OTTAWA, Ontario -- A team of three students from the University of Toronto placed Fifth in the International William Lowell Putnam mathematical contest and a team from the University of Waterloo placed Sixth.

The five top universities are:

Duke University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University, California Institute of Technology and the University of Toronto.

The University of Toronto team, consisted of Jimmy Chui, Pavel T. Gyrya and Pompiliu Manuel Zamfir. The University of Waterloo team consisted of Sabin Cautis, Richard M. Hoshino and Joel Kamnitzer.

Students who place in the top 60 receive an Honourable Mention. The Canadian students who received an Honourable Mention in the 2000 Putnam are: Pavel Gyrya (who also placed in the top 25), David P. Varodayan (University of Toronto), Richard Hoshino and David Nicholson (University of Waterloo). Keon Choi (University of Waterloo), Pierre Levan (University of Ottawa) and Michael Ludkovski (Simon Fraser University) also received recognition for their fine performances. David Arthur (Duke University), Adrian Birka (MIT) and David Pritchard (MIT), who have represented Canada at previous International Mathematical Olympiads, also received honourable mentions. A total of 29 students from 12 Canadian universities placed among the top 200.

"A recent Mathematical Association Monthly, noted that in the past decade there have been 8 Canadian Putnam Fellows and only two from US public universities" said Dr. Jonathan Borwein, President of the Canadian Mathematical Society. "This is a strong endorsement of Canadian undergraduate mathematics education and the Society extends its congratulations to all these students for their outstanding achievement"

A total of 2,818 students from 434 Colleges and Universities participated in the Putnam Competition (written on December 2, 2000). The universities placing 7th thru 10th in alphabetical order are: Princeton University, Stanford University, University of Chicago and Washington University of St. Louis.

"It is a credit to Canadian mathematics that two of the top ten universities are Canadian," said Dr. Christopher Small, coach of the University of Waterloo team and who will be the Leader of the Canadian team to the International Mathematical Olympiad in Washington in July, 2001. "There has been a lot of hard work by many dedicated teachers and professors to foster the very best in our students. The results of this work can be seen in part in the continuing strength of Canadian students in competitions such as the Putnam." Dr. Small is the Leader of the Canadian team of high school students who will be competing at the International Mathematical Olympiad in Washington in July 2001.

Dr. Jonathan Borwein
CMS President
Department of Mathematics
Simon Fraser University
(604) 291-3070
president@cms.math.ca

or

Dr. Edward Barbeau
Chair - CMS Education Committee
Department of Mathematics
University of Toronto
(416) 978-7200
barbeau@math.toronto.edu

or

Dr. Christopher Small
Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science
University of Waterloo
(519) 888-4567 ext. 5541
cgsmall@uwaterloo.ca