For the past 4 years, UMD'd Putnam team has ranked in the top 15.

A team of undergraduates from the University of Maryland placed 14th out of 488 teams and earned an honorable mention nod in the 2019 William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition, popularly called “the Putnam.” For the past four years, UMD’s Putnam team has ranked in the top 15. 

Read more: Terps Placed 14th in Putnam Competition

The math major, who played pick-up games at the Eppley Recreation Center as a freshman, was a reserve on the men’s basketball team as a senior.

Will Clark went to 2017’s Maryland Madness, one of the UMD basketball teams’ preseason fan events, and joked with friends about sneaking into the men’s layup line.

He passed on the prank then, but one year later, he was doing the drill alongside Bruno Fernando and Jalen Smith as his pals cheered from the stands.

During Clark’s junior year, Head Coach Mark Turgeon’s Terps were looking to add some height, the 6-foot-8-inch club player measured up, and now the walk-on is living the dream of just about any club athlete.

Read more: Will Clark's Roundabout Journey to Maryland Basketball

Patil (M.A. ’99, Ph.D. ’01, applied mathematics), former U.S. chief data scientist, helps governors answer critical questions with data

In the California crisis command center, DJ Patil (M.A. ’99, Ph.D. ’01, applied mathematics) was working with governors from across the country to model the potential impact of COVID-19 for scenario planning. 

He wanted to help them answer critical questions, like “How many hospital beds will we need?” and “Can we reduce the spread if we temporarily close places where people gather?” and “Should we issue a shelter-in-place order and for how long?” While nobody can predict the future, modeling the virus with all the factors they did know was their best shot at helping leaders make informed decisions, which would impact hundreds of thousands of lives.

Read more: DJ Patil Helps States Model the Potential Impact of COVID-19 for Scenario Planning