Jane Street Endows Math Prize for Girls with $15MM Donation to the Advantage Testing Foundation

Press Releases

Mar 31, 2022

MIT hosts annual competition for young women with $25,000 first-place prize

Leading quantitative trading firm partners with the Advantage Testing Foundation to promote gender equity and achievement in STEM professions

NEW YORK, March 31, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — The Advantage Testing Foundation, a public charity dedicated to advancing the educational opportunities of future leaders from underrepresented backgrounds, announced today that it has received a $15 million pledge from Jane Street to endow its Math Prize for Girls. This “transformative contribution,” to be completed over the next six years, will ensure that the Math Prize for Girls can sustain and extend its mission of fostering gender equality in mathematical achievement and STEM fields, prize founders said.

Launched in 2009, the Math Prize for Girls is the world’s largest math competition for young women, with an annual first-place prize of $25,000. Nearly 300 of the highest-achieving female mathematicians in high school participate in the Math Prize for Girls at MIT, which hosts the competition each fall.

The Jane Street endowment will fund the Prize’s operations, seed more than $50,000 in annual prize money, and enhance the competition in multiple ways. “In Jane Street, we have found true partners and kindred spirits in our mission,” said Arun Alagappan, president and founder of the Advantage Testing Foundation and co-founder of the Math Prize for Girls. “This forward-thinking quantitative trading firm understands the urgent need for a diverse and driven STEM workforce to maintain America’s competitive edge across all our industries.”

The prize will now be formally known as the Advantage Testing Foundation/Jane Street Math Prize for Girls.

“We are thrilled to be able to endow such a vital and inspiring competition,” said Sandor Lehoczky, a former Math Olympian and a managing director at Jane Street. “Mathematics is at the root of virtually every meaningful scientific or analytical endeavor. There are so many brilliant young women who show tremendous promise in math and science. We need to reinforce the message that they have the talent to pursue these fields at the very highest levels, and this partnership provides the opportunity for them to do just that.”

Mr. Lehoczky said he looked forward to working with the Advantage Testing Foundation to expand the prize’s reach with new initiatives, including regional “feeder” contests, increased prize money, and stipends for participants for whom travel to Massachusetts is a hardship. “To be able to announce this partnership at the end of Women’s History Month feels especially significant for all of us at Jane Street,” he added.

The Math Prize for Girls encourages talented female mathematicians to “stay the course, work hard, and dream big,” according to Dr. Ravi Boppana, co-founder of the prize. He went on to say that a critical component of the Math Prize for Girls is the community that has sprung up around it, in which participants find like-minded peers and form friendships to sustain them throughout their academic and professional careers.

“Of course, women are just as capable as men at achieving extraordinary heights in math and science,” Dr. Boppana said. “And across the board, STEM professions benefit from increased diversity. We fully expect our contest participants to become tomorrow’s game-changing inventors, innovators, and entrepreneurs.” He noted that former contestants have gone on to earn graduate degrees in such fields as Engineering, Computer Science, Biomedical Sciences, and Mathematics, and have secured employment in a broad range of technology-driven industries including aviation, robotics, and artificial intelligence, as well as financial services.

Find out about past Math Prize winners and view questions from Math Prize examinations here.

About the Advantage Testing Foundation

The Advantage Testing Foundation, a 501(c)(3) public charity, identifies and cultivates future leaders of every background. By forging strategic partnerships with leading universities and other distinguished institutions, we expand the opportunities of our nation’s extraordinary young people. Working in tandem with preeminent academic institutions and like-minded public service organizations, we pool the outstanding resources already available in this nation and help direct them to where they are needed most. The Advantage Testing Foundation is the public service arm of Advantage Testing, a private academic tutoring and educational counseling service.

About Jane Street

Jane Street is a global trading firm and market maker with offices in New York, London, Hong Kong, and Amsterdam. We provide 24-hour liquidity around the world in ETFs, equities, commodities, options, bonds, and cryptocurrencies. As a firm of collaborative problem solvers, we leverage our technology and expertise to provide consistent liquidity across market conditions. We use these capabilities to help our clients achieve their trading goals and offer competitive pricing and support through the most complex of trades.