SLU Team Competes in Premier National Mathematics Competition
A Saint Louis University team consisting of Lakshmi Kanikkannan, Andrew Keefe, Nikko Koutas and Nolan Michniewicz competed in the 77th annual William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition on Dec. 3.
The Putnam Competition is administered by the Mathematical Association of America and is considered the premier mathematics contest among colleges and universities throughout North America.
An estimated 4,300 undergraduates from 550 institutions throughout the United States and Canada competed this year. The top five competitors will be designated as Putnam Fellows and awarded cash prizes. In the past, Putnam Fellows have gone on to win two Nobel Prizes in Physics and three Fields Medals in Mathematics.
Greg Marks, Ph.D., associate professor of mathematics and statistics, is the faculty supervisor of the SLU Putnam Competition team.
“The value of the Putnam Competition to students lies in the opportunity to apply their integrated mathematical knowledge and reasoning from across the entire undergraduate curriculum to a set of fascinating and extremely challenging problems that no one has ever seen before,” Marks said. “ Unlike in the physical sciences, in pure mathematics it is extremely rare for undergraduate students to work on real research problems; the Putnam Competition provides something of a gateway between the work students do in their math classes and the research that professional mathematicians do.”
“It was my first time taking the Putnam exam, so the entire experience was new for me,” said Nikko Koutas, a junior in Parks College. “Dr. Marks' seminar for the exam was every Monday night, and it was a great time! It was very laid back, but we still learned a lot about the exam, and we got some great experience with solving peculiar math problems from a variety of topics. The exam itself was very intimidating, but the Saturday spent attempting the problems with the team was an exciting new experience, and I will definitely be back to give it another go next year.”
The results of the Putnam Competition will become available later this spring.