Congratulations to the winners of the 9th annual Math Prize for Girls contest, which MIT hosted on Saturday, September 24, 2017. Gigliola Staffilani and School of Science Dean Michael Sipser are among the board of advisors for this event, which is held by Advantage Testing Foundation.
The event welcomed 266 girls from across the US and Canada who competed for $55,000 in cash prizes. Sharing first prize were Catherine (Katie) Wu (an 11th grader from California), Megan Joshi (a 12th grader from California), and Claire Zhou (an 11th grader from Texas).
At the event, Michel Goemans encouraged the girls to continue their passion for math, and hoped that they would help to right the current gender imbalance in the mathematics field. He noted that at MIT, about a third of math majors are women, many of whom had competed in past Math Prize for Girls competitions. “As you know, mathematics is so beautiful,” he said. “Finding the right approach to solve a challenging problem that initially seems so impossible and hard to crack brings such joy and satisfaction.”
Dr. Angela Belcher, a Professor of Biological Engineering and Materials Science at MIT, delivered the keynote lecture at the 2017 awards ceremony.