Organizers

- Local Organizing Committee

- Academic Council

- Supporting Team

- Institutions

Problem Committee and Jury

Volunteers

Participants

Who?

Organizers

The IOL is an event organized by many hands, all contributing on a volunteer basis to its realization. Professors, teachers, former participants and enthusiasts from different countries gather in different organizing bodies, such as the Board, the International Organizing Committee, the Problem Committee and the Jury. In addition, each year's edition is organized by a Local Organizing Committee (LOC).

Local Organizing Committee

Bruno L'Astorina
IOL, Instituto Vertere
Chair

Natália Guimarães
Instituto Vertere
Caçapava, SP
Vice-Chair, Logistics

Eloisa Pilati
University of Brasilia
Brasília, DF
Academic, Institutional

Janaína Weissheimer
Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte
Natal, RN
Academic

Rodrigo Tiradentes
Portuguese Teacher
Rio de Janeiro, RJ
Program

Cynthia Herkenhoff
IOL 2017, Applied Mathematician
Paris, France
User Experience

Artur Corrêa Souza
IOL 2018, Software Developer
Porto Alegre, RS
Technology

If you wish to enter in contact, you can write to [email protected].

Academic Council

The LOC is supported in all academic and scientific matters by the Academic Council, who gives valuable advices and institutional support for the best flow of the event. The Council is composed by:


Eduardo Cardoso Martins	Federal University of Amazonas (UFAM)
Eloisa Pilati	University of Brasília (UnB)
Heloisa de Almeida Salles	University of Brasília (UnB)
Janaina Weissheimer	Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN)
Joara Martin Bergsleithner	University of Brasília (UnB)

Supporting Team

The LOC can only coordinate the IOL effort by counting with the help of several other kind and enthusiastic people – many of them former IOL or ELO (Brazilian Olympiad's last round) participants. Those include:


Charles L'Astorina	Estúdio Vértebra	General Design
Pedro Leão	IOL 2019	Website
Roosmari Pihlak	IOL 2019, 2021	Social media
Marina Kawamura	ELO 2020	Video editing, communication
Carolina Motta Bastos	IOL 2023	Communication
Thiago Augusto Santos	ELO 2023	Communication
Senas Araújo	ELO 2023	Communication
Maria Luporini	UFRJ	Cultural Program
Rafael Santiago	UnB	Ceremonial
Lai Otsuka	IOL 2022	Exam Logistics
Fernando César	IOL 2022	User Experience

Institutions

In addition, the IOL 2024 is supported by various institutions. The organizational nucleus is drawn from Olimpíada Brasileira de Linguística (OBL), the Brazilian counterpart of the Linguistics Olympiads. As such, we have direct strategic support from Instituto Vertere and academic support from the Brazilian Linguistics Association (ABRALIN).

The IOL 2024 is mainly sponsored by Brazil's Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MCTI), as well as by the Association for Computational Linguistics (ACL).

Problem Committee and Jury

The academic nucleus of IOL is the Problem Committee (IOL PC) , a permanent body composed of researchers, teachers and former participants, all experienced solvers, testers and composers of the genre of Self-sufficient linguistics problems. The PC works the whole year in the multilingual composition of the problems, in order to guarantee that all language versions of the problems are functionally equal. You can read more about it here.

During the event, the academic work (distributing the problems, overseeing the exams, marking the papers, presenting solutions, giving awards) is done by an International Jury, composed by members drawn from the PC. The International Jury for IOL 2024 is composed by:

Aleksejs Peguševs

PC member since 2012

IOL contestant in 2008, 2009 and 2010

Composer of music and linguistic problems, educator, mind sports athlete (mainly competitive Carcassonne). Masters in Linguistics from University of Oxford (2018) and Masters in Music from Sibelius Academy, Finland (2017).

Alexander Piperski

PC member since 2006

IOL contestant in 2004 and 2005

Moscow Traditional Linguistics Olympiad and APLO committee member. Senior lecturer at the Slavic Department at Stockholm University, research fellow at the Сhair of Computational Сorpus Linguistics at Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuremberg. Fond of public transport and cannoli siciliani.

Andrey Nikulin

PC member since 2018

IOL contestant in 2008, 2009 and 2010

Faculty member at Núcleo Takinahakỹ de Formação Superior Indígena, Federal University of Goiás, specializing in South American indigenous languages. Ph.D. in Linguistics from University of Brasília. Enjoys reptiles and the traditional music of Trinidad, Venezuela, Brazil, and Bolivia (particularly calypso and tecnobrega).

Boris Iomdin

PC member since 2003

Linguist specializing in lexicography and semantics, teaching linguistics and languages to children, high school, and university students in Russian, English, German, and Hebrew. Author of hundreds of linguistic problems, including 17 at the IOL. A fan of playing linguistic games, reading books, and researching linguistic games in books. www.borisiomdin.com

Dan-Mircea Mirea

PC member since 2019

IOL contestant in 2014 and 2015

PhD candidate in Psychology at Princeton University, undergraduate and Masters' from University of Cambridge. Linguistics & psychology content creator @danniesbrain on TikTok and Instagram. Big fan of singing (karaoke included), video/board games, Eurovision, and all things historical.

