Officers of the Florida Section
Mathematical Association of America
2003 - 2004

Greetings,

I think it is safe to say that this past February’s joint meeting of FL-MAA and FTYCMA was a huge success - over 180 people in attendance, almost $1,500 in MAA book sales, some very delicious afternoon cookies and tea from W. H. Freeman Publishers, and a scrumptious continental breakfast from John Wiley.  The meeting included four plenary speakers, four workshops, seven papers by undergraduate students and over twenty contributed papers from mathematicians from around the state.

As you might expect, a lot of people worked very hard to make this meeting so successful and I would like to thank them for their hard work and dedication to collegiate mathematics.  First off, we owe a great deal of thanks and appreciation to Ken and Betty Pothoven for their work on the registration table and for coordinating the MAA book sales.  Ken has been the section’s Secretary/Treasurer for the last three years but that simple title really belies all the work that is involved with his position.  Without doubt, he has done an outstanding job coordinating and balancing more details at any moment in time than any one of us can imagine.

I have had the privilege of helping Ken and Betty set up the registration area at each of the last three meetings.  They do this late Thursday night, sometimes still working as the clock is approaching midnight and, as good as Ken is, Betty is even better.  She orchestrates the entire set up and directs each of us in a multitude of details and, believe you me, it is no small task getting some of us mathematicians to secure the MAA-blue table skirt onto the edges of the registration tables.

Jacci White, from Saint Leo University, also deserves a lot of thanks and appreciation for the success of this years meeting.  As our section’s Vice-President for Programs, she designed a truly outstanding program - a template worthy of emulation in future years.  Plenary sessions by Bob Devaney, Tina Straley, Ron Graham, and Erich Friedman made the program outstanding.  Complementing these with workshops on calculator and computer technology, developmental mathematics and the mathematics of business decision-making just made the meeting better.  Most importantly, designing a series of diverse contributed paper sessions - crafted in such a way so that everyone could find something of interest at every given time - gave our sectional meeting the richness and variety of a national meeting.

I would like to thank Pam Crawford and Mike Nancarrow of Jacksonville University for their outstanding work in hosting our meeting.  Pam and Mike worked as co-chairs of the Local Arrangements Committee.  They did an awful lot of work and coordinated the most minute of details (some of them - like the request for signage with big lettering - even imposed by myself).  Pam and Mike were personally involved in every detail and the success of this meeting is a direct reflection on their professionalism.  They did not work alone, though, and so I would also like to thank the following Jacksonville University faculty and staff:

There are lots of other people deserving our thanks and appreciation - Mike Mears for his work on the Awards Committee, Chuck Lindsey for his work on the Nominating Committee, Scott Hochwald for his work on the Site-Selection Committee, Bill Rush for his work with the website, Debbie Garrison for coordinating FTYCMA activities, and many others.  Let me, in closing, just say a general thank-you to everyone involved.

To me, the success of the Florida Section, can trace its roots to the performance of one man - Fred Zerla from the University of South Florida.  Fred established the work ethic that each of us, no matter the institution we come from, strive to emulate.  He set the standard and he has been awarded lots of awards, including both the sectional and national distinguished service awards from the MAA.  He is retiring this month from the State University System and we wish him well in the future.  Fair Winds and Following Seas, Fred.

Respectfully,

David Kerr
Past President

For the gratitude you have earned from a multitude of students at both the graduate and undergraduate levels;

For your clear and understandable way of presenting material so that regardless the topic, whether Calculus I or Leray-Schauder Degree Theory, the students were always challenged by the rigor, depth and beauty of the mathematics yet to come;

For your successful work directing Ph.D. dissertations in the areas of nonlinear functional analysis, partial differential equations and control theory;

But, perhaps most of all, for your remarkable ability to draw out the highest levels of accomplishment and performance in your students,

The 2003 recipient of the Mathematical Association of America Award for Distinguished College or University Teaching of Mathematics for the state of Florida is Athanassios Kartsatos, University of South Florida.

For your continuing service as the section's Newsletter Editor;

For your successful work in transferring the newsletter to an electronic format;

For your development of a state-wide listserv to facilitate communication among all persons in the state interested in mathematics;

But, most importantly, for the initiative, artistic creativity, and exemplary performance in developing and maintaining the section's website,

The 2003 recipient of the Mathematical Association of America Award for Distinguished Service to Mathematics for the state of Florida is Bill Rush, Saint Petersburg College.

Ken Pothoven read a citation to the host institution.

The meeting adjourned at 1:55 P.M.

President David Kerr called the meeting to order at 9:30 A.M.  Each one present introduced himself or herself.  Present were committee members Stephanie Fitchett, Scott Hochwald, Judy Jones, David Kerr, Chuck Lindsey, Lubo Markov, Ken Pothoven, Marilyn Repsher, Bill Rush, and Jacci White.  Present representing FTYCMA was Debbie Garrison.

The minutes of the Executive Committee meeting of April 27, 2002 were approved.

Reports

The Committee meeting adjourned at 10:55 P.M.

FINANCIAL STATEMENT

Florida Section
Mathematical Association of America
4/26/02 to 2/18/03

Awards Committee

Call For Nominations

MAA is again sponsoring PREP (Professional Enhancement Programs) workshops on a wide variety of topics.  See the MAA web page for details and deadlines.  There are also a number of PMET (Preparing Mathematicians to Educate Teachers) workshops for which the deadline has not passed.  The MAA web page has details as well.

