DATE: 10 a.m. Friday, March 19, 2010.

EVENT: The University of Michigan will host the “Who Wants to Be a Mathematician?” lecture and competition for eight local high school students. U-M math professor Michael Zieve, a former cryptologist for the Institute for Defense Analyses, will speak at 10 a.m. on “Prime Factorization.” His public talk will be followed by a math competition in which contestants can win up to $3,000 by answering multiple-choice questions.

The contestants include Mariam Ayyash, Dearborn Fordson High School; Whit Froehlich, Ann Arbor Greenhills High School; Neil Gurram, Beverly Hills Detroit Country Day School; Heemyung Hwang, Ann Arbor Huron High School; Stephanie Sanders, Farmington Hills Harrison High School; Julie Sikora, Allen Park Cabrini High School; Kevin Wang, Birmingham Groves High School; and Mike Yonick, Bloomfield Hills Lahser High School.

Contestants were selected based on their scores on a qualifying test with questions on algebra, trigonometry, probability and math history, which was administered by local high school math teachers.

The “Who Wants to Be a Mathematician?” competition has been held at universities and science centers across the United States since 2001. In that time, nearly 500 students have won more than $200,000 in cash and prizes.

PLACE: 140 Lorch Hall, 611 Tappan St., Ann Arbor.
(Central Campus map)

SPONSORS: American Mathematical Society, Texas Instruments, Maplesoft Inc. and John Wiley & Sons.

American Mathematical Society