The Advantage Testing Foundation Math Prize for Girls, often referred to as The Math Prize for Girls, is an annual

mathematics competition Mathematics competitions or mathematical olympiads are competitive events where participants complete a math test. These tests may require multiple choice or numeric answers, or a detailed written solution or proof. International mathematics comp ...

open to female high school students from the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

and

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

. The competition offers the world’s largest single monetary math prize in a math contest for young women. In 2017, the First-Place prize was $46,000 (split equally amongst the three-way tie for first) with another $9,000 divided among the remaining finalists. Girls may win a maximum of $100,000 by participating in the competition over multiple years. Organized each year by the Advantage Testing Foundation, the competition is considered to be the preeminent female math competition for young women in North America. The single-day annual contest is open to female high-school students in 12th grade or below, from the

and

who have attained a qualifying score on the

American Mathematics Competitions The American Mathematics Competitions (AMCs) are the first of a series of competitions in secondary school mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that ...

Exams, specifically the

AMC 10 The American Mathematics Competitions (AMCs) are the first of a series of competitions in secondary school mathematics sponsored by the Mathematical Association of America (MAA) that determine the United States of America's team for the Internati ...

AMC 12 The American Mathematics Competitions (AMCs) are the first of a series of competitions in secondary school mathematics sponsored by the Mathematical Association of America (MAA) that determine the United States of America's team for the Internati ...

given in February each year. Up to 300 participants are then selected each year for the competition. Participants must complete 20 short-answer problems in

geometry Geometry (; ) is a branch of mathematics concerned with properties of space such as the distance, shape, size, and relative position of figures. Geometry is, along with arithmetic, one of the oldest branches of mathematics. A mathematician w ...

algebra Algebra is a branch of mathematics that deals with abstract systems, known as algebraic structures, and the manipulation of expressions within those systems. It is a generalization of arithmetic that introduces variables and algebraic ope ...

trigonometry Trigonometry () is a branch of mathematics concerned with relationships between angles and side lengths of triangles. In particular, the trigonometric functions relate the angles of a right triangle with ratios of its side lengths. The fiel ...

, and other math topics in 150 minutes. The exams are then reviewed by a panel of judges, who award cash prizes to the top-scoring participants.

History

The competition was founded in 2009 by Arun Alagappan and Dr. Ravi Boppana in an effort to inspire the next generation of

female mathematicians An organism's sex is female (symbol: ♀) if it produces the ovum (egg cell), the type of gamete (sex cell) that fuses with the male gamete (sperm cell) during sexual reproduction. A female has larger gametes than a male. Females and males ...

and create a community of young women who share a passion for math. Boppana, the competition’s cofounder and Director, said in a statement that "the Math Prize was created to debunk gender stereotypes, and to support young women who see higher-level mathematics as a pursuit that is challenging, fun, and incredibly rewarding.” The first two years of the competition were held at

NYU New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a non-denominational all-male institutio ...

, and since 2011, the competition has been held annually at

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of modern technology and sc ...

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is a suburb in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, located directly across the Charles River from Boston. The city's population as of the 2020 United States census, ...

Winners

The annual first-place winners of The Math Prize for Girls are listed in the table below: The competition was not held in 2020 or 2021 due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. Additionally, the Math Prize for Girls awards Youth Prize to the highest scoring student in grade 9 or below.

Advisory board

As of 2017, the competition's Board of Advisors has the following members: * Ravi Boppana, Director of Mathematics at ''Advantage Testing, Inc.'' * Ioana Dumitriu, Professor of mathematics at the

University of California, San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego in communications material, formerly and colloquially UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California, United States. Es ...

Maria Klawe Maria Margaret Klawe ( ; born 1951) is a Canadian-American computer scientist and served as the fifth president of Harvey Mudd College from 2006 to 2023. Born in Toronto in 1951, she became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2009. She was previously ...

, President of

Harvey Mudd College Harvey Mudd College (HMC) is a private liberal arts college in Claremont, California, focused on science and engineering. It is part of the Claremont Colleges, which share adjoining campus grounds and resources. The college enrolled 902 undergra ...

Richard Rusczyk Richard Rusczyk (); born September 21, 1971) is an American mathematician. He was the founder and chief executive officer of Art of Problem Solving Inc. and a co-author of the ''Art of Problem Solving'' textbooks. Rusczyk was a national Mathcou ...

, Founder of ''Art of Problem Solving, Inc''. and Director of the USA Mathematical Talent Search *

Michael Sipser Michael Fredric Sipser (born September 17, 1954) is an American theoretical computer scientist who has made early contributions to computational complexity theory. He is a professor of applied mathematics and was the dean of science at the Massa ...

, Professor of

Applied Mathematics Applied mathematics is the application of mathematics, mathematical methods by different fields such as physics, engineering, medicine, biology, finance, business, computer science, and Industrial sector, industry. Thus, applied mathematics is a ...

and Dean of Science at

Gigliola Staffilani Gigliola Staffilani (born March 24, 1966) is an Italian-American mathematician who works as the Abby Rockefeller Mauze Professor of Mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

, the ''Abby Rockefeller Mauze'' Professor of Mathematics at

* Lauren Williams, Professor of mathematics at the

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

* Joseph Woo *

Melanie Wood Melanie Matchett Wood (born 1981) is an American mathematician and Professor of Mathematics at Harvard University who was the first woman to qualify for the U.S. International Mathematical Olympiad Team. She completed her PhD in 2009 at Princeton ...

, Professor of mathematics at the

University of Wisconsin-Madison A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Uni ...

References

External links

* {{Official website, https://mathprize.atfoundation.org/ Mathematics competitions Educational foundations based in the United States Recurring events established in 2009 Women in mathematics