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Lafayette’s three student team has once again finished in the top 15 percent of schools participating nationally in the William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition.
In what Time magazine has called “the world’s toughest math test,” Lafayette placed 53rd out of over 500 teams. It is now the fifth year out of the last six that a Lafayette team has finished in the top 15 percent, including a 5 percent finish in 2002.
The test consists of 12 questions, each worth ten points. The median score on this year’s exam was 1 out of 120 possible points. Over half of the 19 Lafayette students who took the test in December received a positive score.
Each school has one “official” team of three students chosen before taking the test. Ekaterina Jager ’06(Tashkent, Uzbekistan), who is pursuing B.S. degrees in electrical & computer engineering and math & economics, ranked 552nd in the nation with 19 points. Aydin Gerek ’07 (Istanbul, Turkey), who is pursuing B.S. degrees in physics and mathematics, had 18 points and ranked 601, and mathematics major Jacob Carson ’06 (New Richmond, Ohio) earned 11 points to place 819th.
Although she was not on the designated team, economics & business major Jinjin Qian ’08 (Shanghai, China) was the highest Lafayette scorer with 30 points and a rank of 256. Mechanical engineering student Shiliang Cui ’09 (Shanghai, China) was also a high scorer with 12 points and a rank of 715.
Other students who took the test were Haotian Wu ’07, Xue Ji ’08, Zachary Reiter ’07, Timothy Zirkel ’08, Brian Kronenthal ’07, Jordan Tirrell ’08, Frankie Patane ’07, Kevin Ehly ’06, Keming Liang ’08, Teruhisa Haruguchi ’07, Xin Wu ’08, Martin Tjioe ’09, Marco Tjioe ’09, and Rupesh Gajurel ’09.
“Many students are very dedicated to problem-solving generally, so it is natural for them to be attracted to this opportunity,” says Derek Smith, assistant professor of mathematics and Putnam adviser. “The Putnam exam represents the highest level of undergraduate mathematics problem competition, with hundreds of students participating from Harvard, MIT, Princeton, and other top universities. Lafayette’s performance over the past several years certainly places it among the top liberal arts colleges in the country.”
The math department sponsors a Problem Solving Group that meets each week to discuss and solve mathematics problems, which helps students prepare for the Team Barge and Individual Barge competitions, the Lehigh Valley Association of Independent Colleges (LVAIC) Math Contest, and the William Powell Putnam Mathematical Competition. For the past six years, a Lafayette team has taken first place in the LVAIC Math Contest.