The national "Who Wants to be a Mathematician" contest was held on Thursday, January 14, 2010 at the Joint Mathematics Meetings in San Francisco. This contest was held by Ameircan Mathematical Society. Math Zoom hosted this contest in Southern California in December 2008. The San Francisco contest was the first time that this contest was run on a national scale. The 10 contestants were:
- Rohit Agrawal, Junior at Wayzata High School (MN)
- Rebecca Easterwood, Senior at Shades Valley High School (AL)
- Brian Freidin, Senior at Glenbrook North High School (IL)
- Daniel Li, Senior at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (VA)
- Kathy Lin, Senior at Los Alamos High School (NM)
- Ofir Nachum, Senior at Algonquin Regional High School (MA)
- Evan O'Dorney, Junior in the Berkeley Math Circle (CA)
- Charles Xu, Junior at Fairview High School (CO)
- Kevin Yin, Junior at San Marino High School (CA)
- Ben Zauzmer, Junior at Upper Dublin High School (PA)
The contestants were selected based on scores on the national qualifying test. Kevin Yin, a Math Zoom student, represented Southern California. All these students have very strong backgrounds in math contests.
The contestants were divided into two groups to have two semifinal games, where the contestants answered 8 questions, each with specified time limit and increasing point values. The first group were Rebecca Easterwood, Brian Freidin, Daniel Li, Ofir Nachum, and Ben Zauzmer. Ben Zauzmer was the winner of this group. The second groups included Rohit Agrawal, Kathy Lin, Evan O'Dorney, Charles Xu, and Kevin Yin. Evan O'Dorney won this group. Kevin did well by leading the first 7 rounds, but Evan O'Dorney, twice IMO silver medalist, won on the last question. Then it was the final face-off between Ben and Evan. The final round ran like the Countdown Round in MATHCOUNTS: for each question, whoever gets the correct answer first wins the points. Evan O'Dorney obviously had the advantage with faster reflect and more expereince, so he won with no suspense. Evan received the top prize of $5000 for himself and $5000 for his school. The other 9 contestants also received cash and other prizes for themselves and their schools, at least $500 each.
