Fall 2010 Newsletter

From the Chair Call for KYMAA Nominations
From the Chair-Elect The Annual KYMAA Meeting
The Governor's Corner From the Student Chapters Coordinator
KYMAA Teaching Award News from the Chapters!!!
Call for Adler Award Nominations

From the Chair

I and the rest of the Executive Committee of KYMAA hope that the new academic year has started well for you. I know that it will be a busy one! I am certain that before long, exams will be standing in a stack before me, waiting for the red pen to do its work...

Many thanks go to Russell Brown and all the rest of the folks at the University of Kentucky who worked so hard to make our 2010 Spring Meeting a success. We are already looking forward to and planning this year's meeting, which will be held March 25-26 on the campus of Eastern Kentucky University, in Richmond, and is being coordinated by Ken Dutch. Below you can read in Dora Ahmadi's note about the invited speakers coming to the meeting. Please be thinking about possible topics for panel discussions or contributed talks; before you know it, January and the official call for submissions will be here!

Congratulations to Robin Blankenship, of Morehead State, the 2010 recipient of the KYMAA Award for Distinguished College or University Teaching of Mathematics! Please strongly consider nominating one of your colleagues for the 2011 award-I know you know someone deserving. Information about the award, including what is to be included in a nomination, can be found below.

This year we will be electing a new Treasurer and Chair-Elect at our spring meeting. Additionally, we will be electronically voting on a Governor in the spring. Pat Costello, Eastern Kentucky University, is serving as this year's chair of the Nominating Committee. You may contact him, or one of the other members of the committee, if you or someone you know would like to be considered for one of these positions.

As always, please feel free to contact any of the members of the Executive Committee if you have any questions or concerns about KYMAA-we welcome your comments and feedback!

Best regards,

Will Harris
Chair
William_Harris@georgetowncollege.edu


From the Chair-Elect

Get ready for an exciting celebration of mathematics! Plan to participate in our 2011 Kentucky Section Meeting of the MAA. The Meeting will take place at Eastern Kentucky University on March 26and conclude on March 27. The Invited Speakers are:

  • Colin Adams from Williams College, Distinguished Teaching Award from the Mathematical Association of America in 1998
  • Laura Taalman from James Madison, 2005 Alder Award recipient
  • Robin Blankenship from Morehead State University, 2010 recipient of the KY Section Distinguished Teaching Award

Our program will begin with a meeting of the KY Section NExT on Friday morning. Encourage your non-tenured faculty to participate in our Section NExT. It is a great opportunity to network and pick up great ideas to build a successful career. The rest of the program may also include panel discussions and contributed talks by faculty and students. Begin planning to give a talk and to bring your students to the conference. Abstracts for panels and talks will be solicited in late January, so there is plenty of time for you to make your plans to speak.

Begin planning to attend this exhilarating event in Richmond in March!

Dora Ahmadi
Chair-Elect
d.ahmadi@moreheadstate.edu

 

The Governor's Corner

Attendance continues to climb at Mathfest meetings. The Pittsburgh meeting was expected to meet or exceed the record set at Portland in 2009. This year's Mathfest featured a strong program of distinguished and interesting speakers. I particularly enjoyed Sommer Gentry's talk on applying operations research to improve the supply of kidneys for transplants. Participation by students at Mathfest has surged in the last three years, particularly undergraduate students.

Be aware that the dates for the Joint Meetings in New Orleans had to change slightly, due to the changed date for the Sugar Bowl. (There would have been difficulty getting hotel rooms!) The Joint Mathematics Meetings will take place January 6-9, 2011.

Electronic memberships in the MAA have proven to be fairly popular, with more than 2500 electronic members as of August (including yours truly). The most frequent approach to the electronic journals seems to be examining the table of contents and then downloading individual articles. The Problems sections from the CMJ and the Monthly have been popular downloads. Some readers have complained about the inability to "flip through" an issue; the staff is investigating a "browsing edition" similar to that used for Focus.

