Po-Shen Loh is a social entrepreneur, inventor, and mathematician whose work bridges mathematics, science, and technology. Loh is known for his work in developing incentive-aligned solutions to address large-scale, real-world challenges, from pandemic response to enabling human society to thrive in the AI era. He is a professor of mathematics at Carnegie Mellon University and served as the national coach of the USA International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) team from 2013 to 2023.
Loh’s research spans combinatorics, probability theory, and computer science, addressing fundamental questions at the intersection of these fields. He has co-authored over 30 original research papers in network analysis, combinatorics, probability, and algorithms, and has been recognised with the USA Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. As an entrepreneur, Loh founded NOVID, the world’s first contact-tracing app demonstrably capable of sensing proximity with sub-meter accuracy, and expii.com, a free, personalised learning platform that algorithmically curates openly licensed math and science lessons contributed by a global community.
During his decade-long tenure as national IMO coach, Loh guided the US team to historic achievements, including its first-ever #1 rank among North American teams and back-to-back #1 victories in 2015-2016 and 2018-2019. A former IMO medalist himself, Loh won a silver medal in 1999 representing the United States. Since 2023, he has been the Vice President of the IMO Foundation, as the founder and organiser of the annual IMO Alumni Reunion. His latest innovation brings together math stars and professional actors, to mass-produce live-streamed creative problem-solving lessons that match the engagement level of online video entertainment.
Loh received his B.S. in mathematics from Caltech in 2004, graduating first in his class, and earned his M.A. from the University of Cambridge in 2005 as a Winston Churchill Foundation Scholar. He completed his Ph.D. in mathematics at Princeton University in 2009, supported by a Hertz Foundation Fellowship and a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. He has been a faculty member at Carnegie Mellon University since then.
