FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 27, 2003      File #344
Contact: Rick Luttman, (707)664-2543

Mathematics Students Place High at Annual Competition

Several students from the Mathematics Department earned top scores at the annual William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition.

Andrew McFarland scored in the top 20.2%; Shinsaku Akiyama scored in the top 29.7%; Abukuse Mbirika, Michael Laufer, Matthew Adkins, and Don Siemon scored between 48.1% and 62.7%.

Other participants were: Renee Aston, Libby Bessman, Nicole Carrera, Frank Cortese, Chaz Fetrow, Delicia Gomez, Helene Nehrebecki, Eddy Roubal, Brent Stradford, Paul Vercammen-Grandjean, and Kristin Zack. The competition, held on Dec. 7, included 3,349 contestants from 476 participating institutions.

The participants will be recognized at an awards ceremony at 3 p.m. on Wednesday, April 16, in Darwin 108 in conjunction with the department's annual Math Festival, which celebrates Mathematics Awareness Week.

Other students will be honored for their achievements on this occasion as well. Cash prizes will be presented to those with positive scores, and all participants will be awarded a commemorative stenciled T-shirt.

The William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition, which is open to undergraduates throughout the United States and Canada, is regarded as the premier challenge of creativity in problem-solving in mathematics at the undergraduate level.