The student magazine Math Horizons has (finally!) become available on JSTOR.

As noted in my last column, MAA investments did much better in 2009 than 2008. The Investment Committee has taken a "defensive posture" in recent years and this has protected the Association from some of the recent economic turbulence.

Recall that Mathfest for 2011 will be August 4-6, in Lexington . It would be great to have a good showing from our local section.

Bill Fenton
KYMAA Governor
wfenton@bellarmine.edu


KYMAA Teaching Award - Call for Nominations

Nominations for the Kentucky Section's 2011 Distinguished Teaching Award are now being accepted. The Kentucky Section Selection Committee will choose one of the nominees for the Section Award. The awardee will be honored at the KYMAA Annual Meeting in Spring 2011. The awardee will also be the official Kentucky Section candidate for the pool of teachers from which the national recipients of the MAA Deborah and Franklin Tepper Haimo Awards for Distinguished College or University Teaching of Mathematics will be selected, although the committee does also consider direct nominations from MAA members. More information on the award, and nomination instructions can be found on the national MAA website at: http://www.maa.org/awards/teachingawards.htm . Past winners of the KYMAA Distinguished Teaching Award can be found at: http://sections.maa.org/kentucky/teaching.html .

We urge you to submit a nomination of someone who is eligible and qualified in your department. Even if the nominee is not selected this year, it is an honor to be nominated. Your department will receive recognition for its commitment to excellence in teaching, and the work done in preparing a nomination folder for your candidate is not wasted, since your candidate can be nominated again in a future year. Self-nomination is not permitted.

Eligibility

  • College or university teachers assigned at least halftime during the academic year to teaching a mathematical science in a public or private college or university (from two-year college teaching through teaching at the Ph.D. level) in the United States or Canada. Those on approved leave (sabbatical or other) during the academic year in which they are nominated qualify if they fulfilled the requirements in the previous year.
  • At least five years teaching experience in a mathematical science.
  • Membership in the Mathematical Association of America.

Guidelines for Nomination
The nominees should:

  • be widely recognized as extraordinarily successful in their teaching*;
  • have teaching effectiveness that can be documented;
  • have had influence in their teaching beyond their own institutions**;
  • foster curiosity and generate excitement about mathematics in their students.

* "teaching" is to be interpreted in its broadest sense, not necessarily limited to classroom teaching (it may include activities such as preparing students for mathematical competitions at the college level--for example, the Putnam Prize Competition or the Mathematical Contest in Modeling--or attracting students to become majors in a mathematical science or to become Ph.D. candidates).

** "influence beyond their own institutions" can take many forms, including: demonstrated lasting impact on alumni; influence on the profession through curricular revisions in college mathematics teaching with national impact; influential, innovative books on the teaching of college mathematics; etc.

Nominations must include the appropriate "Evidence of Extraordinary Success in Teaching," the first page of which is the "Nomination Form." Please follow the instructions on that form precisely to assure uniformity in the selection process both at the Section and National level. The form and instructions can be obtained by clicking on Evidence of Extraordinary Success in Teaching(pdf).


If the Nomination Form is received by the Section Secretary by November 5, 2010, the Secretary will ask the nominee's Department Chair to work with the nominator in supplying the additional required materials. Ultimately, a complete nomination must also include Evidence of Success in Teaching as described on the back of the nomination form. Final deadline for receipt of all materials is December 1, 2010. If the file on the Section's awardee significantly exceeds the limits prescribed, it will not be considered for a national award and will be returned to the Section. Please send one copy of all materials to the Section Secretary (electronic submissions preferred):

Robert Hebble at robert.hebble@kysu.edu
Division of Mathematics and Science
Kentucky State University
400 East Main St.
Frankfort, KY 40601

We look forward to your participation in this exciting MAA venture of taking substantive action to honor extraordinarily successful teaching. We want to see such teaching recognized at all post-secondary school levels. We depend on you to help us identify those who merit such recognition.

