Meet the 2010 National Contestants

Here are the ten contestants who competed in the national Who Wants to Be a Mathematician contest, Thursday, January 14 at the Joint Mathematics Meetings in San Francisco.

	Rohit Agrawal Junior at Wayzata High School (MN) Won first place in Minnesota State High School Math League Invited to Mathematical Olympiad Summer Program Likes the Klein Four Group's songs, e.g. Finite Simple Group of Order Two Hear Rohit talk with Mike
	Rebecca Easterwood Senior at Shades Valley High School (AL) Received the Sewanee Book Award Member, Mu Alpha Theta and National Honor Society Likes to play Nancy Drew mystery computer games Hear Rebecca talk with Mike
	Brian Freidin Senior at Glenbrook North High School (IL) National Merit semifinalist Third place freshman year in ICTM state math contest Spent two summers at Hampshire College Summer Studies in Mathematics Hear Brian talk with Mike
	Daniel Li Senior at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (VA) Attended the Mathematical Olympiad Summer Program US Physics Team member Daniel can't wait until the LHC begins creating new results Hear Daniel talk with Mike
	Kathy Lin Senior at Los Alamos High School (NM) US Mathematical Olympiad finalist US Chemistry Olympiad finalist Loves origami Hear Kathy talk with Mike
	Ofir Nachum Senior at Algonquin Regional High School (MA) Attended the Mathematical Olympiad Summer Program All-State Band for two years Watches BBC exclusively for his news Hear Ofir talk with Mike
	Evan O'Dorney Junior in the Berkeley Math Circle (CA) Scripps National Spelling Bee champion Silver Medalist in International Mathematical Olympiad (twice) Likes to sit at the piano and compose music Hear Evan talk with Mike
	Charles Xu Junior at Fairview High School (CO) Attended the Mathematical Olympiad Summer Program (twice, red and blue) Fourth place, National Science Bowl Favorite non-school activity is turning theorems into coffee Hear Charles talk with Mike
	Kevin Yin Junior at San Marino High School (CA) First place at Pepperdine Math Day Fifth place (team) in ARML competition Carries a briefcase instead of a backpack Hear Kevin talk with Mike
	Ben Zauzmer Junior at Upper Dublin High School (PA) Captain of 2009 ARML national champion team Perfect score (2400) on SAT Ben and his sister, who bill themselves as Siblings Unplugged, entertain nursing home residents with their music Hear Ben talk with Mike and read about Ben's experience at the competition.

The contestants were selected based on scores on the national qualifying test and competed for up to US$10,000 (total) for themselves and their school's math department.

Partial support of the event comes from a National Science Foundation Distinguished Teaching Scholar's grant, held by Ken Ono (University of Wisconsin). In addition to the cash prizes in the competition, there were 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).