By now you should have been able to cast your ballot in the national elections either by mail or electronically.  It is hoped that the electronic balloting will provide a speedy and efficient method.

Tina Straley, MAA Executive Director, attended a mathematics summit in February convened by U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige.  The meeting was to provide a first focus for the President’s No Child Left Behind initiative.  Although many of the speakers lacked first-hand experience in teaching mathematics, a number of interesting points were made about content, pedagogy, and teachers.  If you would like a copy of Ms. Straley’s report, please email me at mrepshe@ju.edu.

A report on developmental mathematics sponsored by the Florida Two Year College Mathematics Association, FTYCMA, is just out.  For details, contact Norma Agras at Miami-Dade Community College or another member of FTYCMA.

The Committee on the Undergraduate Program in Mathematics, CUPM, has sent word that the new curriculum guide will be available at the Joint Meetings in January 2004.  Look for a panel discussion on the guide at the Phoenix meeting.  I have recently been appointed to CUPM so I should be able to report more completely after the summer meeting.

Student Activities of the Florida Section
Mathematical Association of America

36th Annual Meeting
Jacksonville University
February 21-22, 2003

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University

Florida Atlantic University

Faculty

Florida Atlantic University is pleased to welcome Terje Hoim to the faculty of the Honors College, beginning in August of 2003.  Dr. Hoim completed her Ph.D. at Kent State University in 2000, and comes to FAU from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, where she has just completed a prestigious three year postdoctoral position as the Harold L. Dorwart Visiting Assistant Professor of Mathematics.  Welcome, Terje!

Students

FAU's Honors College is also celebrating the graduation of its first mathematics student, John Samuels.  In the fall, Johnny will be entering the graduate program in Applied Mathematics at North Carolina State University.  Congratulations, Johnny!

Polk Community College

The Polk Community College Team participated in the 2003 Florida Math Olympics at UNF-Jacksonville on April 5, 2003.  With impressively fine performances, our team won both Individual and Team Championships!  The Individual Champion is Ramez (Ramsiss) Shebl, and our Championship team members are Tom Joyce, Robert Lamar, Santos Medina, Elliott Rice, and Ramsiss.  The team was coached and led by the faculty member Li Zhou.  Most of these fine students are graduating or near graduation and intend to major in math or computer science.  They will transfer to USF, Stetson, and other four-year colleges.  We would like to thank UNF and Scott Hochwald for their tireless dedication in challenging and inspiring two-year college students!

St. Petersburg College

Jim Rutledge, St. Petersburg College / Gibbs campus, was invited to participate in a conference workshop as a member of the Mathematical Sciences Conference Group on Digital Educational Resources at the MAA headquarters in Washington, D.C., in March.   Representatives from several national digital libraries and organizations were present and progress was reported on federated searching as well as on individual library projects.  Jim is the co-Editor-in-Chief of the MERLOT-Mathematics Editorial Board.

University of South Florida

Faculty

Four faculty at the USF Department of Mathematics are retiring this year.

Edwin Clark arrived at USF in 1970 six years after receiving his Ph.D. from Tulane University.  Initially and perhaps ultimately an algebraist (rings and semigroups), he also worked in physics and various areas in combinatorics, especially graph theory and coding theory (he spent a year visiting the National Security Agency) (his Erdos number is 2).  He had seven doctoral and two masters students.  He was active in the upper division of the undergraduate program, and designed the MAPLE class here.

Samuel Isaak arrived at USF in 1968 three years after receiving a Ph.D. from Indiana University.  Initially working in differential geometry, tensor analysis, and related fields, he turned to undergraduate education, where he has taught all courses in the line from pre-calculus to differential geometry.  He received a Teaching Incentive Program award, and was the mathematics representative to the USF teachers' program for the Peace Corps.

Joseph Liang arrived at USF in 1970 a year after receiving a Ph.D. from Ohio State University.  He worked in algebra, number theory, and several applications of mathematics to computer science.  He had seven doctoral students, and was Associate Director of the Institute for Constructive Mathematics.  He was also active in mathematics education, helping bring nearly a million dollars in educational grants to USF, and serving as Program Director of the Hillsborough County/USF Summer Program for the Gifted.

Fredric Zerla arrived at USF in 1963, four years before getting a Ph.D. from Florida State University.  He was one of the principal organizers of the lower division of the undergraduate program, and was Undergraduate Advisor for many years.  He also organized and ran the USF Chapter of Pi Mu Epsilon (the national mathematics honor fraternity) and the USF Chapter of the Mathematics Association of America.  He has been interim Department Chair, Speaker of the Faculty Senate, and President of the Florida Section of the MAA.  (He also ran the Suncoast Region of the MAA for many years.)  He has held many other positions, and has won many honors, including a Distinguished Service Award for the Florida Section of the MAA.

We wish them all well on their further adventures.

Department

The Departments of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Computer Science & Engineering, and Mathematics, are launching a new Master's Program in Bioinformatics this fall.  The Masters in Bioinformatics will cover some of the new developments in the structure of proteins and other complex molecules, and in computational and mathematical analysis of these molecules and the structures that they form.  This program can be taken by itself, or in parallel with other doctoral programs.