A Primer for Mathematics Competitions (Oxford Mathematics)
Alexander Zawaira was born in Zimbabwe in 1978. He studied Mathematics and Biochemistry at the University of Zimbabwe where Dr Gavin Hitchcock was one of his teachers. He won a Beit Trust Scholarship to study at Oxford University (England) where he obtained a PhD in Structural Biology. His research interests focus on bridging the gap between bioinformatics and "wet-lab" biochemistry by deriving and experimentally investigating hypotheses from bioinformatics analyses. He is also interested in the general application of mathematics in biology. Gavin Hitchcock was born in Zimbabwe in 1946. He won scholarships to study mathematics at the Universities of Oxford and Keele, where he took his PhD with a thesis in general topology. He is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Mathematics, University of Zimbabwe, and his research interests are in topology and the history of mathematics. He is internationally known for his writings concerned with the communication of mathematical ideas and their history through theatre and dialogue. He spearheads the mathematical talent search and mathematical Olympiad training programmes in Zimbabwe, and is editor of Zimaths Magazine. He mounts workshops in Zimbabwe and neighbouring countries for teachers, for learners, and for parents, on such topics as "touching and seeing mathematics", "using the history of mathematics to enliven teaching", and "creative problem solving". He also conducts seminars on creative problem solving for workers and for management in commerce and industry.