Falls Church Teen Solves Century-Old Math Problem, Gets Reward

FALLS CHURCH, VA—For nearly a century, one math problem has puzzled mathematicians. That is, until a 17-year-old student from Falls Church solved it.

Franklyn Wang, a graduate of Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, has won a $25,000 Davidson Fellows Scholarship for the accomplishment. He is believed to have solved the math problem using methods from combinatorics, algebraic geometry and topology. His findings have the potential to create faster and more secure algorithms for communication to building safer infrastructure such as bridges.

He presented his findings in a project titled "Monodromy Groups of Indecomposable Rational Functions."

"Being recognized as a Davidson Fellow is a vindication of the value of my work," said Wang. "For the past two years I’ve been working hard on my project about monodromy groups of indecomposable rational functions."

Wang also placed second individually at the Siemens National Competition last year, was a Regeneron STS Finalist and an ISEF finalist this year. He will attend Harvard College to study math and computer science. He aims at becoming a researcher in math, computer science or economics and using artificial intelligence and machine learning to solve problems facing mankind.

He has been part of the USA Math Olympiad Summer Program, USA Computing Olympiad, was a Regeneron STS Finalist and Intel International Science and Engineering Fair Finalist. Wang also was captain of his school’s National Science Bowl team, which placed second at the national competition in 2015 and 2017. Beyond his academic interests, he enjoys watching the New England Patriots and listening to Taylor Swift.

Wang is one of 20 students across the U.S. to receive the award, which U.S. News & World Report named as one of the most prestigious undergraduate scholarships. The 2018 Davidson Fellows will be recognized in Washington, D.C., on Friday, Sept. 28.

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"Every year I am amazed by the depth of the Fellows’ accomplishments," said Bob Davidson, founder of the Davidson Institute, in a statement. "Through encouragement and recognition, the Davidson Institute for Talent Development anticipates that gifted students like these will be among the pioneers who will solve the world’s most vexing problems."

The Davidson Fellows Scholarship program offers $50,000, $25,000 and $10,000 college scholarships to students under 18 "who have completed significant projects that have the potential to benefit society in the fields of science, technology, engineering, mathematics, literature and music."

See Wang's presentation of his findings at the Siemens competition below.

Image via Youtube screenshot