On March 2^nd and 3^rd, 2001, the annual meeting of the Florida Section of the Mathematical Association of America was held at Florida Gulf Coast University.  The first plenary address from Barry Cipra, a freelance writer from Northfield, Minnesota, was stimulating and set the pace for a very meaningful conference! The second plenary address from Frank Morgan, mathematician at Williams College, was humorously presented and involved many participants who were cheered by their colleagues in the audience. I hope we can continue working with FTYCMA (Florida Two Year College Mathematics Association) for these annual meetings and I hope we will continue to have the energy and spirit brought to the meeting by so many students.  Congratulations to Mark Anderson of Rollins College on his Distinguished Service Award and to Scott Hochwald of the University of North Florida on receiving the Distinguished Teaching of Mathematics Award.   Congratulations also to newly elected officers:

David Kerr of Eckerd College, President-Elect
Jacci White of St. Leo College, Vice-President-Elect for Programs
Scott Hochwald of University of North Florida, Vice-President-Elect for Site Selection

Many, many thanks go to David Kerr of Eckerd College, Program Committee Chair, for organizing a meaningful and outstanding program.  Many thanks also are given to Chuck Lindsey of Florida Gulf Coast University for the excellent work he did as chair of local arrangements.  Those who have been in charge of the program or local arrangements know how tremendously time consuming this task is and how much work it involves.  We are very fortunate to have had the leadership of David and Chuck for the first meeting of this millennium and this  first meeting at Florida Gulf Coast University.  Many new events were scheduled that I personally hope will continue in the future.  The dialogue about mathematics and who will be majoring in mathematics and math education in Florida was a significant discussion and the gathering on Friday evening for dinner and the play was wonderful!  Our thanks go to Ben Fusaro, Florida State University, for producing and directing the environmental mathematics skit.  (Our Governor, Fred Zerla, University of South Florida, had an oscar-winning performance!)

My personal thanks to all who helped with MAA throughout the past year.  It has been my pleasure to have been president and to have worked with such competent colleagues in this profession.  I will continue to look forward each spring to seeing old friends as well as new faces at our annual meeting.  It is my hope that this organization can continue to be actively engaged in the dialogue about mathematics and mathematics education and that MAA, both through the section and the national office, can provide leadership in this discussion.  We'll see you at Santa Fe Community College in Gainesville in 2002 and at Jacksonville University in 2003!

The Florida Section of the Mathematical Association of America is pleased to recognize Associate Professor of Mathematics at Rollins College, Mark Anderson, with the Distinguished Service Award. Mark is being honored for his outstanding service to the Florida Section and to the cause of mathematics instruction in the State of Florida.

Mark Anderson served our section for eight years as editor of the newsletter. It is not easy to assemble information from many sources, compile and edit it, and then have the newsletter printed and mailed. And all this in a timely manner!

In the capacity of editor, he attended 16 Executive Committee meetings from one end of our state to the other. His intimate knowledge has allowed him to cheerfully offer rich advice with respect to committee assignments, programs, finances, and all other matters pertaining to our section. He joins a handful of our members from the entire history of our section who have played such a significant role in the life of our organization.

Mark has done all of this while serving his own institution with distinction. Beyond teaching, he has maintained an active research program in topological graph theory, served as departmental chair, and chaired the Academic Affairs Committee, which deals with all curricular matters (new programs, general education requirements, new courses, academic appeals, and academic policies of the college.

On this day, March 3, 2001, with this citation, Mark Anderson’s dedication to the Florida Section of the Mathematical Association of America is recognized.

The Florida Section of the Mathematical Association of America is pleased to recognize Associate Professor of Mathematics at the University of North Florida, Scott Hochwald, with the Distinguished Teaching of Mathematics Award. In addition to his effective classroom teaching, Scott Hochwald has worked with school teachers and students to deepen their understanding and appreciation of mathematics.

Scott likes to keep his lecturing to a minimum. Indeed, he presents problems or concepts to his students and they discuss ways of solving the problems or developing the concepts. This inspires his students to become active participants in the learning process.

