Providence, RI— Brian Liu, a freshman at High Technology High School in Lincroft, finished second and won $6,000 in the 2018 Who Wants to Be a Mathematician Championship, Saturday, January 13 at the Joint Mathematics Meetings in San Diego. Brian finished in second place among 12 semifinalists from the US, Canada, and the UK, who were selected from more than 4,000 students based on their scores on a qualifying test administered by the game's technology sponsor, Maplesoft, using its online testing and assessment tool, Maple T.A.

Brian won his semifinal round with a perfect score. He answered every question correctly.

Info about Brian:

· Brian's favorite thing about school is being able to hang out with his friends.

· He carries calculators in his pockets and sleeps "many hours a day."

· He earned a perfect score on the American Mathematics Competitions (AMC) 10, the American Invitational Mathematics Examination, and the USA Junior Mathematics Olympiad, and qualified for the Mathematics Olympiad Program.

Of the $6,000 total, $3,000 will go to Brian and $3,000 to the math department at High Technology High School.

Who Wants to Be a Mathematician was part of the Joint Mathematics Meetings held in San Diego January 10-13. Over 6,000 mathematicians attended the meeting. This is the ninth championship contest of Who Wants to Be a Mathematician. The American Mathematical Society (AMS) organizes the championship game and regional games in different cities nationwide to reward good mathematics students.

The first four pictures below are from the semi-finals and the last three are of Brian competing in the finals and being awarded his check.