This year the Teaching Award Committee members are

 

Henry L. Alder Award for Distinguished Teaching

Henry L. Alder Award for Distingushed Teaching by
A BEGINNING COLLEGE OR UNIVERSITY MATHEMATICS FACULTY MEMBER

In January 2003 the MAA established the Henry L. Alder Award for Distinguished Teaching by a Beginning College or University Mathematics Faculty Member to honor beginning college or university faculty whose teaching has been extraordinarily successful and whose effectiveness in teaching undergraduate mathematics is shown to have influence beyond their own classrooms. An awardee must have taught full time in a mathematical science in the United States or Canada for at least two, but not more than seven, years since receiving the Ph.D. Each year at most three college or university teachers are to be honored with this national award and are to receive a $1,000 award and a certificate of recognition from the MAA. Award recipients will be expected to make a presentation at one of the national meetings of the MAA.

Nominations for the award may be made by any member of the MAA.

For more information, see http://www.maa.org/awards/alder_award.html. Note that this year, the deadline for nominations is October 1, 2010.


Call for KYMAA Nominations

This spring we will be holding elections for Treasurer and Chair-Elect. All new officers will begin their terms at the Executive Committee Meeting immediately following the Annual Business Meeting in the spring. Both positions carry three-year terms.

If you have any questions about these positions, please feel free to contact the current people in these positions or read the "job descriptions" in our bylaws, to be found at http://sections.maa.org/kentucky/bylaws.html.

Please forward the name and affiliation of any Section member you would like to nominate for one of these offices to any member of the Nominating Committee. Self-nominations are entirely appropriate. If you'd like to get involved, JUMP IN!

This year the members of the Nominating Committee are


The Annual KYMAA Meeting:
A Bluegrass Mathematics Extravaganza

Our 2011 KYMAA Annual Meeting will be held March 25-26, 2011 at the Eastern Kentucky University in Richmond, Kentucky. Further information will appear on our 2011 Annual Meeting and 2011 Meeting Program pages in the coming months.

Some of the relevant dates and deadlines:

  • January 28, 2011 - Call for Contributed Papers in Winter Newsletter
  • February 25, 2011 - Deadline for Abstracts for Contributed Papers
  • March 7, 2011 - Publication of Meeting Program on KYMAA website
  • March 11, 2011 - Deadline for Meeting Registration
  • March 25 - 26, 2011 - Mathematics and Fun at the Annual Meeting!

In spring 2012, Bellarmine University will host the KYMAA Annual Meeting. Please contact any officer of KYMAA if you would be interested in hosting a future meeting.

Mathfest 2011

This summer MathFest is coming to the Bluegrass! It will be held August 4-6, 2011 in Lexington, Kentucky. Those who have attended this great event other summers know what to expect. Those who haven't, mark your calendars now! For more information keep checking the website http://www.maa.org/mathfest/ . Currently what is there deals with summer 2010's meeting in Pittsburgh (but that will soon change) and it should give a good idea of what to expect this summer in Kentucky.

 

Hey Students!

My name is Mike Dobranski, and I'm the Student Chapters Coordinator for the KYMAA. I hope your fall term is going well so far. If your institution does not have a student chapter or a math club, talk to your professors about starting one. Chapter or club meetings are a great place to share summer research experiences with other students and faculty. Here's a link to the MAA page with information on starting a student chapter at your school - http://www.maa.org/students/chapter_index.html.

Whether or not you have a chapter or club, there are several competitions you may want to attempt.

  • The first competition is the Virginia Tech Regional Mathematics Competition (VTRMC). You need to have a faculty member who is willing to register your institution and proctor the exam. Information is available from http://www.math.vt.edu/people/plinnell/Vtregional/. Institutional registration is due by Wednesday, October 6, 2010 (if by post), or by Monday, October 11, 2010 (if by e-mail). The competition will take place on Saturday, October 30, 2010 at your institution.