Scott has developed and created new courses at UNF including Mathematical Theories, a view of some fascinating areas of mathematics not normally taught in other courses, and Mathematical Currents, a course in which the students weekly view a videotape of a mathematics lecture given by a famous mathematician or discuss their own work based on the previous week’s videotape.  He also developed or jointly developed four other courses among the more than 30 different courses he has taught at UNF.

He incorporates technology into his courses whenever he can, including the use of graphing calculators for over a decade in Precalculus, Calculus I and II, and Linear Algebra. He has also used the Geometer’s Sketchpad in his Modern Geometry course.

We know his teaching ability from the presentations he has made at eight of our annual meetings. Today we reaffirm the obvious--- Scott Hochwald is a great teacher.

President June White called the meeting to order at 12:55 P.M.

President White welcomed all members of the Association to the meeting.  She expressed thanks to Program Committee Chair, David Kerr, for organizing a very successful program and for all his hard work in doing so. She also expressed thanks to Local Arrangements Committee Chair, Chuck Lindsey, for all his hard work and that of his team in hosting the meeting at Florida Gulf Coast University. She then expressed thanks to those that made presentations at the meeting and to those who supplied entertainment at the conference banquet. Finally she expressed thanks to Student Activities Coordinator, Ben Fusaro, and for all the student presenters at the meeting.

Fred Zerla gave his report as Governor of the Florida Section. He expressed thanks for the opportunity of serving as Governor during the past three years. He shared with the group two draft reports of the MAA. The first was the CBMS Mathematics Education of Teachers Project and the second was the CUPM Discussion Papers about Mathematics and the Mathematical Sciences in 2010 – What should teachers know?

Walter Walker reported for the Nominating Committee. He reported that the nominations for Governor are Leonard Lipkin, Marilyn Rephser, and James Weaver. Members of the Florida Section of the MAA will be voting for these by mail. The nomination for President-Elect is David Kerr, the nomination for Vice-President-Elect for Programs is Jacci White, and the nomination for Vice-President-Elect for Site Selection is Scott Hochwald.

A motion was approved to elect these three latter nominees by acclamation.

Secretary/Treasure Ken Pothoven gave the Treasurer’s Report. He reported that there were about 154 registrants to the meeting.  He also reported that the total assets of the Florida Section as of Feb. 28 were $6,965.77.  Last year at the same time they totaled $7,360.05.

Don Hill reported for the Awards Committee. He presented on behalf of the Section the Distinguished Service Award to Mark Anderson.  He presented the Distinguished Teaching of Mathematics Award to Scott Hochwald.

Debbie Garrison gave the report for the Site Selection Committee. The meeting next year will be at Sante Fe Community College and the meeting in 2003 will be at Jacksonville University.

Ken Pothoven presented a citation to the local arrangements committee at Florida Gulf Coast University thanking them for hosting the meeting.

A motion was approved to adjourn at 1:10 P.M.

Ken Pothoven, Secretary/Treasurer

The Awards Committee is seeking recommendations for two awards to be given in 2002:  the Service Award to be given for outstanding service to the Florida Section and the Teaching Award to recognize distinguished college or university teaching.

Please send your suggestions by Friday, October 19, 2001 to the chair of the Awards Committee:

Shiv Kumar Aggarwal
2205 South Palmetto Avenue
South Daytona, FL  32119
Shiv0@aol.com

Do you have any suggestions for officers for the Florida Section of the MAA?

This year we will be searching for a President-Elect, Vice President-Elect for Programs, and Vice President-Elect for Site.  Please send your suggestions to the chair of the Nominating Committee:

June White
Department of Mathematics
St. Petersburg Junior College
2465 Drew Street
Clearwater, FL  34625
whitejune@spjc.edu

Student Activities

The Board of Governors Meeting in January at the Joint Meeting in New Orleans was the sixth and last of my term of office.  I deeply appreciate having had the opportunity to serve the Florida Section as its Governor.  My fondest wish for my successor, Marilyn Repsher of Jacksonville University, is that she enjoy this service as much as I have.

