (2020-2025) with a Scott Russell Johnson Graduate Dissertation Prize; previously MMath at Trinity College, Cambridge (2016-2020) and NUS High School (2008-2013). Now a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Oxford - a committed pure-math academic trajectory rather than a switch to finance.Jan 1, 2025
• Represented Singapore at the IMO five consecutive years (2009-2013): bronze 2009, silver 2010, gold 2011, gold 2012 (world 1st, perfect 42 - the only perfect score that year), gold 2013.Jul 28, 2013
• Public contact is a personal Yahoo address ([contact omitted]), listed on his academic site - reachable directly rather than only through institutional channels.Jan 1, 2026
• Also an IPhO 2013 gold medalist (Copenhagen), one of a handful of students to medal at both the IMO and IPhO in the same year.Jul 15, 2013
• Research focus is discrete geometry and additive combinatorics; PhD at Caltech advised by David Conlon.Jan 1, 2026
• Solved the Kupitz planar discrepancy problem for pseudolines with David Conlon (2023) - the result was notable enough to be flagged on Gil Kalai's blog.Aug 11, 2023
• Publishes regularly on arXiv (sum-free subsets, Freiman dimension, sums of algebraic dilates, evasive sets) with coauthors including Peter Keevash, David Conlon, Cosmin Pohoata and Jiaxi Nie, several still under review as of 2026.Jan 1, 2026
• Returned to the IMO as Coordinator in 2019, 2023 and 2024 and as Team Trainer/Observer in 2016, staying embedded in the Singapore olympiad scene.Jul 22, 2024
• Won the Alibaba Global Mathematics Competition Silver prize (US$15,000) in 2024 after Bronze 2021 and Merit 2022/2023 - a consistent top placing in a global contest that also draws elite Chinese and international mathematicians.Jun 1, 2024
• Interned at Jane Street New York as a quantitative researcher in 2018 (May-Aug) yet chose a math PhD, suggesting the quant path was explored and declined in favour of academia.Aug 1, 2018
• Competitive programmer as well as mathematician: ICPC World Finals 2019 (team 13th), NWERC 2018 Team Champion, Google Code Jam Round 3 rank 57.Apr 5, 2019