Fall 2002 Newsletter

From the Chair	Call for KYMAA Nominations
From the Chair-Elect	The Annual KYMAA Meeting
From the Vice-Chair	Kentucky Math Mailing List
The Governor's Corner	KYMAA Visiting Lecturer Program
KYMAA Teaching Award	News from the Chapters

From the Chair

Thanks to Georgetown College for hosting a great meeting last spring. I received many compliments about the quality of the meeting as well as the wonderful hospitality of our hosts. A special thank you goes to Homer White for coordinating the meeting. Of course, the mathematical talks are the strength of any good meeting, and at this meeting they were plentiful, varied in topic and of excellent quality. Thus, also thanks to the many faculty and students who made presentations and special thanks to our invited speakers: Professor Roger Nelson (Lewis and Clark College), Carl Cowen (Purdue University) and Bonnie Gold (Monmouth College). Finally, congratulations again to John Wilson (Centre College), the winner of the MAA Distinguished Teaching Award.

Distinguished Teaching Award: I am sure all of us could give an example of a mathematics teacher in our past that inspired us to choose the doing and teaching of mathematics as a career. The importance of good teaching cannot be overstated. If you know of someone who is a truly dedicated and outstanding mathematics teacher, please nominate that person for the KYMAA Distinguished Teaching Award. To be honored by one's peers ranks high in one's professional career. The nomination form and guidelines appear below under KYMAA Teaching Award.

Nominations: This year there will be elections for three important offices: chair-elect, secretary-treasurer, and newsletter editor. A nomination committee has been formed and will be chaired by Barry Brunson from Western Kentucky University. Please forward suggestions of candidates to Barry at barry.brunson@wku.edu.

Newsletter Editor: Thanks again to Alex McAllister of Centre College, our newsletter editor. The convenient electronic format for the newsletter and the excellent KYMAA webpage is the result of Alex's hard work. Many MAA sections are using these as models for their own sections. If you have any suggestions for the newsletter or webpage contact Alex at alexmcal@centre.edu .

KYMAA Spring Meeting 2003: Our next section meeting will be held April 4-5, 2003 at Bellarmine University. Continue to check the KYMAA webpage for meeting details. Bill Fenton, our chair-elect, from Bellarmine University, has more about the meeting below in his report From the Chair-Elect.

Have a great year and I look forward to seeing you in April at Bellarmine.

David Shannon at dshannon@transy.edu
KYMAA Chair

From the Chair-Elect

Plans for the spring meeting --- April 4-5, 2003 at Bellarmine University --- are coming along nicely (speakers contacted, menus selected, etc.). I hope to see everyone there. If your department has new faculty, please encourage them to attend this meeting, and also encourage them to submit a talk. The meeting is a wonderful opportunity to interact and to share common interests with mathematicians from across the state.

I encourage everyone to consider nominating a colleague for the Kentucky Section's 2003 Distinguished Teaching Award. For many of us, teaching is the heart and focus of our profession. Yet there is the curious privacy of teaching; once we enter our classrooms, few of our colleagues know what goes on there. We should celebrate the dedicated and innovative work that constitutes excellent teaching. The Distinguished Teaching Award is a great way to do so.

William Fenton at wfenton@bellarmine.edu
KYMAA Chair-Elect

From the Vice-Chair

News from the MAA Section Officers Meeting in August 2002, in Burlington, VT:

The MAA will soon put list of all invited speakers to section meetings over approximately the past 3 years on the web.

MAA and AMATYC are considering starting a NExT program for new faculty at two-year colleges, so that issues specific to two-year colleges can be addressed, and also so that those new faculty who do not have a Ph.D. can participate (a Ph.D. is required to participate in the current Project NExT program). They are considering the possibility of offering funding to sections that want to participate, which might also be used to start a section NExT. Anyone who has ideas that might help this project work is encouraged to send them to Michael Pearson, Director of Programs and Services for the MAA at: pearson@maa.org.

The MAA will offer a mathematical study tour to Greece from May 22 to June 5, 2003. For more information, see the announcement at the bottom of page 30 of the October 2002 FOCUS.

Kathryn M. Lewis at k.lewis@moreheadstate.edu
KYMAA Vice-Chair

The Governor's Corner

Kentucky Section Governor's Report from Math Fest 2002: My first official meeting as Governor of the Kentucky Section was the Board of Governor's (BOG) meeting at the 2002 MathFest in Burlington, VT in August. It was both enjoyable and very informative. Governors are expected to attend both the annual joint meeting of the AMS/MAA in January and MathFest that is held each August. I was very surprised at the amount of information that was presented during the (almost) 8-hour meeting and I honestly suffered from information overload. I was amazed at the number of activities and MAA committees that are an integral part of our organization. I want to share some of the agenda items from our meeting that I think may be of interest to you. In addition to the BOG, I also was able to attend the Section Officers meeting in Burlington. However, Kathy Lewis, MoSU, was the official KY Section representative to this meeting.

