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The Daily Insight

Imre Leader’s biography, net worth, fact, career, awards and life story

Author

Olivia House

Published Feb 15, 2026

IntroBritish mathematician
IsMathematician 
Educator 
FromUnited Kingdom 
TypeAcademia 
Mathematics 
Gendermale
Birth30 October 1963
Age:56 years

Imre Bennett Leader is a British mathematician and Othello player. He is Professor of Pure Mathematics, specifically combinatorics, at the University of Cambridge.
He was educated at St Paul’s School and at Trinity College, Cambridge, and in 1981 he was a member of the United Kingdom team at the International Mathematical Olympiad, where he won a silver medal. In 1999-2001, he led the UK IMO team as its chief trainer.
He has been the most consistently successful Othello player in Britain, winning the national championship 12 times between 1983 and 2016. In 1983, he was runner-up in the World Othello Championship, and in 1988, he was on the UK team that won the World Team Championship.
In mathematics, his work has concentrated on combinatorics. He completed his PhD, entitled Discrete Isoperimetric Inequalities and Other Combinatorial Results, in 1989, supervised by Béla Bollobás. Godson of mathematical philosopher Imre Lakatos, he is currently a fellow of Trinity College, University of Cambridge.