Putnam Competition

The Putnam competition takes place on the first Saturday in December, and consists of two three-hour sittings separated by a lunch break. The competition is supervised by faculty members at the participating schools. Each one consists of twelve challenging problems. The problems cover a range of advanced material in undergraduate mathematics, including concepts from group theory, set theory, graph theory, lattice theory, and number theory. In 2003, of the 3,615 students competing, 1,024 (28%) scored 10 or more points, and 42 points was sufficient to make the top percentile. In 2024, 3,988 students competed with 1,273 (32%) scoring 10 or more points with 48 points were needed to rank 100. At a participating college, any student who wishes to take part in the competition may (limited by the number of spots a school receives); but until 2019 the school's official team consisted of three individuals whom it designated in advance. Until 2019, a team's score was the sum of the ranks of its three team members, with the lowest cumulative rank winning. It was entirely possible, even commonplace at some institutions, for the eventual results to show that the "wrong" team was picked—i.e. that some students not on the official team outscored an official team member. For example, in 2010, MIT had two of the top five scorers in the competition and seven of the top 24, while Caltech had just one student in the top five and only four in the top 24; yet Caltech took first place among teams while MIT took second. In 2019 the rules of the competition changed, with a school's team consisting of its top three scorers, and team ranks determined by comparing the sums of the scores of the team members. Many Putnam Fellows have gone on to become distinguished researchers in mathematics and other fields, including three Fields Medalists—John Milnor (also an Abel Prize laureate), David Mumford, and Daniel Quillen—and two Nobel laureates in physics—Richard Feynman and Kenneth Wilson. ==Winners==

Top-scoring teams Teams ranked by historical performance Below is a table of teams by the number of appearances in the top five and number of titles. The following table lists Teams finishing in Top Five ( competition): For a recent analysis, the following table lists teams that finished in the top five since 2000 ( competition): The following table lists Teams with First place finishes ( competition): Putnam Fellows Since the first competition, the top five (or six, in case of a tie) scorers in the competition have been named Putnam Fellows. Within the top five, Putnam Fellows are not ranked. Students are not allowed to participate in the Putnam Competition more than four times. For example, if a high school senior chooses to officially participate, he/she effectively chooses to forfeit one of his/her years of eligibility in college (see Gabriel Carroll). This makes it even more of a remarkable feat to become a Putnam Fellow four times. In the history of the Competition, only nine students have been Putnam Fellows four times, with twenty-four others winning the award three times. The following table lists these students: The following table lists all Putnam fellows from 1938 to present, with the years they placed in the top five. Ioana Dumitriu was the first woman to become a Putnam Fellow, in 1996. Elizabeth Lowell Putnam Award winners Since 1992, the Elizabeth Lowell Putnam Award has been available to be awarded to a female participant with a high score, with three awards being made for the first time in 2019. The year(s) in which they were Fellows are in bold. Ioana Dumitriu was the first woman to become a Putnam Fellow, in 1996. ==See also==