Math Competition Honors

William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition

News:

A Grueling Math Test So Hard, Almost No One Gets a Perfect Score (Duke Research Blog, March 2024)
Duke claims another top ten finish in North America’s most prestigious math competition  (Duke Today, May 2016)
Go Figure  Math Competition success  (Duke Magazine, vol 96, No 1, January-February 2010)
Duke Math Stars Place Third  (Duke News, April 4, 2005)
Duke Math Stars recognized by Board of Trustees  (Duke Today, May 18, 2001)
Undergrads triumph in math competitions  (Duke Dialogue, Vol. 15, No. 37, March 23, 2001)
Math undergraduates score big in Putnam and Math Contest in Modeling  (Duke Dialogue, Vol 13, No. 38, April 2, 1999)

Honors:

Students in the top 200 and team ranks; P = top 5, N = top 25, H = top 100

2023 Team #3: Kai Wang (N), Erick Jiang, Fletch Rydell
2022 Team #12: Yijia Liu (H), Harry Chen, Nathan Nguyen, Fletch Rydell, Zeyu Shen

2021 Team #8:  Yijia Liu (H), Zeyu Shen (H), Nathan Nguyen, Harry Chen
2020 No ranked competition
2019 Team #12: Alex Damian (H), Jung Hwang (H), Yi Li (H)
2018 Team #21: Jerry Liu, Alex Damian, Shicheng Rao
2017 Team #16: Feng Gui (H), Junghyun Hwang, Yikai Wu, Zhenhua Liu
2016 Team #12: Trung Can, Alex Damian, Tony Qiao, Cheryl Wang
2015 Team #10: Alex Milu (H), Trung Can
2014 Team #8: Tony Qiao (H), Alex Milu, Trung Can, Justin Luo, Feng Gui
2013 Team #8: Daniel Vitek, Leslie Lei, Tony Qiao
2012: Daniel Vitek
2011 Team #16: Daniel Vitek (H), Vivek Bhattacharya, Michael Banaszek
2010 Team #9: Misha Lavrov (H), Vivek Bhattacharya
2009 Team #6: Misha Lavrov (H), Matthew Rognlie, Peng Shi, Wutichai Chongchitmate, Calvin Hayes, Tanawit Sae Sue, Daniel Vitek
2008 Team #8: Aaron Pollack (H), Misha Lavrov (H), Jason Ferguson, Wutichai Chongchitmate, Matthew Rognlie
2007 Team 5th Place: Lingren Zhang (N) Aaron Pollack (H), Tirasan Khandhawit (H), Wutichai Chongchitmate, Jason Ferguson, Tanawit Sae Sue, Peng Shi, Jun Wu
2006 Team #8: Peng Shi (H), Jason Ferguson, Nikifor Bliznashki, Kshipra Bhawalkar, Morgan Brown, Calvin Hayes, Tirasan Khandhawit, Brandon Levin, Aaron Pollack, Lingren Zhang
2005 Team 3rd Place: Lingren Zhang (N), Nikifor Bliznashki (H), Kshipra Bhawalkar (H), Aaron Pollack, Jason Ferguson, Tirasan Khandhawit, Brandon Levin
2004 Team 3rd Place: Nikifor Bliznashki (N),Oaz Nir (H), Lingren Zhang (H), Kshipra Bhawalkar, Tirasan Khandhawit, Brandon Levin, James Zou
2003 Team 3rd Place: David Arthur (N), Nikifor Bliznashki (H), Oaz Nir (H), Morgan Brown
2002 Team 3rd Place: Melanie Wood (P), David Arthur (H), Matt Atwood (H), Oaz Nir (H)
2001 Team 3rd Place: Kevin Lacker (P), David Arthur (N), Melanie Wood (N), Nathan Curtis (H), Oaz Nir (H), Matt Atwood
2000 Team 1st Place: Kevin Lacker (N), John Clyde (N), Jonathan Curtis (N), Carl Miller (N), Michael Colsher (H), David Arthur (H), John Thacker
1999 Team 3rd Place:  John Clyde (N), Michael Colsher (N), Kevin Lacker (N), Melanie Wood (H), Carl Miller
1998 Team #6: Nathan Curtis (P), Kevin Lacker (P), John Clyde (H), Carl Miller (H), Andrew Dittmer, Michael Colsher, Sarah Dean, Spencer Shepard
1997 Team 2nd Place: Andrew Dittmer (N), Nathan Curtis (N), Noam Shazeer (N); Carl Miller (H); John Clyde, Jeff Mermin, Nate Bronson, Garrett Mitchener
1996 Team 1st Place: Andrew Dittmer (N), Robert Schneck (N), Noam Shazeer (N); Johanna Miller, Chris Beasley, John Hyde, Jeff Mermin
1995 Team #9: Johanna Miller, Noam Shazeer, Tung Tran
1994: Noam Shazeer (N), Robert Schneck
1993 Team 1st Place: Craig Gentry (P), Andrew Dittmer (N), Jeff Vanderkam (H); Tung Tran
1992 Team #8: Jeff Vanderkam (P); Alex Hartemink, Craig Gentry
1991 Team #17: Jeff Vanderkam (N), Scott Bigham (H), David Jones, Will Schneeberger
1990 Team 2nd Place: Jeff Vanderkam (N), Will Schneeberger (H), Jeanne Nielsen (H)
1989 Team #25: Will Schneeberger, Chris Finger, Jeanne Nielsen