Once again, the Board of Governors Meeting was filled with discussions of the many projects in which the MAA is involved.  I have discussed many of these initiatives in previous Governor's Reports, two new ones are of special interest to us.  The Committee on Undergraduate Preparation in Mathematics (CUPM) is preparing an update of the Curriculum Guides it has been publishing for the past 20 years.  This latest version has the working title Mathematics and the Mathematical Sciences in 2010: What Should Students Know? The emphasis is shifted to a curriculum shaped by the question "What do we want our students to be able to do?"  In this question, "our students" are broadly seen as "those who enrolled in mathematical science courses and are majoring in mathematics or other mathematics-intensive disciplines, including physical sciences, engineering, computer sciences, and many subfields of a large number of disciplines."  CUPM intends to produce a Guide which will be "a useful tool to shape departmental discussions and to present to deans and other administrators to explain the needs and expectations of a well-function undergraduate mathematics program."  The Discussion Papers given to the governors were solicited from mathematics instructors throughout the country.  This booklet is so rich in ideas that I am eager to see the final document which is to be published in the "MAA Notes" series.

The other action of the Board of Governors I think will have an impact on us is the establishment of a new standing committee, the Committee on Articulation and Placement (which replaces the Committee on Testing).  "This committee is charged with studying articulation issues in the mathematics curriculum affecting students who move from high school to college and from two-year colleges to four-year colleges or who return to college after an absence.  In addition, the committee is charged with studying placement practices affecting mathematics students.  This may include making recommendations about the use of placement tests."  The various post-secondary schools of the State of Florida could certainly benefit from any help this committee can give us.

In late April, the governors received an e-mail request from Ann Watkins the new president of the MAA.  She noted that the Committee on Committees consisting of herself, Martha Siegel, secretary, and Tom Banchoff, past-president, must appoint people to the approximately 120 committees of the MAA for terms beginning in January 2002.  These three people cannot possibly know each member of the MAA and so asked the governor's help.  They want us to recommend one or two (or more) active members who would make good committee members and who can attend national meetings.  Therefore, I am asking you.  Please look at the committee list on the MAA web site under "About the MAA", subheaded, "Committee List".  If you would like me to nominate you, please e-mail me, zerla@math.usf.edu, expressing your interest.

An added bonus of the New Orleans Meeting was that it was held in two large hotels across Canal Street from each other.  Canal Street borders the French Quarter.  After the meeting, a relaxing ramble through the Quarter and dinner at Pat O'Brien's ended an interesting day.  My favorite part of my involvement with the MAA and its Florida Section these past 38 years has been working with all the interested and interesting people at both the state and national levels.  I enjoy going to state and national meetings because I renew my enthusiasm by being in contact with them.  Never forget that with all the activities in which the MAA is involved, its biggest asset is YOU!

Thank you for allowing me to serve as your Governor.

Charles Wilson McArthur

Charles Wilson McArthur, 79, of Tallahassee died peacefully in his sleep on Saturday, May 26, 2001 after a long illness.  Funeral services were on Wednesday, May 30, 2 pm at Faith Presbyterian.  Burial at Roselawn Cemetery followed.

Born November 4, 1921 in New Orleans, Louisiana to James and Ruth McArthur, he attended New Orleans public schools and graduated from Fortier High School in 1937.  He received a diploma from Maybin Business College before attending Louisiana State University.  He interrupted his studies there to participate in World War II in the United States Army Air Force as a bombardier, and was discharged as lieutenant.

After the war ended he returned to LSU to complete a BS in mathematics.  He received his MS in mathematics from Brown University in 1950 and his Ph. D. in mathematics from Tulane University in 1954.

Dr. McArthur taught at the University of Maryland and Auburn University before coming to Florida State University in 1955.  He was major professor for the first Ph. D. candidate in FSU's Math Department and was major professor to sixteen other doctoral candidates.  McArthur served on the Faculty Senate and the university committees.  He was a member of the American Mathematical Society and the Mathematical Association of America.  He was the governor for the Florida Section of the MAA from 1977 to 1980.  He served two terms as Chair of the Department of Mathematics before retiring in 1986.

