Top High School Math Olympians Announced by MAA American Mathematics Competitions

WASHINGTON, DC - Nineteen top high school math students were honored June 4 during a ceremony in Washington, D.C. More than 300,000 students participated in the MAA American Mathematics Competitions (AMC), organized by the Mathematical Association of America (MAA) which culminates in the USA Mathematical Olympiad, the final invitational exam in a challenging series of MAA AMC competitions. The winners of the 47th Annual United States of America Mathematical Olympiad (USAMO), twelve high school students with the top scores in the competition, were announced at the event.

The ceremony also honored the members of the U.S. team that competed in the 7th Annual European Girls’ Mathematical Olympiad in Italy this April. The team, which is organized and trained by the MAA American Mathematics Competitions, took second place in the international competition against teams from 52 countries. Team members included Megan Joshi, Wanlin Li, Emily Wen, and Catherine Wu.

The MAA also announced which students will compete on the U.S. team that it organizes and trains for the International Mathematical Olympiad in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, from July 3-14, 2018. Prior to a fourth place finish in 2017, the U.S. team won first place in 2015 and 2016, at the International Mathematical Olympiad in which top high school math students compete with their international peers from more than 100 countries.

The 2018 U.S. International Mathematical Olympiad team is: Adam Ardeishar, Andrew Gu, Vincent Huang, James Lin, Michael Ren, and Mihir Singhal. Gu, Huang, and Lin are returning team members from 2017.

Jim Kurose, Assistant Director for Artificial Intelligence, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, honored the students during the award ceremony for their achievement in mathematics.

Before the June 4 award ceremony, the students were honored at the National Science Foundation, which supports fundamental research and education across all fields of science and engineering as an independent federal agency. The Chief Operating Officer of the National Science Foundation, Joan Ferrini-Mundy, greeted each of the top math students during a reception.

“The Mathematical Association of America honors each math olympian for their hard work at the highest levels of high school math competitions. We congratulate these top math students on their achievement on the national and international stage and are proud to organize their participation through the MAA American Mathematics Competitions,” said Michael Pearson, the executive director of the Mathematical Association of America. “We look forward to their future success as they develop as leaders in diverse fields that increasingly rely on quantitative skills to address issues critical to the future of society.”

The 2018 USA Mathematical Olympiad winners are (in alphabetical order): Eric Gan, Thomas Guo, Vincent Huang, Joshua Lee, Michael Ren, Victor Rong, Carl Schildkraut, Mihir Singhal, Edward Wan, Brandon Wang, Guanpeng Xu, and Andrew Yao. Singhal returns for his third USAMO win and Ren, and Rong were among the top twelve scorers in 2017. The honorable mentions for this competition are available here.

The first and second ranked USA Mathematical Olympiad winners received scholarships worth a total of $45,000 from the Akamai Foundation and each of the twelve USA Mathematical Olympiad winners and members of the European Girls’ Mathematical Olympiad team received $500 each for the Robert P. Balles Mathematical Olympiad Prize. The Balles Prize awarded $1000 each to members of the International Mathematical Olympiad team.

The winners of the United States of America Junior Mathematical Olympiad (USAJMO), who are the top MAA American Mathematics Competitions students in 10th grade and below, were also announced June 4. They are Ankit Bisain, Andrew Cai, Yunseo Choi, Sebastian Jeon, Benjamin Kang, Arav Karighattam, Jeffrey Kwan, Huaye Lin, Maximus Lu, Samuel Wang, and Benjamin Wright. The honorable mentions for this competition are available here.