Awards and Honors

  • Trevor Evans Award: The Trevor Evans Award is intended to recognize outstanding performance by undergraduate majors in the Department of Mathematics.
  • Chair's Award for Achievement: This award recognizes outstanding undergraduates who exhibit dedication and exceptional performance in the fields of Mathematics.
  • Deborah Jackson Award (2007-2015): Made possible by a generous gift from Alumna Deborah Jackson, this award honors the academic achievements of undergraduate juniors and seniors in the Department of Mathematics.
  • Putnam Prize: The Putnam Prizes are awarded to the Emory undergraduates with the best scores on the William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition.

The Trevor Evans Award

The Trevor Evans Award is intended to recognize outstanding performance by undergraduate majors in the Department of Mathematics at Emory University. The award is given annually and is intended to help defray educational expenses. The award has been established by family and friends of Professor Evans to honor his contributions to mathematics and to Emory University. Each year, the Undergraduate Committee of the Department of Mathematics selects the award recipient based upon information received from the Department faculty.

Professor Evans received bachelor's and master's degrees, and the Doctor of Science from Oxford University. He taught at Manchester and Wisconsin before joining the Emory faculty in 1951. Here, he served as departmental chair for the periods 1957-72 and 1976-82; he was named Fuller E. Callaway Professor of Mathematics in 1980. In the early 50's he was invited to spend a year at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton; he travelled extensively throughout his career as a research mathematician.

An expert in algebra and its applications to combinatorial problems, Professor Evans is most well-known for his work on partial planes, nonassociative algebras, and word and decision problems. He had many PhD students during his career at Emory: Curt Lindner is a notable research mathematician, a Distinguished University Professor at Auburn, and the late Etta Falconer, who served as dean at Spelman University and who received the Hay Award from the Association of Women in Mathematics, to name two of his most successful students. Professor Evans was awarded the Emory Williams Distinguished Teaching Award for Graduate Education in 1972.

In recognition of his lifelong service to mathematics, Professor Evans received the first distinguished service award from the Southeastern Section of the Mathematical Association of America. As well, prizes in his name are given by the MAA to recognize the best articles published in "Math Horizons".

Recipients of the Trevor Evans Award

  • 2023: Kristina Gong, Judy Hao, Keita Morisaki, Oliver Wang, Ashley Zhou
  • 2022: Jennifer Zheng, Siwei Xu, Arshia Singhal, Sophy Huang, Rodrigo Jose Gonzalez Hernandez, Mai Phuong P
  • 2021: Lingxin Cheng, Yuwei Wu, Jack Li, Jennifer Zheng
  • 2020: Jack (Qiyu) Zhang, Tao Zhou, Chloe Lee, Uriel Yang
  • 2019: Haotian Jin, David Luo, Varoon Pazhyanur, Sihan Yue
  • 2018: Robert Dicks, Yijun Dong, Kaixin Ma
  • 2017: Henry Chen, Noam Kantor, Siqi Xue
  • 2016: Will Baker, Claire Yilin Lin, and Congzheng Song
  • 2015: Hanqiu Xia
  • 2014: Noah Adler and Ye Yuan
  • 2013: Andrew McLeod
  • 2012: Katherine Yu
  • 2011: Michelle Chu and Joshua Keller
  • 2010: Phillip Andreae and Jeremy McKibben-Sanders
  • 2009: Matthew Hausknecht
  • 2008: Jacob Geerlings
  • 2007: Tristan Dennen
  • 2006: Melissa Goldstein
  • 2005: Martin Frank
  • 2004: Michael Carr
  • 2003: Lindsay [Betsy] Stovall
  • 2002: Joseph Spivey
  • 2001: Mili Shah and Shaariah Sulaiman
  • 2000: Arthur Szlam
  • 1999: Ben Schmidt and Alex Prater
  • 1998: Alisa Marzilli
  • 1997: Joshua Pollet
  • 1996: Sarah Day
  • 1995: Matthew Aycock and Cyrus Bradford

The Chair's Award for Achievement

The Chair's Award for Achievement recognizes outstanding undergraduates who exhibit dedication and exceptional performance in the fields of Mathematics. Awardees are presented with the award at the department's annual Evans-Hall Lecture Series each spring. Recipients are chosen by the department chair and the award committee based on instructor comments as well as outstanding success in course work. Winners will receive a monetary gift to be used for any purpose. Sponsorship of this award is part of the department's overall mission to encourage and promote excellence in undergraduate education in Mathematics.

