In 2005, Anush Tserunyan received the Armenian President's Award in the category of Best Baccalaureate in Information Technology.

The last time I met Anush was at an open programming contest held in Armenia. Leading up to the contest, both the organizers and the participants were talking about Anush; she was always one of the strongest contestants. But Anush wasn't there on the first day of the contest-she was receiving the prize from the president instead.

Anush made it there for the team contest, coming in second. This fall there will be another contest, but the contest's most famous girl programmer thinks that her days of solving problems as fast as possible are over, and now the time is right to undertake lengthy and deep theoretical research.

"When I first solved a theory problem and it took four days, not ten minutes, I understood that this was an art and I was going to practice mathematics that way that I chose to. I am probably the only girl in Armenia who wants to be a mathematician," said Anush Tserunyan, now 22 years old and a first-year graduate student at Yerevan State University's Department of Informatics and Applied Mathematics.

The question of continuing her education was a serious one for Anush. At first she decided on physics, then music. In the end she chose programming, though at the time computer seemed to her like a mysterious box. Unlike many of her colleagues, she was not disappointed. The world of mathematics was opened to her by both the books she read and by her favorite professors, Josef Avetisyan, Ara Malkhasyan, and Anahit Chubaryan, to whom Anush is grateful for listening and talking to her.

Anush has decided to continue her studies abroad. "I don't care where. I need a mathematical atmosphere, new lectures, new people and new perspectives. Studying on my own is not enough for me and I have a need to listen to people, talk to them and to express myself," she said.

Despite many attempts and applications, she has not yet managed to find a place to continue her education. There have been various reasons given for the rejections- for instance, a university does not accept foreign students, or the recommendations from Armenian professors were not valued, since they're not famous worldwide.

"I know I want to do mathematics, do research, and even if I don't achieve anything new, even if I know that I am the world's unluckiest mathematician, that's still the path I'll take," Anush said, adding with a smile that she would like to achieve something new, of course.

Anush is already working as a programmer and believes that programming is only good for making money. "Programming does not require as much creative energy and intuition as mathematics. Programmers are always predetermined to achieve a result in the end, but mathematics is not like that. You can ponder a solution to a problem your whole life, but never solve it. In programming, after an algorithm has been thought of and written down, the programmer becomes a worker. If programming was reinvented, it would follow almost the same route; mathematics, on the other hand, would develop in a completely different way if several individuals had not existed."

Anush is as excited by philosophy as by mathematics, since she believes that deep down all mathematicians are also philosophers.

She studied for a year in YSU's Philosophy Department.

"I didn't find any contradictions between philosophy and mathematics. Quite the opposite-the two disciplines are the result of the progress of the human mind. In reality, they're deeply intertwined. I can't imagine anything more abstract than mathematics. Many people associate mathematics with numbers and calculations, but that isn't right. Mathematics is a very abstract science. Even philosophy isn't as abstract. Physics is more understandable, since you can explain it via real life examples but in mathematics, you can't wake up one day and see Sobolev Spaces.

"While I was studying in the department of philosophy I became very isolated. Now I long for that state, since back then I was much stronger mentally. As a result I managed to get a lot of things done. Now, when I think of that period, I wonder how I managed to study for two majors, successfully participate in programming contests, find a job, solve problems and send articles to the magazine American Mathematical Monthly. I could say that I'm still living off the work and success of that time," Anush concluded.