Dubbed the “Queen of Mathematics” by her peers when at Parel Vallei High School in Somerset West, maths whizz Danielle Kleyn has been named the winner of Stellenbosch University’s prestigious Chancellor’s Medal for 2024.
Ms Kleyn received the medal during her graduation ceremony where she was awarded a BSc Honours in Mathematics (cum laude).
Only one student receives the award, which was first instituted in 1961. It is given annually to a final-year or postgraduate student who has not only excelled academically but has also contributed to campus life in numerous ways and helped develop co-curricular attributes.
Ms Kleyn’s academic career has been marked by exceptional achievements. She obtained a distinction for all her third-year modules during her undergraduate studies.
This performance was made even more remarkable by the fact that she took two additional 16 credit modules. Her module mark for five of the 10 modules was at least 90%.
For her honours project, which involved the mastery of a significant amount of algebraic number theory and some creative work in adapting ideas from one setting to another, she was awarded 94%.
Over the past four years, she has excelled in national and international mathematics competitions. Between 2021 and 2024, she was placed in the top ten at the South African Tertiary Mathematics Olympiad.
This year, she clinched first place in the competition. In 2023 and 2024 she represented the University and South Africa at the International Mathematics Competition.
Ms Kleyn has also been involved in mathematics research outside of her BSc Honours programme and separate from her honours project.
As a maths coach for the South African Maths Foundation, she has been able to help develop a strong culture of Olympiad mathematics.