After his retirement, McArthur authored "Operations Analysis in the United States Army Eighth Air Force in World War II," published by the American Mathematical Society and London Mathematical Society as Volume 4 of the American Mathematical Society "History of Mathematics" series.

McArthur was a member of the 493rd Bomb Group and the American Air Force Historical Society.  He was a charter member and early president of the local Sons of the American Revolution.

Dr. McArthur was an active member of Faith Presbyterian Church.  While not a charter member, he and his family joined early on, and was the first youth leader.  He was chair of the Christian Education Committee that established Faith Presbyterian Kindergarten.  He served on numerous other committees.  He sang in the choir for 32 years and served many terms on the session, becoming elder emeritus.

Singing was a cherished avocation.  Dr. McArthur often led family sing-alongs with his daughter Katherine as the piano accompanist.  He sang in the Capital Chordsmen barbershop group for several years.

After his retirement from Florida State in 1986, Dr. McArthur enjoyed traveling to Taiwan and Europe.  He loved the coast and fishing and crabbing with his wife and visiting his many children all over the country.

Dr. McArthur is preceded in death by his daughter, Katherine Ellen McArthur.  He is survived by his wife of 58 years, Bertha McArthur; sons Samuel McArthur and wife Elizabeth McArthur of Tallahassee, Marshall McArthur and wife Su-Lyan McArthur of Houston, TX; daughters Anne McArthur and husband Peter Casano of Ewing, NJ, Carol Sposato of Tallahassee, Ruth McArthur and husband Craig Childs of San Antonio, TX; son-in-law Nicholas Stefanelli of Dallas, TX; grandchildren Joseph Sposato, Catherine and Cristina Casano, Natalie Stefanelli, Meredith Childs, Jason and Holly McArthur; brother David McArthur of Hammond, LA; sisters Elizabeth Russell of Bremerton, WA, Frances Santos of Panama City, FL, Miriam Pedersen of Houston, TX, brother-in-law Gerard Becnel of Lake Charles, LA; and numerous nieces and nephews.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Habitat for Humanity, Faith Presbyterian Church, the FSU University Club Scholarship Fund or the Tulane University College of Medicine.

Eckerd College

Faculty

Meredith Blue had a busy first year with the college.  She spoke at the Galois Theory Seminar for graduate students at the University of Florida in January.  Her talk was followed, later that month, by a research talk in the Algebra Seminar where she presented the results of her dissertation.   Her paper entitled “Unified Approaches to Fuzzy Graph Problems” with co-authors Brian Bush and Jason Puckett has been accepted for publication in Fuzzy Sets and Systems.

Eduardo Fernandez supervised a senior thesis this year entitled “Modeling anomalous electron transport in Hall thrusters” with graduating physics major Logan Lamping.  Eduardo also co-authored a paper entitled “The role of electron density in magnetic turbulence,” which has been accepted for publication in Physics of Plasmas.

Jerry Junevicus was invited, this past summer, to address the Ninth International Colloquium on Numerical Analysis and Computer Sciences with Applications in Plovdiv, Bulgaria.  The title of Jerry’s talk was “Numerical analysis of a model for reservoir souring.”  Jerry was also reappointed this year as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Sanderlin Center - a family service center which provides educational, medical, and legal services to local area people.

In addition to serving the section as this year’s Vice-president for Programs and as next year’s President, David Kerr was elected President of the Florida Conference of the AAUP.  In this regard, he will be attending the national meeting of the AAUP from June 8-11 in Washington, DC.  David also worked this year at USF - Bayboro teaching the graduate-level mathematics courses in a special Master’s in Mathematics Education program that is being offered in conjunction with the Pinellas County School System.

Professor Emeritus Vaughn Morrison is continuing his pursuits in ornithology and has just returned to his home in North Carolina from a trip to Australia, New Zealand, and points farther south.