  • The second competition is the 71st Annual William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition. Information is available from http://math.scu.edu/putnam/index.html. The faculty advisor needs to request a registration packet as soon as possible in order to return the registration materials by Thursday, October 14, 2010. The competition will take place at your institution on Saturday, December 04, 2010.

  • The final competition that I'll mention are the Mathematical Contest in Modeling (MCM) and the Interdisciplinary Contest in Modeling (ICM). These are competitions that run for an entire weekend. This year the competition starts on Thursday, February 10, 2010 and ends on Monday, February 14, 2011. This competition is for teams of up to three students. Your institution may have more than one team, but a student may be on only one team and each team works on only one problem. More information is available from http://www.comap.com/undergraduate/contests/mcm/
.

Students who are planning to go to graduate school in Fall 2010 should be preparing to apply. Application deadlines may be as early as November for the most competitive programs. Ask your professors for recommendation letters as soon as possible so they have time to write good letters. If you'll still be an undergraduate in the 2011-2012 school year, you should consider applying for a Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program for Summer 2011. I'll provide more information on REUs in an upcoming newsletter. To see which schools ran NSF-funded REUs in summer 2010 check out: http://www.nsf.gov/crssprgm/reu/list_result.cfm?unitid=5044

 

News from the Chapters

Bellarmine University

reported by Michael Ackerman (mackerman@bellarmine.edu)

After one year as interim Dean of Arts and Sciences, Bill Fenton has become the Dean of Arts and Sciences. Although the mathematics department is sad to have Bill leave the department full time, we are excited for him in his new position. We're fortunate to have Bill continue to teach one course per semester for us. Mike Ackerman now becomes department chair.

The department welcomes Dr Ryan Therkelsen as a one year Visiting Assistant Professor. Ryan comes to us from North Carolina St. University where he recently completed his PhD. His research area is algebraic combinatorics.

In May, five seniors graduated with majors from the department, one of whom currently attends the University of Nebraska, Lincoln on a MCTP research fellowship.

 

Centre College

reported by Marian Anton (marian.anton@centre.edu)

Student MAA Chapter or Math Club:

In summer 2009, the national mathematics honor society Pi Mu Epsilon awarded Centre College one of six Good Lectureship grants in support of a mathematics speaker. In spring 2010, Dr. Angela Spalsbury from Youngstown University participated in the induction ceremony for the 2010 class of Centre Pi Mu Epsilon inductees giving a talk highlighting various ways to expand the current activities of the local chapter and faculty in support of undergraduate engagement and research in mathematics. The student MAA club and the student chapter of AWM are planning joint activities.

Seminars/ Colloquia/ etc

In fall 2009, Josh Roberts from the University of Kentucky gave a talk on topological data analysis in support of an independent study group organized by Marian Anton at Centre College. In January, eighteen students attended the Joint Mathematics Meetings in San Francisco, CA. As part of her visit at Centre College in spring, Dr. Angela Spalsbury gave a well-attended convocation lecture entitled Mathematics and Art. In March, Centre faculty members Marian Anton and Joel Kilty organized special sessions at the AMS meeting hosted by the University of Kentucky. Marian (co)organized a special session on Homotopy Theory and Geometric Aspects of Algebraic Topology and Joel (co)organized a special session on Function Theory, Harmonic Analysis, and Partial Differential Equations. Centre's Professor Christine Shannon delivered an invited talk at the 2010 KYMAA Annual Meeting within the same venue as that for the AMS meeting. Also a student presented a collaborative research paper at the summer Math Fest in Pittsburgh, PA.

