On an intermittently snowy December 3, 2016, twenty-seven Williams students gathered in Bronfman to take on the 77th Annual William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition, one of the most notoriously challenging math contests in the world! Fueled by determination, coffee, and Professor Miller’s inspirational music playlist, these Ephs used their mathematical creativity and skills to tackle twelve questions spread out over two 3-hour sessions. Now, 4 months later, we know the outcome of the contest!
Williams College was led by junior Tuan Tran, who placed in the top 200 out of 4164 participants worldwide. In the top 500, we also had senior Elijah Fromm and first-year Hunter Wieman. In the top 1000 we had senior Osama Brosh; sophomores Ian Banta, Canvas Li, and Alina Shubina; and first-year Matthew Davis. We also had three more first-years all in the top 1100: Michael Curran, Abe Leite, and Jack Roche. Congratulations to all of them and to the rest of Williams’ participants!!
With 27 Putnam-takers, more than 1.2% of all Williams students took the exam this time around, which is a fantastic turn-out! Even more impressive is the turn-out amongst first years. With 14 of them, over 2.5% of the entire class of 2020 took the 2016 Putnam exam! Thanks to everyone who participated!