# Putnam Competition 2013

Each year the Math Department takes part in the William Lowell Putnam Mathematics Competition. Information on the competition can be found here (external link)

This is an annual mathematics competition for undergraduate students of the United States and Canada, awarding scholarships and cash prizes ranging from \$250 to \$2,500 for the top students and \$5,000 to \$25,000 for the top schools. The competition was founded in 1927 by Elizabeth Lowell Putnam in memory of her husband William Lowell Putnam, who, while alive was an advocate of intercollegiate intellectual competition. The exam has been offered annually since 1938 and is administered by the Mathematical Association of America (see http://www.maa.org/awards/putnam.html ).

The competition will take place on Saturday December 7, 2013.

This year preparation sessions are organized by Professors Binder, Herzig, Kamnitzer, and Rafi.  Alfonso Gracia-Saz and Bernardo Galvao-Sousa are also involved in these sessions. The plan is to meet for preparation sessions once a week, schedule TBA, and work on problems from past competitions. Many of the problems are very interesting and require only basic undergraduate mathematics (and sometimes even less than that). On the other hand, the questions are quite challenging.

We would like to add that even solving one or two questions on the competition is impressive, and can be a nice addition to your CV.

On Monday September 23, 2013, 5:00pm-7:00pm there will be an introductory Putnam session at SF1105.  Starting at 6:00pm, there will be a practice text, which will be used to select our ‘extended Putnam team’.  Selected students will receive additional training during the semester.  There will also be general Putnam sessions open to everyone.

We invite you to participate in the training sessions and to take part in the competition in December.