Jizhou Li recognized for an outstanding performance

Jizhou Li, who graduates in May with a B.S. in Mathematics, was recently recognized for an outstanding performance in the William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition, which was held in December 2009.

In the most prestigious and selective of all Mathematics exams for undergraduate students of North American institutions, Jizhou ranked 75th out of over 4,000 contestants, winning an Honorable Mention in the Competition. Jizhou's accomplishment is even more remarkable in light of the fact that Michigan Tech's  Mathematical Sciences Department, unlike most other national Universities, does not offer specific training for its students taking part in the Putnam Competition.

Out of the 546 colleges and Universities in Canada and the U.S. participating this year, only 22 others, besides Michigan Tech, can count students winning at least an Honorable Mention. These include MIT (the winner of the Competition), Harvard, Caltech, Princeton, Stanford, Yale, University of Washington, Waterloo, Harvey Mudd, Rice, University of Illinois, University of Indiana, Duke, University of Michigan, University of Maryland, University of British Columbia, University of Virginia, Washington University at St. Louis, Brown, University of New Mexico, Rochester, University of Nebraska.

Jizhou's mathematical interests are remarkably broad, and range from Algebra to Combinatorics, from pure to applied Math, from computational Math to Statistics. He recently completed a senior research project in combinatorial commutative algebra, which resulted in a joint paper (with Professor Fabrizio Zanello) currently under review for publication in an international journal.

Jizhou will continue his studies in Fall 2010, joining the PhD program in Computational and Applied Mathematics at Rice University.

The entire Mathematical Sciences Department congratulates Jizhou Li for his spectacular achievements, wishes him the very best for the continuation of his career, and wishes current and future Mathematics majors at Michigan Tech other outstanding results in the future Putnam Competitions!

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