A WUSTL team of Jon Pinyan, Huajia Wang and Eric Wofsey ranked 32 out of approximately 400 teams registered at the 2005 William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition in December.
The Putnam is an undergraduate mathematics contest involving about 3,500 students from across the United States and Canada, designed to test originality and ingenuity as well as technical competence. It consists of two three-hour sessions, each session having six problems.
About 3,500 students participate individually in the competition each year. Some of the competition participants are also designated as part of their school’s team.
Individually, senior Nate Watson ranked 57 among all contestants, and junior Jon Pinyan ranked 100.5.
Several other students — Jeremy Diepenbrock, Justin Gilmer, Igor Konfisakhar, Ben Robinson and Eric Wofsey — ranked among the top 500.
In the competitions from 1976-2005, WUSTL teams have placed in the top 10 in 18 of 30 competitions, including 11 top-five performances.
The 11th annual Missouri MAA Collegiate Mathematics Competition was held March 30-31 at University of Missouri-Columbia. A total of 89 students competed, making up 35 teams from 16 colleges and universities in Missouri.
WUSTL’s Jon Pinyan, Ben Robinson and Nathaniel Watson took first place as a team, and Justin Gilmer, Igor Konfisakhar and Melanie Veale took third.
The Putnam participants were coached by N. Mohan Kumar, Ph.D., professor of mathematics in Arts & Sciences, Richard Rochberg, Ph.D., professor of mathematics, and Carl Bender, Ph.D., professor of physics in Arts & Sciences.
Ron Freiwald, Ph.D., professor of mathematics, was the sponsor for the MAA Missouri Competition.