Board of Governors Membership: The Board of Governors is composed of over 50 individuals including, of course, all section governors together with others members such as MAA national officers and Governors At-Large. The later group includes those who represent such interest groups such as high school teachers, minorities, Canadian membership, etc. It was announced that the terms of two of these Governor At-Large positions ("mathematicians outside academia" and "teacher educators") will be expiring soon and will need to be filled. If you have any nominations for these two positions just let me know and I will gladly pass them on to the Martha Siegel, MAA Secretary.

John Kenelly, fund raising, etc.: John Kenelly is a visiting mathematician this year at the MAA and also is the new MAA Treasurer. He prevented a detailed financial report to the Governors and spoke of some of the financial problems that non-profit organizations face. One example is the rise and fall of revenues due to political and social issues such as the September 11, 2001 tragedy. Membership dues fell off considerably after September 11 and have only recently begun to rise. The fact that the MAA doesn't have a strong endowment to help it weather the ups and downs of the economy was the topic of much discussion. Kenelly will make MAA fund raising a top priority this year. Thus I predict we will all be getting solicitations for funds to help build the MAA endowment. Current funds which have been set aside are sufficient only to run the Association for less than one year.

Substitutes for Governors Will Not Vote: Due to the recent problems with some boards of directors in large corporations there was a lot of discussion on the fiscal responsibility of the members of the Board of Governors. In particular, MAA auditors have pointed out that the BOG has been in violation of Robert's Rule of Order in the past in that substitutes for governors unable to attend the BOG meetings have been given voting privileges. A long discussion followed as to whether a substitute member should have voting privileges. No consensus was reached. However we were informed that if a section governor was unable to attend a future BOG meeting, an informed section member would be asked by the section to substitute for the Governor but they would not have voting privileges. This issue will most likely come up again.

US Third in Math Olympiad: It was announced that the US had placed third in the 2002 International Math Olympiad trailing only China (1st place) and Russia (2nd place). The winners were announced only days before our meeting and was welcome news to all present.

MAA Publishing Many Books: It was announced that the MAA is having a banner year in publishing with 12 new books published since January 2002 and several more titles in the production stage. BOG members were able to briefly review many of these publications and were encouraged to help spread the word of these new books to the MAA membership. Books sales obviously help the MAA revenue stream and it was felt that these new titles should help to boost the MAA book sales. It is anticipated that many of these titles will be available for review and purchase in April 2003 at the KY Section meeting at Bellermine College.

MAA Sponsors Study Tour To Greece: The MAA will sponsor its first Mathematical Study Tour to Greece on May 22-June 5, 2003. Details will be distributed in September. However, an initial limit of 30 participants was proposed. Details are available on the MAA website.

Certificates of Meritorious Service: The BOG approved Certificates of Meritorious Service for individual members from the Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri, Northern California, Seaway and Wisconsin Sections. Each section gets to submit a person for this award every five years. The recipients will be officially announced and will be presented with certificates at the January 2003 joint AMS/MAA meeting in Baltimore.

MAA/NSF Sponsored Professional Enhancement Programs (PREPs): It was announced that 7 Professional Enhancement Programs (PREPs) were currently being offered. These professional enhancement programs/workshops are designed to provide college/university teachers an opportunity for additional training in certain fields. More details are available at http://www.maa.org.

Caution Asked Re Part-time Faculty and Dual Credit Courses: Based on recent CBMS surveys, the MAA is concerned about the number of part-time math faculty being used across the country and asked all mathematics departments to review their individual usage and abide by the recommendations in the MAA Departmental Guidelines (2000) publication. Additionally, courses taught for "dual credit" were a topic of concern. The Board of Governors passed a resolution asking for close supervision of the choice of text, syllabus, and choice of instructors in these "dual credit" courses. The traditional AP courses were mentioned as the most appropriate way for students to earn college credit while still in high school.

Electronic Voting for National Officers: A discussion was help on the appropriateness of conducting electronic voting for MAA national officers. Pros and cons were presented with no clear consensus reached. However it would appear that the MAA is very close to turning to this means of selecting its national leadership.

Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns for the MAA or if you have an interest in serving on one of the MAA committees. I will happy to pass this on to the appropriate individuals at the MAA. Remember also to consult the MAA web site at www.maa.org for information regarding any activities of our organization.

Rodger Hammons at r.hammons@modeheadstate.edu
KYMAA Governor

KYMAA Teaching Award - Call for Nominations

Nominations for the Kentucky Section's 2003 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 Annual Meeting of the section in Spring 2003 and will be widely recognized and acknowledged within the Section. The award will also be the official Section candidate for the pool of Section awardees from which the national recipients for the MAA Deborah and Franklin Tepper Haimo Awards for Distinguished College or University Teaching of Mathematics will be selected (though one of the national winners may be selected from another source). There will be at most three national awardees, each of whom will be honored at the National MAA meeting in January 2004 and receive a $1,000 check and certificate.

