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Winners of the 2015 USA Mathematical Olympiad Announced

The 12 winners have been announced for this year's United States of America Mathematical Olympiad (USAMO), the pinnacle of high school mathematics contests administered by the Mathematical Association of America (MAA).

From the 12 highest scorers, six will be selected to represent the United States in the 56th International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO), the world championship of mathematics competition for high school students. More than 100 countries participate in the IMO, which will take place this year in Chiang Mai, Thailand from July 4-16.

There were 294 students who competed in the USAMO, a nine-hour exam taken over two days, April 28 and 29. The top 12 scorers for the USAMO are listed alphabetically:

  • Ryan Alweiss (Bergen County Academies, Closter, New Jersey)
  • Kritkorn Karntikoon (Loomis Chaffee School, Windsor, Connecticut)
  • Michael Kural (Greenwich High School, Riverside, Connecticut)
  • Celine Liang (Saratoga High School, Saratoga, California)
  • Allen Liu (Penfield Senior High School, Penfield, New York)
  • Yang Liu (Ladue Horton Watkins High School, St. Louis, Missouri)
  • Shyam Narayanan (Blue Valley West High School, Overland Park, Kansas)
  • Kevin Ren (Torrey Pines High School, San Diego California)
  • Zhuo Qun "Alex" Song (Phillips Exeter Academy, Exeter, New Hampshire) 
  • David Stoner (South Aiken High School, Aiken, South Carolina)
  • Kevin Sun (Phillips Exeter Academy,Exeter, New Hampshire)
  • Danielle Wang (Andrew Hill High School, San Jose, California)

These USAMO top scorers will be honored at an awards ceremony at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C., on June 2.

This year's top scorers include winners from past mathematics competitions. Allen Liu, Zhuoqun Song, and Kevin Sun placed among the top 12 USAMO scorers in 2014. Allan Liu and Yang Liu took home gold medals at the 2014 IMO in Cape Town, South Africa, and Celine Liang and Danielle Wang have just returned with gold medals from the 2015 European Girls' Mathematical Olympiad held in Minsk, Belarus.

The USAMO honorable mentions are also listed here, and the top scorers in the United States of America Junior Mathematical Olympiad (USAJMO) are available here.

About USAMO

The USAMO is the ultimate event in the sequence of increasingly challenging mathematical contests administered by the Mathematical Association of America's American Mathematics Competitions (AMC) program. It serves to highlight the talent of those who may become tomorrow's leaders in the mathematical sciences. Approximately 186,400 students took the AMC 10 or AMC 12, which is the initial qualification test for the USAMO.  From that contest, more than 11,634 were invited to compete in the American Invitational Mathematics Examination (AIME), which determined who could compete in the USAMO.  In addition to the USAMO qualifying sequence, each year another 150,000 students begin their introduction to the MAA competitions with the middle-school level AMC 8 contests.

About AMC

The mission of the MAA's American Mathematics Competitions is to increase interest in mathematics and to develop problem solving through a fun competition. Teachers and schools benefit from the chance to challenge students with interesting mathematical questions that are aligned with curriculum standards at all levels of difficulty. In addition, students gain the opportunity to learn and achieve through competition with students in their school and around the world.

Special Thanks to Our Supporters

The MAA acknowledges the generous support of donors who help sustain its USAMO, IMO, and AMC competitions.  Patrons Circle -- Akamai Foundation, Simons Foundation. Winners Circle -- American Mathematical Society, The D.E. Shaw Group, MathWorks Inc. (in support of Curriculum Inspirations),  Tudor Investment Corporation, Two Sigma.  Achiever's Circle -- Art of Problem Solving, Jane Street Capital, Math for America.  Sustainer's Circle -- Academy of Applied Science, American Statistical Association, Army Educational Outreach Program.  Collaborator's Circle -- Casualty Actuarial Society, Conference Board of the Mathematical Sciences, Expii Inc., IDEA MATH LLC, Mu Alpha Theta, National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, Star League.  Thanks are due to Robert Balles for his support of the 2015 Balles Prize awards.

MAA Contact Information 
Mark Saul
MAA Director of Competitions
msaul@maa.org

News Date: 
Wednesday, May 27, 2015
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