Reference: Putnam Winners and History

Mathematical Contest in Modeling and Interdisciplinary Contest in Modeling

News:

Helping People and Wildlife Coexist in Ways That Benefit Both, Using Math (Duke Research Blog, July 2023)
Duke students earn Outstanding in the ICM (Duke Math News Article, June 2019)
Duke Teams Lead Math Modeling Contest   (Duke Today, April 25, 2007)  Video
Mighty Mathematicians  (Duke Today, April 3, 2006)
Duke Student Math to Alleviate Toolbooth Lines  (Duke Today, June 30, 2005)
Outstanding Math Modelling Team: Baliga, Chandler, Mian  (The Chronicle, Vol. 100, No. 141, Wednesday, April 27, 2005)
Undergrads triumph in math competitions  (Duke Dialogue, Vol. 15, No. 37, March 23, 2001)
Math students master modeling contest  (Duke Today, Vol 15, No. 1, April 21, 2000)

Honors:
Outstanding

2023 Enzo Moraes Mescall, Nicolas Salazar, Erik Novak The Preservation Equation: A Mathematical Approach to Sustaining the Maasai Mara Preserve's Ecosystem, Economy, and Communities

2019  Vinit Ranjan, Junmo Ryang, Albert Xue  Time to Leave the Louvre: A Computational Network Analysis
2008  Jason Chen, Joonhahn Cho, Brian Choi  A Convenient Truth: A model for sea level rise forecast *pdf
2007  Nikifor Bliznashki, Aaron Pollack, Russell Posner  When Topologists are Politicians… *pdf
2007  Qianwei Li, Arnav Mehta, Aaron Wise  In the Zone: Novel Approaches to Airplane Boarding *pdf
2007  Michael Bauer, Kshipra Bhawalkar, Matthew Edwards  Boarding at the Speed of Flight *pdf
2007  Matthew Rognlie, Peng Shi, Amy Wen  Optimizing the Effectiveness of Organ Allocation *pdf
2006  Matthew Fischer, Brandon Levin, Nikifor Bliznashki  Fastidious Farmer Algorithms *pdf
2006  Arnav Mehta, Qianwei Li, Aaron Wise  The United Nations and the Quest for the Holy Grail (of AIDS) *pdf
2006  Tyler Huffman, Barry Wright III, Charles Staats III  Managing the HIV/AIDS Pandemic: 2006-2055 *pdf
2005  Adam Chandler, Pradeep Baliga, Matthew Mian  The Booth Tolls for Thee *pdf
2002  David G. Arthur, Samuel W. Malone, Oaz Nir  Overbooking on Airlines *pdf
2001   Samuel W. Malone, Carl A. Miller, Daniel B. Neill  Traffic Flow Models and the Evacuation Problem *pdf
2000  Samuel W. Malone, Jeffrey A. Mermin, Daniel B. Neill  Air Traffic Control(ps) * Pdf version
1999   Samuel W. Malone, W. Garrett Mitchener, John A. Thacker  Determining the People Capacity of a Structure *pdf Abstract *(pdf)
1998   Jeffrey A. Mermin, W. Garrett Mitchener, John A. Thacker  Grade Inflation ps* Abstract (ps) * Pdf version * Abstract (pdf)

