The William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition® (the Putnam) is the preeminent mathematics competition for undergraduate college students in the United States, Canada, and Mexico.
Joe Gallian maintains several pages of information about the Putnam, including a historical summary, a database of career trajectories of Putnam fellows, and a PDF summary of the database.
The competition was founded in 1927 by Elizabeth Lowell Putnam in memory of her husband William Lowell Putnam, who was an advocate of intercollegiate intellectual competition.
The William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition is a fun and challenging one-day competitive mathematical examination given in December in the US and Canada where undergraduates compete between universities individually and in teams for recognition, cash prizes, and scholarships.
Putnam Competition The William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition is the principal intercollegiate mathematics competition. Administered by the Mathematical Association of America since the 1930's, it is "constructed to test originality as well as technical competence."
[12] After obtaining his PhD, Putnam taught at Northwestern University (1951–52), Princeton University (1953–61), and MIT (1961–65). For the rest of his career, Putnam taught at Harvard 's philosophy department, becoming Cogan University Professor.
The Putnam Competition awards cash prizes to the top five teams, the 20 highest-scoring participants, and the top-performing female participant, who receives the Elizabeth Lowell Putnam Award.
Clearly, most are competing in the Putnam competition not because they believe they will win or even be recognized in the rarefied air of honorable mention glory, but out of intrinsic motivation, a love for mathematical problems, or the inspiration of faculty mentors.