Recipients of the Chair's Award for Achievement

  • 2023: Abdu Birik, Zoe Ji
  • 2021: Mai Phuong Pham Huynh
  • 2020: David Luo
  • 2019: Evan Scope Crafts
  • 2018: Jose Coves, Varoon Pazhyanur, Qihang Zhang
  • 2017: Robert Dicks, Wenda Zeng, Ethan Zhou
  • 2016: Henry Yu-Hsin Chen, Noam Kantor, Siqi Xue

The Deborah Jackson Award

Made possible by a generous gift from Alumna Deborah Jackson, these awards honor the academic achievements of undergraduate juniors and seniors in the department of Mathematics.

Selection procedure: Early in the Spring semester (mid-February) each year, the department undergraduate committee will meet to consider nominations from faculty for outstanding seniors and juniors in the department. Based on nominating recommendations, academic records (e.g. gpa, level of classes taken), and other factors (e.g. honors participation, Evans/Hall candidacy, Putnam exam performance) the department will award cash prizes to the most outstanding students from the senior and/or junior class. The prize money will be given in one lumpsum cash payment early in the semester, usually by April 15, and may be used for any purpose by the recipients.

Recipients of the Deborah Jackson Award

  • 2015: Andres Celis, James Ding, Jacob Eckert, Noam Kantor, Andrew Kilgore, Yilin Lin, Yan Sheng, Liqi Shu, Congzheng Song, Lee Vian, and Hanqiu Xia
  • 2014: Dallas Albritton, Shannon Buckley, Hyo Yul Byun, Andres Celis, Michael Conway, Jennifer Lin, Amy Shannon, and Hanqiu Xia
  • 2013: Emma Accorsi, Noah Adler, Dong Ba, Junying He, Andrew McLeod, Sarah Pitman, Leah Shiferaw, and Xinhui Wu
  • 2012: Chen Chen, Dylan Connor, Robert Lunde, Warrick Macmillan, Andrew McLeod, Philip Wu, and Katherine Yu
  • 2011: Chen Chen, Patrick Cook, James Nance, and Daniel Orner
  • 2010: Aaron Bush, Michelle Chu, Patrick Cook, James Herring, Joshua Keller, Sara Lykken, and Daniel Orner
  • 2009: Dan Acton, Phillip Andreae, Walter Askew, Allison Louie, and Jeremy McKibben-Sanders
  • 2008: Emily McIntosh, Veronica Mejia-Bustamante, and Christopher Verdery
  • 2007: Sam Ballas, Sabrina Rainwater, Solomon Stein, and Cory Trankle

The Putnam Prize

The Putnam Prizes are awarded to the Emory undergraduates with the best scores on the William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition. The competition is held at Emory on the first Saturday of December each year and the prizes are awarded the following spring.

Recipients of the Putnam Prize

  • 2023: Noah Lichtenberg
  • 2022: Noah Lichtenberg, Frederick L Davis, Zihao Jin, Keita Morisaki, Sarah Werum, Larry Chen
  • 2021: Alexandru Rudi, Keita Morisaki, Taylor Dover, Frederick Lowell Davis
  • 2020: Jack Li, Tao Zhou, Keita Morisaki, Shiyuan Wang, Alexandru Rudi, Shreya Rana
  • 2019: Tao Zhou, Jack Li, Emily Eckels, Zirui Deng, Chenxi Xu
  • 2018: Lee Brewer, Chenxi Xu
  • 2017: Jose Coves
  • 2013: Jiaqi Guo and Rousen Zhou
  • 2012: Andrew Gruet and Andrea Zeng
  • 2011: Linzhi Wang and Joshua Keller
  • 2010: Phillip Andreae and Joshua Keller
  • 2009: Phillip Andreae and Jacob Geerlings
  • 2008: Phillip Andreae and Allison Louie
  • 2007: Sabrina Rainwater. Runner-up: Tristan Dennen