In mid-July, the entire mathematics faculty participated in an Inquiry Based Learning workshop organized by Jeff Heath and Joel Kilty and supported by a grant from the Academy of Inquiry Based Learning of the Educational Advancement Foundation. In addition to Centre's mathematics faculty, there were participants from Asbury College, Georgetown College, Manchester College, Transylvania University, and the University of Kentucky. We had a lively and engaging workshop experience that benefited the participants tremendously.

Christine Shannon and Chris Barton received a grant from the Associated Colleges of the South to work on interdisciplinary research between MAT-CSC and BIO. They attended the MAA PREP workshop on mathematical biology at Sweet Briar College in Virginia this summer and they traveled to Ann Arbor, MI to meet with biologists modeling fish populations in the Great Lakes. They are planning a workshop for students and faculty on applications of mathematics and computer science to biology for fall 2010.

 

Kentucky State University

reported by Andy Martin (andrew.martin@kysu.edu)

We welcomed back Catherine Newell, last year a new Assistant Professor in Physics. Over her eventful summer she finished her University of Kentucky PhD in Physics (under Michael Cavagnero - her dissertation title: "Inelastic Collisions in Cold Dipolar Gases"). Besides physics courses, Catherine also teaches developmental mathematics courses.

At the KYMAA meeting in March freshman Virgil Barnard gave a talk entitled "Interesting Graphing Methods/ Stages of Their Construction," which showcased his unusual approach to the Collatz Problem. Sadly for us, Virgil transferred to UK over the summer. Eung Chun Cho and Andy Martin also gave talks at the conference. At the subsequent KYMAA officers' meeting, Andy was elected Newsletter Editor and then was appointed Webmaster.

Karen Heavin continued running a pilot for high school seniors to take College Algebra online at their high schools and earn joint high school/college credit if successful. In the fall of 2009 KSU introduced the online College Algebra "Access to Algebra" course into the curriculum of several regional high schools. The course is a collaborative effort between KSU faculty and onsite high
school faculty. Students participate in the course entirely on site at their respective high schools either in a dedicated high school course or through independent study. Participants from the 2009-2010 school year produced the following results:

  • 162 students participated from 6 high schools.

  • Overall 52% of students who participated passed the course with a C or better.

  • 41% of those with a math ACT subscores of 15-18 passed with a C or better and 34% of those with a math ACT subscore of 19-21 passed with a grade of C or better.

  • Of those who did not pass and had an ACT math subscore < 22 and attempted the KYOTE college algebra placement exam, 87.5% successfully placed into college algebra.

According to Karen," These results were very encouraging for our initial attempt and we look
forward to continued improvement in the collaborative effort". For more information contact her at karen.heavin@kysu.edu

Andy Martin attended the Officers' meeting at MathFest in Pittsburgh as the official representative of the KY section. He also gave a talk at the conference on an interesting fib the TI-84+ calculator tells.

Fariba Nowrouzi-Kashan was published in Cases on Health Outcomes and Clinical Data Mining: Studies and Frameworks, Edited By Patricia Cerrito of U of L. Fariba's contribution was Chapter 3: "Outcomes Research in Cardiovascular Procedures".

 

Kentucky Wesleyan College

Kirby Chelgren has retired. The chair of the Department of Mathematics and Physics is Leanne Faulkner.

 

Morehead State University

reported by Kathy Lewis (k.lewis@moreheadstate.edu)

There are several reasons to celebrate the accomplishments of students in the Morehead State University Department of Mathematics, Computer Science, and Physics this year: nine of our students participated in REUs across the nation this past summer, eleven students have been awarded undergraduate research fellowships in the department this semester, and Joshua Bradley, who has a double major in mathematics and computer science, received the Goldwater Scholarship in 2010. The department held a picnic on September 9th to welcome new and returning students, and the event was very well attended. For information about activities that the Mathematics, Computer Science, and Physics Club is planning for this year, please see the Student Chapters Coordinator's report (Hey, Students!) in this newsletter.

