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== Hunt puzzles ==
== Hunt puzzles ==
Jack Lance was the sole author of [[P.I.HUNT]], a hunt released on {{w|Pi Day}} and well known for its innovative explorations of various hunt structures. Past P.I.HUNTs have included a hunt formatted like a book, a hunt that took place entirely on a jigsaw, and a hunt that only used the words "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy". For the [[MIT Mystery Hunt]], he hunted with the team [[Test Solution, Please Ignore]] in the past (which later merged to form [[Test Solution Bees Ignore]]).<!--Note to any future editors: it's verified that he did not hunt with UE--> He was also on the team that won the meta prize for [[Mezzacotta Puzzle Competition 2016]], Unclean Axis.
Jack Lance was the sole author of [[P.I.HUNT]], a hunt released on {{w|Pi Day}} and well known for its innovative explorations of various hunt structures. Past P.I.HUNTs have included a hunt formatted like a book, a hunt that took place entirely on a jigsaw, and a hunt that only used the words "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy". For the [[MIT Mystery Hunt]], he hunted with the team [[Test Solution, Please Ignore]] in the past (which later merged to form [[Test Solution Bees Ignore]]).<!--Note to any future editors: it's verified that he did not hunt with UE--> He was also on the team that won the meta prize for [[Mezzacotta Puzzle Competition 2016]], Unclean Axis. Jack also completed the 2022 Galactic Puzzle Hunt solo, a hunt originally designed for teams of 10 people.<ref>https://2022.galacticpuzzlehunt.com/teams</ref>


== Logic puzzles ==
== Logic puzzles ==
Jack Lance was an accomplished logic puzzle writer and solver, with about 150 logic puzzles posted on his [https://jacoblance.wordpress.com/ Wordpress blog] between 2013 and 2017. He won the U.S. division of the 2022 U.S. Puzzle Championship.<ref>[http://wpc.puzzles.com/uspc2022/ 2022 U.S. Puzzle Championship]</ref>
Jack Lance was an accomplished logic puzzle writer and solver, with about 150 logic puzzles posted on his [https://jacoblance.wordpress.com/ Wordpress blog] between 2013 and 2017. He won the U.S. division of the 2022 U.S. Puzzle Championship.<ref>[http://wpc.puzzles.com/uspc2022/ 2022 U.S. Puzzle Championship]</ref> He also scored top 5 finishes in the first and third rounds of the 2023 World Puzzle Federation Puzzle Grand Prix, beating out all other U.S. competitors.<ref>https://gp.worldpuzzle.org/content/official-results-wpf-gp-puzzle-1a-5</ref>