Daniel Rucki

PC member since 2012

IOL contestant in 2010, 2011 and 2012

Studied Linguistics at the University of Cambridge, has collaborated with the Polish and Estonian LOs. Interested in language acquisition, historical linguistics, board games and travelling (especially to places with mountains).

Dmitry Gerasimov

PC member since 2005

Research engineer at Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales.

Elysia Warner

PC member since 2018

IOL contestant in 2013 and 2014

UKLO committee member. Studied Chinese and Linguistics at the University of Cambridge. Tax specialist for HM Government. Enjoys knitting, cryptic crosswords, and Bollywood dancing.

Hugh Dobbs

PC member since 2010

AILO committee member. Retired teacher at Newtown School (Waterford, Ireland).

Ivan Derzhanski

PC member since 2003

PhD (Cognitive Science, Edinburgh). Associate professor (Institute for Mathematics and Informatics, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences); does research in theoretical linguistics, lectures in computational linguistics, natural language processing and Python programming. Singlehandedly in charge of the Olympiad in Linguistics in Bulgaria (since 1998). Co-founder of IOL (2003).

Jan Petr

PC member since 2021

IOL contestant in 2015, 2016 and 2017

PhD student in Mathematics at the University of Cambridge. Member of the organizing team of ČLO. Fond of puzzles and games of various sorts, of learning and teaching, and of playing ultimate frisbee.

Ksenia Gilyarova

PC member since 2003

Associate Professor at the Institute of Linguistics, Russian State University for the Humanities. Authored ten problems for the IOL, five of which received the Solvers' Choice award. Parenting three kids. Enjoys hiking, jogging, and writing.

Liam McKnight

PC member since 2019

IOL contestant in 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018

Studied Linguistics at the University of Cambridge, and now works in academic publishing. Linguistic interests include syntax, Chinese, pronouns and Irish; non-linguistic interests include improvised comedy/theatre and food of all kinds.

Maria Rubinstein

PC member since 2003

Moscow Traditional Linguistics Olympiad Problem Committee member since 1997, IOL Problem Committee member since the beginning. Working on Israeli Linguistics Olympiad. And a hobbyist photographer.

Milena Veneva

PC member since 2013

Applied mathematician. Bulgarian National Olympiad in Linguistics Problem Committee member since 2010. Enjoys travelling, reading books, and sport.

Przemysław Podleśny

PC member since 2021

IOL contestant in 2017 and 2018

MA student of Estonian and Finno-Ugric languages at the University of Tartu. Bachelor's degree in Computer Science and former student of Baltic Philology, Classical Philology, Ethnology at the University of Warsaw. In the past years contributed to Polish and Estonian LOs. A fan of challenges, puzzles, languages, words, sounds, letters and their more or less artful arrangements.

Shinjini Ghosh

PC member since 2018

IOL contestant in 2016, 2017 and 2018

APLO and PLO (India) Problem Committee member. Undergraduate in Computer Science and Linguistics, followed by MEng from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Enjoys painting, Indian classical dance, cooking, and board games.

Stanislav Gurevich

PC member since 2004

One of the organizers of Spanish LO. Founder (2001) and permanent director of Traditional Linguistics Summer School in Estonia. Passionate fan of seasonal mushroom-hunting.

Taehun Lee

PC member since 2009

IOL contestant in 2008

Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures at Northwestern University. Research and Teaching include Comparative and World Literature---namely Russian, Turkish, and Japanese Literatures.

Tung-Le Pan

PC member since 2018

IOL contestant in 2017 and 2018

APLO and HKLO (Hong Kong; also co-founder) Problem Committee member. MA student in linguistics at the National Taiwan University. Enjoys tasting all kinds of beverages. Currently learning how to handstand, among other useless skills.

Yuyang Liu

PC member since 2021

IOL contestant in 2016 and 2017

China LO Problem Committee member. PhD student in Linguistics at Yale University.

Volunteers

In addition to the permanent bodies and to the LOC, running the actual IOL involves a lot of hands-on activities, performed by a group of national and international volunteers – working especially in coordinating, escorting and concierge-ing the students, but also preparing activities, distributing materials and keeping the flow and the energy of daily-life at IOL.

The team of volunteers for IOL 2024 was selected in January and February as a diverse team composed by enthusiastic, experienced and linguistics-loving individuals – and as the Local Organizing Team we deeply thank everyone who offered themselves. The final team are the following people:

Alexandra Jelihovschi – Chișinău
Carolina Bastos – São José dos Campos
Dana Ospanova – Astana
Ece Karagöz – Istanbul
Esteban Mayorga – Bogotá
Fernando César – São Paulo
Isadora Lopes – Vitória
Justin Cunningham – Kildare
Leo Paillo – Fortaleza
Mariana Lins Wolmer – Recife
Marina Abreu – Brasília
Michelle Morikawa – Londrina
Mihail Paskov – Sofia
Pedro Leão – Campinas
Roosmari Pihlak – Tallinn
Samara Dália – Natal
Senas Araujo – São Paulo
Tamara Ivanof – Cluj-Napoca
Thiago Augusto – Aracaju
Vítor Córdoba – Brasília

Participants

An event is fundamentally made by its participants, selected from the many National Linguistics Olympiads around the globe. Below are the delegations registered for IOL 2024 so far (names of contestants and team leaders will come soon). This page is constantly being updated up to the date of the event.