Also, the KY American Regional Mathematics League sponsored by the department and run in collaboration with faculty from the University of Kentucky, University of Louisville, and Dunbar High School placed first at the at the competition in Athens, Georgia and fourth nationally in Division B; the team has moved to Division A.

This semester our department is running a faculty seminar series which meets at 12:40 on various Wednesdays (the dates can be found on the web by going to http://www.moreheadstate.edu/mcs and clicking on the "Seminar" link). Everyone is welcome to attend.

 

Murray State University

reported by Timothy Schroeder (Tim.Schroeder@murraystate.edu)


Promotion:

Bob Pervine has been promoted to full professor.

Conference:

The Murray State chapter of the AWM is sponsoring the Women Engaged in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) Research Conference, October 23, 2010 at Murray State University. Deadlines to submit an abstract is October 16, 2010.

Other:

The Euclidean Math Club Movie The Zero Matrix has reached 7000 hits on YouTube! Check it out!


Northern Kentucky University

reported by Steve Rankin (rankin@nku.edu)

Promotions / New Assignments:

Michael Waters has been promoted to Associate Professor in the department.

Daniel Curtin has been selected to serve as Associate Dean in the College of Arts and Sciences and will also continue as Director of the Center for Integrative Natural Science and Mathematics

Other activities:

The 2010 Sehnert Lecture:

Monday, October 25, 2010 at 7:30 PM in Otto Budig Theater

An Introduction to Cryptography and Public Key Encryption

Navah Langmeyer is a senior cryptologic mathematician at the National Security Agency in Maryland. She grew up in the Greater Cincinnati area, including several years spent in Northern Kentucky.

While her doctoral thesis at the University of Michigan was in geometric function theory, a subfield of complex analysis, personal and professional considerations steered Navah to employment at the NSA. There, she has enjoyed applying her analytic skills to wide variety of problems ranging from theoretical mathematics to complex communication protocols, and taken advantage of opportunities to live and work in California and England. She regularly visits schools and summer programs to discuss cryptology and mathematics at NSA, and to encourage students to pursue studies in mathematics.

Public Welcome, 5th graders and above.

For more information, please visit the departmental website at http://www.nku.edu/~math/

 

Thomas More College

reported by Bob Riehemann (Robert.Riehemann@Thomasmore.edu)

We welcomed Harold Smith to the faculty. He was awarded a Ph.D. from the University of Tennessee in the Spring of 2010, under the direction of Dr. David E. Dobbs.

http://www.thomasmore.edu/mathematics/faculty.cfm?faculty_id=573

We also said goodbye to Dr. Steve Lameier, who retired after 41 years.

http://www.thomasmore.edu/mathematics/faculty.cfm?faculty_id=113

 

University of Kentucky

reported by (lee@ms.uky.edu )

New and visiting faculty :

  • Beth Kelly (Lecturer, Ph.D., 2007, University of Washington).

  • Kate Ponto (Tenure-track assistant prof, Ph.D., 2007, University of Chicago, topology).

  • Jack Schmidt (Lecturer, Ph.D., 2008, UK).

  • Bonnie Smith (UK Lyman T. Johnson Postdoctoral Fellow , Ph.D. 2010, University of Notre Dame).

  • Liang Song (Visiting Scholar, Associate professor, Zhongshan University, China)..

    Sabbaticals:

  • Russell Brown (Fall 2010)

  • Richard Ehrenborg (Fall 2010)

  • Peter Perry (Fall 2010)

  • Margaret Readdy (Fall 2010)

    Other items:

  • Peter Perry was named the 2010-2011 Arts & Sciences Distinguished Professor.

  • Peter Hislop and Qiang Ye received the Edwards Professorship, 2010-2013, in the Department of Mathematics.

  • Heide Gluesing-Luerssen received the Royster Professorship, 2010-2013, in the Department of Mathematics.

  • Paul Eakin was named 2010 UK Public Scholar.

  • We restarted UK's Pi Mu Epsilon chapter in Spring 2010.

