Contestants for the 2016 National Who Wants to Be a Mathematician

Kelly Zhang, senior at the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics

Enjoys car-building events, such as Gravity Vehicle, and is the building captain for the school's Science Olympiad Club.

Kelly is a three-time recipient of the Durham Mayor's Award for Volunteer Service.

Read more about Kelly in "Science and Math student ‘Wants to be a Mathematician’" that ran in The News & Observer and in this item posted by NCSSM.

Casey Zhang, senior, Fairview High School (CO)

She spent this past summer at the Research Science Institute at MIT, "one of the most incredible experiences of my life so far."

Through the Colorado Math Circle, Casey volunteers as an instructor for a weekly workshop for middle school students.

Harry Xi, senior at Upper Dublin High School (PA)

His favorite non-school activities are computer programming, non-elementary integrals, and composing music.

Harry is the seventh straight member of the Lehigh Valley ARML team to qualify for the national Who Wants to Be a Mathematician championship.

Harry's written up in the Abington (PA) Patch.

Allison Wang, senior at The Harker School (CA)

Received Honorable Mention in the Math Prize for Girls in 2013 and 2015.

She's a dancer and loves the feeling of her muscles working together as she's dancing and the chance to express herself without words.

Sameer Pusapaty, junior, Liberal Arts and Science Academy (TX)

Won the second place Grand Award at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair.

He likes to draw and paint. His favorite artist is M.C. Escher "because of his amazingly complicated patterns and intelligent designs."

An article about Sameer ran on December 27 in the Austin American-Statesman.

Nicholas Pipitone, junior at Suncoast Community High School (FL)

Nicholas says that he wasn't good at math competitions until this year but learned math through Art of Problem Solving (our Online Commmunity Sponsor).

He made a programmable computer using only the redstone in Minecraft.

Junhee Lee, sophomore at Iowa City West High School

He loves to play the trumpet, which is a "really nice way to let loose."

When Junhee was asked what he can't wait for, he replied that he can't wait until the day when Lay's withdraws all its weird new flavors of chips.

The Iowa City Press Citizen carried an article about Junhee on Dec. 10, "West student qualifies for national math competition," by Holly Hines. In the article, math teacher and math club coach James Kirpes calls Junhee "a fabulous, amazing mathematician."

KGAN-TV in Iowa also ran a story on Junhee: "IC Math Whiz Competing Nationally," as did The Gazette (Cedar Rapids) in "Iowa City West student heading to Seattle for math contest."

Karthik Karnik, senior, Massachusetts Academy of Math and Science

He will be presenting a paper in the Undergraduate Poster Session at the Joint Mathematics Meetings in Seattle.

Was voted by his class as "Most Likely to Be Abducted by Aliens."

Karthik was covered in Worcester Polytechnic Institute's Daily Herd and in the Community Advocate (where he explains how he'll employ Zeno's Paradox to spend his winnings).

Abishek Hariharan, junior at Tesla STEM High School (WA)

Abishek helps run the math club at his school and enjoys preparing for math contests.

The last two years he has qualified for AIME, the American Invitational Mathematics Examination.

Read more about Abishek in an article published in The Seattle Times.

Ankan Bhattacharya, junior at International Academy East (MI)

Won Honorable Mention at the 2015 USA Junior Mathematical Olympiad.

Loves programming and playing video games.

Ankan won the 2016 championship. Here he is just after his victory, talking about math and the game.

Read more about Ankan in an article before the game and one after he won.