== Puzzle games ==
== Puzzle games ==
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== Personal life ==
== Personal life ==
Zachary was born to parents Hari and Susan in Lexington, MA.<ref name="obit"/> In middle school, he represented Massachusetts in Mathcounts in 7th and 8th grade, and got an Honorable Mention in the 2011 USA Junior Mathematics Olympiad.<ref>[https://patch.com/massachusetts/dedham/an--dedham-student-goes-to-national-mathcounts-to-compete Dedham Student Goes to National MATHCOUNTS to Compete]</ref><ref>[https://www.maa.org/sites/default/files/pdf/AMC/usamo/2011/11USAJMO-honor_top14.pdf 2011 Junior USAMO Winners and Honorable Mentions]</ref> In high school, he got a 2015 USA Mathematics Olympiad (USAMO) Honorable Mention (top 24)<ref>[https://www.maa.org/sites/default/files/pdf/usamo/USAMO_Winners_2015.pdf 2015 USAMO Winners and Honorable Mentions]</ref>, as well as qualifying for the Math Olympiad Program (MOP) multiple times. He went to the University of Rochester and graduated in 2019. While there, he got a Honorable Mention in the 2016 Putnam Competition.<ref>[https://kskedlaya.org/putnam-archive/putnam2016results.html 2016 Putnam Competition Results]</ref> Additionally, he was part of his school's ACM-ICPC team, where they placed 31st in the 2017 ACM-ICPC World Finals.<ref>[https://cphof.org/profile/topcoder:atomicenergy Profile of Zachary Polansky - Competitive Programming Hall of Fame]</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20170621100701/https://www.cs.rochester.edu/news-events/news/2016-11-19_acm_finals.html Yellowjackets Move on to World Finals in ACM-ICPC Programming competition]</ref> He also participated in his school's hackathons, DandyHacks, and placed highly three times.<ref>[https://devpost.com/ZachPolansky Zachary Polansky's software portfolio - Devpost]</ref> After graduating from the University of Rochester, he worked at Google for about a year before joining Thekla, Inc. He continued to be active in competitive programming, winning the ICPC Game AI challenge in 2021<ref>[https://twitter.com/ICPCNews/status/1410054656974376964 ICPCNews on Twitter]</ref> and placing third in the ICPC Quantum Computing Challenge.<ref>[https://medium.com/qiskit/presenting-the-winners-of-the-first-icpc-quantum-computing-challenge-b16a448a82e2 Presenting the Winners of the First ICPC Quantum Computing Challenge - Medium, Qiskit]</ref>
Zachary was born to parents Hari and Susan in Lexington, MA.<ref name="obit"/> In middle school, he represented Massachusetts in Mathcounts in 7th and 8th grade, and got an Honorable Mention in the 2011 USA Junior Mathematics Olympiad (USAJMO).<ref>[https://patch.com/massachusetts/dedham/an--dedham-student-goes-to-national-mathcounts-to-compete Dedham Student Goes to National MATHCOUNTS to Compete]</ref><ref>[https://www.maa.org/sites/default/files/pdf/AMC/usamo/2011/11USAJMO-honor_top14.pdf 2011 Junior USAMO Winners and Honorable Mentions]</ref> In high school, he got a 2015 USA Mathematics Olympiad (USAMO) Honorable Mention, scoring in the top 24 students of the year.<ref>[https://www.maa.org/sites/default/files/pdf/usamo/USAMO_Winners_2015.pdf 2015 USAMO Winners and Honorable Mentions]</ref> He also qualified for the Math Olympiad Program (MOP) multiple times. He went to the University of Rochester and graduated in 2019. While there, he got a Honorable Mention in the 2016 Putnam Competition.<ref>[https://kskedlaya.org/putnam-archive/putnam2016results.html 2016 Putnam Competition Results]</ref> Additionally, he was part of his school's ACM-ICPC team, where they placed 31st in the 2017 ACM-ICPC World Finals.<ref>[https://cphof.org/profile/topcoder:atomicenergy Profile of Zachary Polansky - Competitive Programming Hall of Fame]</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20170621100701/https://www.cs.rochester.edu/news-events/news/2016-11-19_acm_finals.html Yellowjackets Move on to World Finals in ACM-ICPC Programming competition]</ref> He also participated in his school's hackathons, DandyHacks, and placed highly three times.<ref>[https://devpost.com/ZachPolansky Zachary Polansky's software portfolio - Devpost]</ref> After graduating from the University of Rochester, he worked at Google for about a year before joining Thekla, Inc. He continued to be active in competitive programming, winning the ICPC Game AI challenge in 2021<ref>[https://twitter.com/ICPCNews/status/1410054656974376964 ICPCNews on Twitter]</ref> and placing third in the ICPC Quantum Computing Challenge.<ref>[https://medium.com/qiskit/presenting-the-winners-of-the-first-icpc-quantum-computing-challenge-b16a448a82e2 Presenting the Winners of the First ICPC Quantum Computing Challenge - Medium, Qiskit]</ref> He also reached a Codeforces rating of 2889, reaching the rank of international grandmaster.<ref>[https://codeforces.com/profile/atomicenergy atomicenergy - Codeforces]</ref>


== External Links ==
== External Links ==
[https://jacklance.github.io/twitter.html Archive of Jack Lance's tweets]
* [https://jacklance.github.io/twitter.html Archive of Jack Lance's tweets]
* [https://jacklance.github.io/games.html Jack Lance's list of games]

[https://jacklance.github.io/games.html Jack Lance's list of games]
* [https://itch.io/profile/jacklance Jack Lance's itch.io profile]
⚫
* [https://jacoblance.wordpress.com/ Jack Lance's Wordpress blog]

[https://itch.io/profile/jacklance Jack Lance's itch.io profile]

⚫
[https://jacoblance.wordpress.com/ Jack Lance's Wordpress blog]


== References ==
== References ==

Latest revision as of 00:54, 13 May 2023

Jack Lance (real name Zachary Polansky, June 1, 1997 – May 1, 2023)[1] was a prolific puzzle designer and the sole author of P.I.HUNT.

