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Three BYU students in top ten percent in national mathematics exam

April 06, 2006

Three Brigham Young University students recently scored in the top 10 percent in the Putnam Exam, a national mathematical competition.

A sophomore in math, Edison Yu Yang placed the highest score for BYU and rated 149th overall. Sophomore Michael Griffin followed with 175th place overall and senior Russell Howes placed 296th overall.

Out of 395 institutions that had a team for the exam, BYU placed 87th. Yang and Griffin were also the only students in Utah to score in the top 200 on the exam.

A prestigious annual mathematics competition, the Putnam Exam is sponsored by the Mathematical Association of America. In the 2005 exam, 3,545 students from colleges and universities in the United States and Canada participated.

For more information, contact Darrin Doud at (801) 422-1204.

Writer: Brian Rust

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