Walter Walker continues his association with the AP Statistics Program.  He will be assisting in the grading of the exam this summer in Nebraska.  Walter also works with Jerry Junevicus and Eduardo Fernandez as a mathematics tutor at the Sanderlin Center.

Students

Five mathematics majors are graduating this year: Amanda Allison, Emil Iantchev, Joe Roberts, Courtney Sponaugle, and Vishal Suchak.  Amanda and Emil are headed to graduate school; Amanda in mathematics and Emil accepting a full research fellowship from the Economics Department at the University of Chicago.  Courtney will begin teaching mathematics at a local area high school this August.  And, Joe and Vishal have  accepted positions in the job market.  Otto Johnston, class of 2003, will be attending MathFest in August to present a paper in the Pi Mu Epsilon session.

Stetson University

Professor Gareth Williams Retires

Gareth Williams, member of Steton's mathematics department for 28 years, retired this spring.  Gareth was one of the most popular teachers at Stetson.  In 1994, he was honored with the McEniry Award, Stetson's most prestigious faculty award. He served as a mentor and role model for a generation of new faculty in the department.

Gareth was a national leader in using technology to teach mathematics.  He has over 40 publications, including 9 textbooks.  He remains active to this day, giving talks at conferences and updating his textbooks for the newest technology.

In retirement, he plans to continue writing.  He will spend the next academic year in Winston Salem, and then will likely return to DeLand to teach an occasional course.  He also plans to improve his golf game and spend more time with his grandchildren.

Student Wins Prestigious Award

Junior Jeff Hamrick was awarded one of only a few hundred Barry M. Goldwater Scholarships for the upcoming year.  Jeff is a triple major (Mathematics, Finance and History) at Stetson University and has spent Spring 2001 studying mathematics and enjoying the sights and sounds in Budapest, Hungary.

ACM Student Chapter

The Fourth Annual Invitational High School Programming Contest was held on March 24, 2001. The contest, which was organized and hosted by the Stetson ACM Chapter, was a rousing organizational success with the top three prizes going to South Fork High School, The Florida Online High School, and Lake Highland Preparatory School, respectively. The Chapter’s website has been recently revamped (http://acm.stetson.edu).

MAA Student Chapter

The QED Math Club is now the Stetson University MAA Student Chapter. In its first year as an MAA Chapter, the club met weekly, organized student and faculty presentations, discussed topics in mathematics, and held a general study session for students at Stetson. The club’s website is under development (http://qed.stetson.edu).

New Graduates

There were 8 students that graduated with a bachelor’s degree in computer science and 3 students that graduated with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics. Their senior research proposals may be viewed at http://www.stetson.edu/departments/mathcs/students/research.htm  Some are off to lucrative careers in industry; others are pursuing higher education by attending graduate school while others are engaging in the customary “soul-searching”.

New Department Website

The department’s website underwent a significant overhaul during the year. As with any site, it is perpetually under development. The URL is http://www.stetson.edu/departments/mathcs

St. Petersburg College

Clearwater Campus

Ann Cascarelle, Ken Chapman and Bill Rush were selected as one of the six semi-finalists for the Curriculum and Instruction Award from FACC for their work in developing and teaching the Liberal Arts Mathematics II course, MGF 1107.

June White, as Principal Investigator, recently received confirmation  that the proposal for continuing a third and fourth year with the "Computer Science, Engineering and Mathematics Scholarships Program" has been awarded $206,250 from the National Science Foundation.  NSF had previously awarded the college funds for the period ending January 31, 2002.

St. Petersburg/Gibbs Campus

An innovative approach to teaching mathematics in MGF 1107—Liberal Arts Mathematics II, as designed and developed by James Rutledge, has recently been selected as one of the six semifinalists in the Florida Association of Community Colleges Excellence in Curriculum competition.

