The William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition is the most important undergraduate mathematics competition in North America, which takes place on the first Saturday of December. In 2018, there were 4623 contestants from 568 universities in the USA and Canada. For more details, please consult Kedlaya's report. The list of Putnam problems can be found at the Putnam archive.
We are excited to let you know that the University of Pittsburgh's official Team (Mirabel Reid, Andrew Tindall, and Connor Schwartz) ranked 42nd nationally and one of its members, Connor Schwartz made it to the top 500 of individual scorers. Other participanting students include Fanyang Cheng, Benjamin Gardiner, Brian Popeck, Gennadi Ryan, and Haihui Zhu. Every participant has scored at least one point, despite Putnam exam problems being notoriously difficult. This wonderful result reflects the dedication of the students involved as well as that of their mentors, Prof. Roman Fedorov, Prof. Piotr Hajlasz, Prof. Thomas Hales, Prof. George Sparling, and our graduate student Derek Orr.
The Pitt math department has recently established a prize (the Hales-Putnam prize) that gives 500 dollars to any student at Pitt that places among the top 500 students on the competition. Connor Schwartz will be the first recipient of the prize. (The Prize also gives 1000 dollars to any Pitt student in the top 100.)
The Math Department will be offering the Putnam seminar again this fall. The aim of the seminar is not just to help students train for the 2019 competition but to hone their problem solving skills. If you have questions about the seminar please contact Prof. Roman Fedorov (fedorov@pitt.edu).