Coastal Carolina University will host the 41st annual Dr. Subhash Saxena High School Math Contest on Tuesday, March 3, from 9:45 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. in the Johnson Auditorium located in the E. Craig Wall College of Business Building. This event serves to stimulate and promote interest in mathematics among high school students. Twenty South Carolina high schools will compete for awards, prizes, and scholarships in two levels of competition.

The following high schools will participate: A.C. Flora, Columbia; Academic Magnet, North Charleston; Academy for the Arts, Science and Technology, Myrtle Beach; Ben Lippen, Columbia; Bishop England, Charleston; CA Johnson, Columbia; Carvers Bay, Hemingway; Early College, Conway; Georgetown; Green Sea Floyds; Hammond School, Columbia; J. Paul Truluck Magnet, Lake City; Lake View; Mullins; Scholars Academy, Conway; South Florence; Spring Valley, Columbia; Williamsburg Academy, Kingstree; Williston-Elko; and Wilson, Florence.

Coastal Carolina University offers a Coastal Scholars Award to the highest scoring Horry County senior on the Level II test. The Level II test is an assessment of junior and senior students who have taken algebra I and II and geometry.

In addition to the competitions, Coastal Carolina University professor Paul Richardson, Ph.D., will give a presentation entitled "Numbers and Diseases: Sometimes you must forget your gut and follow the numbers." Richardson, a professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Chemistry, earned his master's degree from the University of Southern Maine and doctorate degree from the University of Alabama, Birmingham.

Jamie Hedges will be presenting the afternoon activity entitled "Disney, Math, and Crafts". Hedges, a lecturer of mathematics at CCU, earned her master's degree from Coastal Carolina University.

Saxena, Distinguished Professor Emeritus, endowed the fund for the annual math contest. He taught mathematics at CCU from 1973 until his retirement in 2001, serving as department chair from 1987-1993. The first High School Math Contest was held in 1979 and had more than 100 student participants. Over the past few years, the contest has attracted thousands of students from across the state of South Carolina.

For more information, contact Mary Wilkerson, Ph.D., at 843-349-4074 or visit the math contest site.