University of Central Florida

SampTA 2001

The Fourth International Conference of SampTA was held in Orlando, Florida, May 13-17, 2001 at the University of Central Florida.  The conference was devoted to the theory and applications of sampling theory, wavelets and other time-frequency representations, and medical imaging.

The SampTA Organization is an international group of mathematicians and engineers that has been organizing international conferences for the last six years.  The main theme of the conferences is the theory and applications of Shannon's sampling theorem and its generalizations.  Other related topics of harmonic analysis, such as wavelets and other time-frequency representations, are also included.

The first SampTA conference took place in, Jurmala, Latvia in 1995, the second in Aveiro, Portugal in 1997, and the third in Leon, Norway in 1999.  The last SampTA meeting took place in the United States for the first time.

Contact Information

For further information, contact sampta@math.ucf.edu, or Professor Ahmed I. Zayed, Department of Mathematics, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL 32816-1364, Telephone (407)823-5989, Fax (407)823-6253, E-mail zayed@mail.ucf.edu.

NSF-CBMS Regional Conference

The NSF-CBMS Regional Conference in the Mathematical Sciences - Modulor Elliptic Curves, will be held at the University of Central Florida August 8-12, 2001.  Those wishing to attend should write to Dr. Heath Martin or Dr. Peter Hilton, Department of Mathematics, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL 32816-1364

Navy research award equals $280,000 for mathematician

A UCF mathematician whose research may improve long-range, laser-radar surveillance has been tapped to receive a grant of $280,000 over three years under the U.S. Navy's Young Investigator Program.

Cynthia Young Hopen is one of 26 researchers from throughout the nation to earn the competitive awards of up to $300,000 each from the Office of Naval Research.  She was the only award recipient from a Florida University.

Hopen's research will involve modeling the effects of atmospheric fluctuations on lasers that would be used on board Navy ships and planes to detect and identify types of aircraft.  "Basically," she says, "the Navy wants to determine the limitations imposed by the Earth's atmosphere on laser surveillance systems before it goes to the expense of building one."

Compared to conventional radar - which uses radio frequencies to detect aircraft - laser-based systems are more secure and more difficult to jam.  They also use less power.  Unlike conventional radar, however, laser-generated signals can be distorted by atmospheric fluctuations, which create the appearance of twinkling stars in a clear night sky.

Hopen divides her time between teaching mathematics and conducting research under the auspices of the UCF-led Florida Space Institute at Kennedy Space Center and the Air Force Station at Cape Canaveral.

Faculty

Dr. Peter Hilton has been awarded an Erskine Visiting Fellowship by the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand, to deliver public lectures and lectures to the Department of Mathematics, Computer Science and Philosophy in May/June, 2001.

Dr. Peter Hilton has been asked to deliver 2 lectures on "The Origins of Homological Algebra" at an International Conference on Abelian Groups, to be held at the University of Hawaii, July 24-31, 2001.

University of South Florida

Faculty

MOURAD ISMAIL has been on sabbatical this year, mostly at the City University of Hong Kong.

NATASHA JONOSKA has been on sabbatical this year at Wesleyan University, where she is continuing her work on DNA computing and related areas.  She has given invited addresses at the August meeting of the Zerner Conference of International Society of Quantum Biology and Pharmacology in New Orleans, the September International conference on New Computing Paradigms in Vienna, and the October Special Session on Symbolic Dynamics at the AMS meeting in San Francisco.

MASAHICO SAITO has received an NSF grant for three years for support of his research into ``Cohomology state-sum invariants in dimensions 3 and 4.''

Calendar

June 11-13:  the 7th Annual Meeting on DNA Based Computing will be held at USF -- Tampa this year.  There will be tutorials on molecular biology and computing on June 10.  The main organizer is NATASHA JONOSKA.  For more information, consult the departmental website.

November 1:  the Nagle Lecture Series will continue this Fall, when Alberto Grunbaum of the University of California at Berkeley will speak.  Professor Grunbaum is an expert on probability, analysis, and medical imaging.  His talk will be at 7:30 pm, in the University Lecture Hall. More information will be posted at the departmental website as it becomes available.