  • UK Math Day is Saturday, October 9.

  • UK has launched a Central Kentucky High School Math Circle. A mathematics circle consists of professional mathematicians meeting with middle or high school students to learn mathematics. Topics are developed through a series of problems so that students have the fun of learning the material on their own. To learn more about Mathematics Circles visit the website of the National Association of Math Circles at www.mathcircles.org.
  • Information about our circle will be at the web site of the Central Kentucky Math Circles,

    http://www.math.uky.edu/~circles/ .

     

    University of Louisville

    reported by Thomas.Riedel (Thomas.Riedel@Louisville.edu)

    New Faculty / Visiting Professors:

    • Dr. Csaba Biro, Assistant Professor (tenure-track), received his Ph.D. from Georgia Tech and came to U of L after a 2 year postdoc at the University of South Carolina. His research area is Combinatorics and Posets.
    • Dr. Jinjia Li, Assistant Professor (tenure-track), received his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, after which he served two years as Philip T. Church Postdoctoral fellow at Syracuse University. He came to U of L after 2 years at Middle Tennessee State University. His research is in Commutative Algebra.
    • Dr. Cristina Tone, Assistant Professor (tenure-track), received her Ph.D. this year from Indiana University, Bloomington. Her research is on limit theorems in Probability.
    • Dr. Daniel Smith, Assistant Professor (term), received his Ph.D. this summer from Indiana University, Bloomington. He works in the area of Cryptography.

    Promotions:

    • Dr. Jon-Lark Kim was promoted to Associate Professor with Tenure.

    Other news:

    • Dr. Wiley Williams will spend the AY 2010-11 on sabbatical leave.

    • The Math Club continues its meetings with both mathematical and social activities; we have a large overlap in membership with the Society of Physics Students. One big part of their activities will be to raise money to help with the cost of going to conferences.
    • The Department of Mathematics will host the Twenty-fourth Cumberland Conference on Combinatorics, Graph Theory, and Computing from May 12 to 14, 2011, Dr. Andre Kezdy is chair of the organizing committee. More information as well as announcements about Seminars, Colloquia etc. will be on our web-site www.math.louisville.edu

     

    Western Kentucky University

    reported by Mark Robinson (mark.robinson@wku.edu)

    • Summer Bateiha (Ph.D., University of Oklahoma), Samangi Munasinghe (Ph.D., Texas A & M University), and Ngoc Nguyen (Ph.D., Bowling Green State University) all join our faculty as tenure-track Assistant Professors this year. Also, Joy Curtis (M.A.E., Western Kentucky University) is an Instructor.

    • Dominic Lanphier has been granted tenure.

    • Jean Thornton will begin Transitional Retirement in January 2011 after 34.5 years of service in teaching, including 20.5 years of full-time teaching at WKU.
    • The 30th Annual Mathematics Symposium at Western Kentucky University will be on November 5 and 6, 2010. The theme of the Symposium is "Games and Computer Animation", but any talks on mathematics, computer science, or related topics are welcome!

      The invited speaker is Laszlo Mero, a game theorist and author of the book "Moral Calculations: Game Theory, Logic, and Human Frailty".

      The deadline for submitting an abstract is October 31, 2010. The participation is free. We have funds available for student travel. More information can be found at www.wku.edu/mathsymposium/

       

    West Kentucky Community & Technical College

      reported by Rhonda Adkins (Rhonda.Adkins@kctcs.edu)

    • New Faculty: Heather Rottmann has been hired in a full-time temporary position for the 2010-2011 academic year.

    • Promotion: Julie Thompson of Metropolis, IL was promoted from Assistant Professor of Mathematics to Associate Professor of Mathematics at West Kentucky Community & Technical College in Paducah, KY (effective July 1, 2010). Julie has been employed at this campus since January 2008, and is a co-advisor to the Mu Alpha Theta, a math honorary society