Word: putnam
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...want to focus on companies with steady profits that are already paying a dividend. "They have the ability to keep paying and raising their dividend and have demonstrated the willingness," says Deborah Kuenstner, head of value investing at Putnam Investments. Her picks include power companies Entergy and Florida Power, oil company ExxonMobil and consumer-products maker Procter & Gamble. Other analysts like drugs (Pfizer, Wyeth), financials (AIG FleetBoston) and phones (Verizon, SBC). Proven funds that target dividends: T. Rowe Price Dividend Growth and Capital Income Builder...
Students compete both individually and as teams representing their colleges. The top five individual finishers, designated Putnam Fellows, get $2,500 each; the top teams get larger cash prizes: $25,000 for first place. As for the rest, the names and rankings of the top 500 scorers are circulated on a list that's released in March and eagerly perused by the math elite--a social register for the aristocracy of arithmetic. "Grading is quite strict," says Professor Richard Stanley, who coaches M.I.T.'s team. Partial credit is rare. Out of 2,954 students who took the test last year...
...what does it take to ace the Putnam? It's not about memorizing theorems. "The Putnam does not try to measure mathematical knowledge," says Leonard Klosinski, director of the competition and a professor of math at Santa Clara University in California. "What it does test is the ability to solve very challenging problems in a fixed period of time. Students who do well are mathematically gifted, very quick and highly creative." The past winners aren't exactly household names--unless you live in an extremely enlightened household--but they include Richard Feynman and Kenneth Wilson, two Nobel prizewinners. Three Putnam...
There's a lot at stake. A high score on the Putnam can fast-track a young mathematician's career, and a team win can put a math department on the map. Currently, Harvard is at the tail end of a dynasty of Michael Jordanian proportions, with 13 first-place finishes since 1985. At one point, Harvard teams went 8-0. "Once Harvard began its roll, the most talented high school students in the U.S. started to overwhelmingly choose to go to Harvard," says Vakil. "As a result, the undergraduate math program at Harvard has become the hardest...
...everybody in the math community believes in the Putnam as an augur of future greatness. "Many think it's a frivolous exercise," says Kevin Lacker, one of last year's winners. "Doing well on the Putnam and doing good math research are two different tasks that take two different kinds of intelligence." In other words, there's hope for us all. Even a genius can flunk a math test--and sometimes that's a good thing. "If you're someone who only likes getting 100% on everything you do, you're going to find the Putnam quite distressing," Vakil says...