From left to right: Pam Wickham, Vice Chair of the MathCounts Board; Victor Wang (Missouri); Paul Turney (Missouri Coach); Steven Chen (Texas); Lou DiGioia, Director of MathCounts; Maximilian Schindler (Missouri); Bobby Shen (Texas); President Barack Obama; Yury Aglyamov (Texas); Lilly Shen (Texas); Jeff Boyd (Texas Coach); Stella Schindler (Missouri); Runpeng Liu (Missouri); and Kimberly Gavaletz, Chair of the MathCounts Board. (Photographed by Pete Souza on July 20 at the White House)

For the ninth consecutive year, MATHCOUNTS National Competition Champions were honored to receive congratulations from the President of the United States in the Oval Office. President Barack Obama and Dr. John Holdren, Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, greeted the top finishers in the 2009 Raytheon MATHCOUNTS National Competition, including the first place Texas state team and coach and second place Missouri state team and coach in an Oval Office ceremony on July 20, 2009.

Mathletes® in attendance at yesterday’s meeting included MATHCOUNTS National Individual Champion Bobby Shen of Sugar Land, Texas and Masters Round Champion Max Schindler of St. Louis, Missouri. The Texas State Team Champions included Bobby Shen; Yury Aglyamov of Austin; Steven Chen of Austin; Lilly Shen of Sugar Land and Coach Jeff Boyd of Sugar Land.

President Obama praised each of the Mathletes for their outstanding achievement and their commitment to academic excellence, and also recognized the volunteer coaches for their invaluable service to the MATHCOUNTS program. He went on to remind the middle school students that the U.S. will one day rely on their problem-solving skills and that each student should continue to develop their special abilities in mathematics for both themselves and the good of the nation.

The top individual winner beat 224 other student Mathletes in written and oral competitions at the Raytheon MATHCOUNTS National Competition in Orlando on May 8, 2009. Students who make it to the National Competition begin from a pool of over 100,000 students across the country. An archived streaming webcast of the Countdown Round is available at www.mathcounts.org.

During the ceremony, MATHCOUNTS Executive Director, Lou DiGioia, presented the President with a MATHCOUNTS framed Handbook.

“That President Obama took the time to recognize the achievements of these outstanding students is a testament to the importance of math education in this country,” said DiGioia. “Our MATHCOUNTS coaches and volunteers are committed to putting fun and excitement into the math learning experience and making it as challenging and competitive as any school sport. We know the President is a big proponent of mathematics literacy and we’re honored by his administration’s support.”