Putnam Competition
The William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition is the principal intercollegiate mathematics competition. Administered by the Mathematical Association of America since the 1930's, it is "constructed to test originality as well as technical competence." The competition consists of twelve problems, divided into a morning session (10:00 AM — 1:00 PM) and an afternoon session (3:00 PM — 6:00 PM). It takes place every year on the first Saturday of December and lunch is provided for all the participants.
These are challenging questions: the median score is typically zero. Well over three thousand students compete every year, from some five hundred institutions. Over one hundred MIT students usually participate.
Each competing university pre-selects a team of three students. Both team and individual performances are recognized. The first place team institution wins $25,000, and each member of the winning team wins $1000. Each of the top five individuals wins $2500. Many other prizes are listed here.
Further information, including a list of all problems from past Putnam Competitions, can be found here.
The MIT team has been coached in recent years by Professors Hartley Rogers, Richard Stanley, and Kiran Kedlaya.
You can register for the Putnam Competition at the MAS, 2-102, by early October.
2009 Comptetition
The MIT team, consisting of Qingchun Ren, Bohua Zhan, and Yufei Zhao, placed first.
The Putnam Fellows for this year were Qingchun Ren and Yufei Zhao.
Three of the next ten highest ranking individuals were MIT students: Sergei Bernstein, Jacob Steinhardt, and Bohua Zhan.
Two of the next ten highest ranking individuals were MIT students: Panupong Pasupat and Colin Sandon.
Aleksandr Arkhipov, John Berman, Ivan Borsenco, Gabriel Bujokas, Paul Christiano, Yu Deng, Rishi Gupta, Jason Hoch, Shaunak Kishore, Holden Lee, Tony Liu, Ye Luo, Henrique Oliveira Pinto, David Rolnick, David Rush, Krishanu Shankar, Jonathan Schneider, Xiaolin (Danny) Shi, Cory Smith, and Qiaochu Yuan received honorable mentions.
2008 Comptetition
The MIT team, consisting of Qingchun Ren, Xuancheng Shao, and Yufei Zhao placed third after Harvard University and Princeton University.
The Putnam Fellows for this year were Bohua Zhan and Yufei Zhao.
Three of the next eleven highest ranking individuals were MIT students: Qingchun Ren, Colin Sandon, and Jacob Steinhardt.
Two of the next nine highest ranking individuals were MIT students: Thomas Belulovich, and Gabriel Bujokas.
Hansheng Diao, Michael Forbes, Andrei Frimu, Jeremy Hahn, Shaunak Kishore, Tony Liu, Ye Luo, Haitao Mao, Kevin Modzelewski, Thanasin Nampaisarn, Eric Price, Anand Rajagopalan, Krishanu Sankar, Xuancheng Shao, Jason Trigg, and Alexandr Zamorzaev received honorable mentions.
2007 Competition
The MIT team, consisting of Hangsheng Diao, Eric C. Price, and Yufei Zhao, placed third, after Harvard University and Princeton University.
Two of the Putnam Fellows -- this year the six highest ranked individuals -- were MIT students: Qingchun Ren and Xuancheng Shao.
Three of the next ten highest ranking individuals were MIT students: Oleg Goldberg, Yuncheng Lin, and Yufei Zhao.
Two of the next eight highest ranking individuals were MIT students: Anand R. Deopurkar and Anders H. Kaseorg.
Thirteen of the next fifty highest ranking individuals were MIT students: Aleksandr Arkhipov, Thomas D. Belulovich, Gabriel T. Bujokas, Hansheng Diao, Nate J. Ince, Hyun Soo Kim, Sungyoon Kim, Thomas J. Mildorf, Kevin P. Modzelewski, Thanasin Nampaisarn, Eric C. Price, Jason A. Trigg, Alexandr Zamorzaev, and Bohua Zhan.
2006 Competition
The MIT team, consisting of Oleg Goldberg, Daniel Kane, and Kuat Yessenov, placed third, after Princeton University and Harvard University.
Three of the Putnam Fellows — the five highest ranked individuals — were MIT students: Hansheng Diao, Daniel Kane, and Yufei Zhao.
Six of the next ten highest-ranking individuals were MIT students: Timothy Abbott, Anders Kaseorg, Sungyoon Kim, Yuncheng Lin, Kevin Modzelewski, and Eric Price.
Four of the next eleven highest-ranking individuals were MIT students: Shinn-Yih Huang, Matthew Ince, Thomas Mildorf, and Xuancheng Shao.
Thirteen of the next fifty-two highest-ranking individuals were MIT students: Oleg Goldberg, John Kim, Maria Monks, Albert Ni, Anand Rajagopalan, Shubhangi Saraf, Nikhil Savale, Charmaine Sia, Dimitar Simenov, Jason Trigg, Ilya Tsekov, Kuat Yessenov, and You Zhou.
2005 Competition
The MIT team, consisting of Timothy Abbott, Vladimir Barzov and Daniel Kane, placed fourth, after Harvard University, Princeton University, and Duke University.
Three of the Putnam Fellows — the six highest ranked individuals — were MIT students: Oleg Golberg, Matthew Ince, and Daniel Kane.
Six of the next ten highest-ranking individuals were MIT students: Timothy Abbott, Anders Kaseorg, Sungyoon Kim, Yuncheng Lin, Kevin Modzelewski, and Eric Price.
Four of the next ten highest-ranking individuals were MIT students: Thomas Belulovich, Thanasin Nampaisarn, Eric Price, and Kuat Yessenov.
Fourteen of the next fifty-one highest-ranking individuals were MIT students: Timothy Abbott, Boris Alexeev, Jongmin Baek, Po-Ning Chen, Anand Deopurkar, Nathaniel Ince, Pramook Khungurn, Sungyoon Kim, Joshua Lim, Yuncheng Lin, Thomas Mildorf, Virgil Petrea, Matthew Thibault, and David Vincent.
2004 Competition
The MIT team, consisting of Reid Barton, Daniel Kane, and Emanuel Stoica, placed first.
Three of the Putnam Fellows — the five highest ranked individuals were MIT students: Reid Barton, Vladimir Barzov, and Daniel Kane.
One of the next ten highest-ranking individuals was an MIT student: Timothy Abbott.
Three of the next eleven highest-ranking individuals were MIT students: Oleg Golberg, Daniel Gulotta, and Zhongtao Wu.
Thirteen of the next fourty-eight highest-ranking individuals were MIT students: Boris Alexeev, Po-Ning Chen, Anand Deopurkar, Adam Donovan, Karola Meszaros, Nizameddin Ordulu, Virgil Petrea, Shubhangi Saraf, Steven Sivek, Emanuel Stoica, Matthew Thibault, Ilya Tsekov, and David Vincent.
2003 Competition
The MIT team, consisting of Reid Barton, Daniel Kane, and Yevgeny Zaytman, placed first.
Two of the Putnam Fellows — the five highest ranked individuals — were MIT students: Reid Barton and Daniel Kane.
Two of the next ten highest-ranking individuals were MIT students: David Prichard and Emanuel Stoica.
Three of the next ten highest-ranking individuals were MIT students: Vladimir Barzov, Zhongtao Wu, and Yevgeny Zaytman.
Twelve of the next forty-three highest-ranking individuals were MIT students: Timothy Abbott, Nikolay Andreev, Punyashloka Biswal, Po-Ning Chen, Maksym Fedorchuk, Prumook Khungurn, Sean Markan, Virgil Petrea, Shubhangi Saraf, Nikhil Savale, David Shin, and Gary Sivek.
