Meet the 2012 National Contestants
Below are the contestants who qualified for the 2012 national Who Wants to Be a Mathematician contest, which took place Friday, January 6 at the Joint Mathematics Meetings in Boston.
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Pablo Luis Hernandez Junior at Miami Springs Senior High School (FL) He loves having many math classes to choose from in school and getting to school early to learn new concepts for competitions Read an article about Pablo and his family in The Miami Herald and hear him talk with Who Wants to Be a Mathematician host Mike Breen |
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Stephen Lamontagne Senior at Barrington High School (RI) Semifinalist in the 2011 national Who Wants to Be a Mathematician Can't wait until he goes to college Hear Stephen talk with Mike and read an article about Stephen and the competition that ran in the Barrington Patch. The Providence Journal also covered Stephen's participation in the contest, but no link exists (as far as we can tell; let us know at paoffice at ams dot org if you find the article) |
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Alex McDonough Senior at Winchester High School (MA) Loves strategic board games If he finishes first or second, he'll rent a limo for the school's math team for the New England Math Meet |
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Shyam Narayanan Freshman at Blue Valley West High School (KS) Discussed a math problem with President Obama after winning the Mathcounts National Written Championship Youngest qualifier ever for the national Who Wants to Be a Mathematician Shyam was the winnner at the 2012 contest. See this article in the Kansas City Star and see the video of him talking about his plans for his winnings. Also, hear Shyam talk with Mike (recorded before the contest) |
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Raj Raina Sophomore at Novi High School (MI) and a regular student at the ICAE (Indus Center for Academic Excellence), a year-round math enrichment program If he won first prize, he would visit Egypt with his family Likes going on bus trips to participate in extracurricular activities. Hear Raj talk with Mike, see a news story on him that aired on WJBK-TV in Detroit, and read more about Raj in an article published in The Detroit News. |
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Allan Sadun Junior at Liberal Arts and Science Academy High School (TX) Built his own musical instrument using a plasma cutter to make steel tuning forks Loves the spring academic competition season |
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Eric Schneider Junior at High Technology High School (NJ) Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon and back up in one day On the first-place team in the American Regions Mathematics League three years in a row |
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Rachit Singh Sophomore at Pullman High School Central (WA) Grand Prize winner in the Avista Video Challenge Loves to draw, when he can find the time Hear Rachit talk with Mike. An article about Rachit also appeared in the Idaho Statesman but the online link appears to have expired (let us know at paoffice at ams dot org if you can get to it). |
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Richard Spence Senior at the Sonoran Science Academy (AZ) Won first place (Division 2) in 2011 National Scrabble Championship Semifinalist in the 2011 national Who Wants to Be a Mathematician |
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Allen Yang Senior, Cary Academy (NC) Tenth place individual in 2010-11 Mandelbrot Competition Plays French horn and piano Read about Allen's performance in the contest and hear Allen talk with Mike |
The contestants were selected based on scores on the national qualifying test and will compete for up to US$10,000 (total) for themselves and their school's math department.
In addition to the cash prizes in the competition, there are also prizes donated by: Texas Instruments, Maplesoft Inc., John Wiley & Sons, and the AMS. The game is a program of the AMS Public Awareness Office and was developed by Mike Breen (AMS Public Awareness Officer) and Bill Butterworth (DePaul University). Read about--and see video from--the 2011 contest, won by Evan O'Dorney.
