Putnam Club
The Putnam Club develops students’ problem-solving skills and to prepare them for competitions such as the CUNY Math Challenge, the Mathematics Department’s annual Prize Examinations, and the prestigious Putnam Competition (a competition that includes most colleges from the United States and Canada).
More Information
About the Putnam Competition
The William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition began in 1938 as a competition between mathematics departments at colleges and universities. Now the competition has grown to be the preeminent undergraduate mathematics competition in the United States and Canada as well as the leading university-level mathematics exam in the world. Each year, on the first Saturday in December, more than 4,000 students spend two three-hour sessions solving 12 challenging mathematical problems. Prizes are awarded to the participants with the highest scores and to the departments of mathematics of the five institutions whose teams obtain the highest rankings. Cash prizes for the top five teams range from $25,000 to $5,000. Cash prizes for the top five students, honored as Putnam Fellows, are $2,500 each; other top students also receive prizes for their performance on the Putnam Mathematical Competition.
The Elizabeth Lowell Putnam Prize was established in 1992 to be “awarded periodically to a woman whose performance on the Competition has been deemed particularly meritorious.” Recent winners of the Elizabeth Lowell Putnam Prize have received $1,000.
Over the years many of the winners of the Putnam competition have become distinguished mathematicians. A number of them have received the Fields Medal and several have won the Nobel Prize in Physics.
How to Join / Contact Us
If you would like to join the Putnam Club or to find out more information about the club, email faculty adviser David Aulicino.