In 2019 a total of 4,299 students from 488 institutions from all over the US and Canada participated in the 80th Putnam competition. The University of Maryland Putnam team was ranked 14th out of 488 participating schools. The team consisted of Erik Metz, Steppan Konoplev and Pratik Rathore. Every year in the past four years, the University of Maryland Putnam team has ranked in the top 15.

Erik Metz, who ranked 51st, received an Honorable Mention award. Steppan Konoplev ranked in the top 200; Pratik Rathore and Justin Hontz ranked in the top 250.

Congratulations to our team and the participants.

Complete results can be found here.

The 2020 Chevalley Prize in Lie Theory will be awarded to Huanchen Bao and Weiqiang Wang for their fundamental contributions to the theory of quantum symmetric pairs.

This award is based on two publications: the paper "Canonical bases arising from quantum symmetric pairs," published in Inventiones Mathematicae, and the monograph "A new approach to Kazhdan-Lusztig theory of type B via quantum symmetric pairs," published in Astérisque. In these works, Huanchen Bao and Weiqiang Wang completely extended the known theory of canonical bases from the case of quantized enveloping algebras to the case of quantum symmetric pairs. The entire article can be read here.

University of Maryland doctoral student Steven Reich regularly attends pub quiz nights in the College Park area, but tonight he stands on trivia’s biggest stage by competing on “Jeopardy!”

Reich graduated from the University of Pittsburgh in 2013 and is working toward a doctorate in mathematics in College Park by studying algebraic number theory. While confident in his math and science prowess, he did brush up on Shakespeare in case the Bard turned up on the board. The rest of the article can be read here.

The American Geophysical Union awarded Eugenia Kalnay (Atmospheric & Oceanic Science) the 2019 Roger Revelle Medal. These awards serve to highlight outstanding achievements, contributions, and service to the Earth and Space science community. Official announcement here. 

It is with sadness that we inform you of the passing of Carlos Alberto Berenstein, on August 24, 2019. Carlos was a professor of mathematics and a member of the Institute for Systems Research (ISR). Professor John Baras (ECE/ISR), the first director of ISR, writes, “Carlos was a brilliant mathematician who collaborated with many of us and many other people worldwide. His brilliance, positive attitude and open collaborative spirit will be missed by many.”

Read more about Carlos and his legacy follwing the link to ISR: https://isr.umd.edu/news/news_story.php?id=12422