Hunt puzzles[edit | edit source]

Jack Lance was the sole author of P.I.HUNT, a hunt released on Pi Day and well known for its innovative explorations of various hunt structures. Past P.I.HUNTs have included a hunt formatted like a book, a hunt that took place entirely on a jigsaw, and a hunt that only used the words "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy". For the MIT Mystery Hunt, he hunted with the team Test Solution, Please Ignore in the past (which later merged to form Test Solution Bees Ignore). He was also on the team that won the meta prize for Mezzacotta Puzzle Competition 2016, Unclean Axis. Jack also completed the 2022 Galactic Puzzle Hunt solo, a hunt originally designed for teams of 10 people.[2]

Logic puzzles[edit | edit source]

Jack Lance was an accomplished logic puzzle writer and solver, with about 150 logic puzzles posted on his Wordpress blog between 2013 and 2017. He won the U.S. division of the 2022 U.S. Puzzle Championship.[3] He also scored top 5 finishes in the first and third rounds of the 2023 World Puzzle Federation Puzzle Grand Prix, beating out all other U.S. competitors.[4]

Puzzle games[edit | edit source]

Jack Lance published many puzzle games, many of which were written in Puzzlescript. He also entered in the Ludum Dare game jam, with several highly rated and innovative games such as INF, Torus Tours, and Ludophile. He also joined the game development company Thekla, Inc., best known for the 2016 puzzle game The Witness.

Personal life[edit | edit source]

Zachary was born to parents Hari and Susan in Lexington, MA.[1] In middle school, he represented Massachusetts in Mathcounts in 7th and 8th grade, and got an Honorable Mention in the 2011 USA Junior Mathematics Olympiad (USAJMO).[5][6] In high school, he got a 2015 USA Mathematics Olympiad (USAMO) Honorable Mention, scoring in the top 24 students of the year.[7] He also qualified for the Math Olympiad Program (MOP) multiple times. He went to the University of Rochester and graduated in 2019. While there, he got a Honorable Mention in the 2016 Putnam Competition.[8] Additionally, he was part of his school's ACM-ICPC team, where they placed 31st in the 2017 ACM-ICPC World Finals.[9][10] He also participated in his school's hackathons, DandyHacks, and placed highly three times.[11] After graduating from the University of Rochester, he worked at Google for about a year before joining Thekla, Inc. He continued to be active in competitive programming, winning the ICPC Game AI challenge in 2021[12] and placing third in the ICPC Quantum Computing Challenge.[13] He also reached a Codeforces rating of 2889, reaching the rank of international grandmaster.[14]

External Links[edit | edit source]

References[edit | edit source]

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Zachary H. Polansky | 2023 | Obituary
  2. ↑ https://2022.galacticpuzzlehunt.com/teams
  3. ↑ 2022 U.S. Puzzle Championship
  4. ↑ https://gp.worldpuzzle.org/content/official-results-wpf-gp-puzzle-1a-5
  5. ↑ Dedham Student Goes to National MATHCOUNTS to Compete
  6. ↑ 2011 Junior USAMO Winners and Honorable Mentions
  7. ↑ 2015 USAMO Winners and Honorable Mentions
  8. ↑ 2016 Putnam Competition Results
  9. ↑ Profile of Zachary Polansky - Competitive Programming Hall of Fame
  10. ↑ Yellowjackets Move on to World Finals in ACM-ICPC Programming competition
  11. ↑ Zachary Polansky's software portfolio - Devpost
  12. ↑ ICPCNews on Twitter
  13. ↑ Presenting the Winners of the First ICPC Quantum Computing Challenge - Medium, Qiskit
  14. ↑ atomicenergy - Codeforces
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