Finalist (top 1%)

2017  Vinit Ranjan, Junmo Ryang, Kelly Zhang
2011  Vivek Bhattacharya, Alan Guo, Misha Lavrov
2010  Veronica Ciocanel, Yingyi Shen, Jiaqi Yan
2010  Vivek Bhattacharya, Alan Guo, Daniel Vitek

Meritorious (top 15%)

2021 Aram Lindroth, Erik Novak, Barbara Xiong
2020 Bob Ziyang Ding, Andre Jianyou Wang, Bhrij Patel
2019 Bob Ziyang Ding, Andre Jianyou Wang, Yikai Wu
2018  Vinit Ranjan, Junmo Ryang, Remy Kassem
2017  Trung Can, Anh Ngoc Hieu Trinh, Chi Trinh
2017  Matheus Dias, Peter Hase, Maria Suhail
2016  Haoyang Gu, Yang Liu, Misty Sha
2016  Trung Can, Lien Hoang, Chi Trinh
2015  Anne Talkington, Lindsey Brown, Joy Patel
2015  Tony Qiao, Andrew You, Roger Zou
2014  Anne Talkington, Lindsey Brown
2013  Logan Su, Christy Vaughn, Viggy Vudatha
2013  Anne Talkington, Yilun Gao, Zhitao (Rex) Yang
2013  David Liu, Ellango Jothimurugesan, Huannan Jasmine Wu
2013  Runzhen Ni, Siyang Wang, Ziquan Yang
2012  Leslie Lei, Tianxiang Xiong, Dazhong Xuan
2011  Kyu Won Choi, HyungJu (Danniel) Jeon, So Youn Lee
2011  Elizabeth Liang, Philip Pham, Robert Won
2010  HyungJu (Danniel) Jeon, Jungmo Ryu, So Youn Lee
2009  Vivek Bhattacharya, Yingyi Shen, Peichun Wang
2008  Matthew Moore, Harish Srinivasin, Andrew Tutt
2007  Tyler Huffman, Charles Staats III, Barry Wright III
2007  Catherine Hartman, Keigo Kawaji, Jesse Thorner
2007  Yajing Gao, Michal Koszycki, Craig Reeson
2006  Michael Bauer, Matthew Edwards, Lingren Zhang
2006  Abhijit Mehta, James Zou, Yvonne Yamanaka
2006  Russell Posner, Keigo Kawaji, Tirasan Khandhawit
2006  Ian Appel, James Dias, Vyacheslav Kungurtsev
2005  Nikifor Bliznashki, Matthew Fischer, Brandon Levin
2005  Abhijit Mehta, Benjamin Mickle, Ibraheem Mohammed
2005  Oaz Nir, Rahul Satija, James Zou
2004  Abhijit Mehta, Oaz Nir, James Zou
2004  Pradeep Baliga, Adam Chandler, Matthew Mian
2003  Christopher Dillenbeck, Abhijit Mehta, Paul Wrayno
1997  W. Garrett Mitchener, Robert Schneck, Steven Wolfman
1996  Gretta Bartels, Garrett Mitchener, Frederick Wang
1995  Nathan Bronson, Paul Dreyer, Scott Harrington
1994  Scott Harrington, Michael Rierson, Robert Schneck
1993  Nathan Bronson, Paul Dreyer, Scott Harrington

All-USA College Academic Team

2006  Jackie Ou; First Team
2006  Adam Chandler; Second Team
2002  Sam Malone; First Team
1993  Alex Hartemink, Jeff Vanderkam; Honorable Mention

Frank and Brennie Morgan Prize

2004  Melanie Wood, First Prize

Alice T. Schafer Award

2002  Melanie Wood, First Prize
2000  Sarah Dean, Runner up
1994   Jennifer Slimowitz, Honorable Mention
1992   Jeanne Nielsen, First Prize