We urge you to submit a nomination if you have someone eligible and qualified in your department. Even if not selected this year, it is an honor to have been 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 at the MAA website: http://www.maa.org/sections/teachingawards.htm or via the following links:

If the Nomination Form is received by the Section Secretary by November 11, 2002, 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, 2002. 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):

Professor Karin Chess at Karin.Chess@kctcs.edu
Department of Mathematics
Owensboro Community College
4800 New Hartford Road
Owensboro, KY 42303

The Section Selection Committee will select the Section awardee during December and January and communicate its selection to the National Selection Committee no later than February 1, 2003, so that the National Committee can then make its selections.

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.

The committee to choose this year's distinguished teacher for KYMAA will be announced soon; questions and nominations can be directed to Professor Karin Chess at Karin.Chess@kctcs.edu.

Call for KYMAA Nominations

The term of our current Chair-Elect, Secretary-Treasurer, and Newsletter Editor all expire this spring, so we are seeking nominations for candidates for these offices. Our Chair-Elect is being promoted to Chair with the expiration of our current Chair's term and our Secretary-Treasurer has indicated that she will not stand for re-election and so we are especially soliciting for candidates for these vital positions; our current Newsletter Editor is still sitting on the fence concerning standing for re-election ;-). The elections for Section Officers are held during the Business Meeting at the Annual KYMAA meeting in the spring, but we are already welcoming nominations.

If you have any questions about these positions, please feel free to contact the current people in these positions:

Chair-Elect: Bill Fenton at wfenton@bellarmine.edu,
Secretary-Treasurer: Karin Chess at Karin.Chess@kctcs.edu,
Newsletter Editor: Alex McAllister at alexmcal@centre.edu.

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:

Barry Brunson (chair) at barry.brunson@wku.edu
Chris Leverenz at Christine_Leverenz@georgetowncollege.edu
Lillie Crowley at lillie@pop.uky.edu
Pat Costello at Pat.Costello@EKU.edu

The Annual KYMAA Meeting

Our 2003 KYMAA Annual Meeting is scheduled for April 4-5, 2003 at Bellarmine University, Louisville Kentucky. Further information will be appearing on our 2003 Annual Meeting and 2003 Meeting Program webpages in the coming months.

Our schedule of hosts for future section meetings is:

2003 Bellarmine University

2004 Murray State University

Please contact any officer of KYMAA if you would interested in hosting a future meeting, we're always on the look out for a good meeting site.

Kentucky Math Mailing List

While preparing this newsletter, I received the following from Lee Larson at LLarson@Louisville.edu

There is a general list I have set up to distribute math announcements called mathannounce. It's open for anyone to join and any member of the list can post to it. Right now, it's got about 200 addresses scattered over the state. I encourage anyone to join it because I see it as a general announcement list for mathematical happenings in the region.

To add your name to the list, send an e-mail with the single word "subscribe" in its body to: mathannounce-request@erdos.math.louisville.edu

In a few minutes you should get some instructions about confirming your subscription by e-mail. After you subscribe, you can post your announcements to the list. The return address on the posting must match an address on the list, or the posting will be rejected.

Tell everyone about the list, because the more names that are on it, the more useful it will become. If you have any lists with e-mail addresses of people who should be on mathannounce and won't object to being added, I'll be happy to sign them all up at once.

KYMAA Visiting Lecturer Program

We would like to remind everyone of the Visiting Lecturer Program for KYMAA. We have compiled a list of those willing to give visiting lectures, the titles of those lectures, a short bio of the speaker, and contact information. This list also includes speakers willing to speak at high schools. You are invited to consider our list of speakers on the webpage for the KYMAA Visiting Lecturer Program

Lectures are undergraduate accessible, but not necessarily freshman/sophomore accessible (talks are designated as accessible to high school students). Being listed does not obligate a speaker to accept invitations, but participants are willing to travel within a reasonable radius of their home institutions. Participants do not require or expect an honorarium from the host institution. However, the host institution is expected to take full responsibility for making all arrangements directly with the speaker, covering all travel expenses, publicizing the event, and acting as a host throughout the speaker's visit.

We are still looking for speakers to include on our list of visiting lecturers; those interested in being visiting lecturers should e-mail their information to either: Dr. Kathryn Lewis of Morehead State University at k.lewis@moreheadstate.edu or Dr. Daylene Zielinski of Bellarmine University at dzielinski@bellarmine.edu. Please send them the following information:

Name as you wish it to appear,
Title and Institution,
Contact Information including: address, phone, email, fax, url,
A short professional bio that gives some idea of your expertise; please limit your bio to a maximum of 150 words,
Titles of lectures you are interested in giving; please indicate which talks are accessible to high school students.

News from the Chapters

Bellarmine University reported by Bill Fenton: wfenton@bellarmine.edu

Marian Robbins has returned from her sabbatical year at California State Polytechnic University in San Luis Obispo, where she did research on composition operators. Bill Fenton has an NSF grant to develop course materials for college geometry, incorporating exploratory computer activities. (He would be glad to hear from potential beta-testers.) Mike Bankhead is in his third year as president of the Greater Louisville Council of Teachers of Mathematics (GLTCM). Bill Hardin is president-elect of this group. Marian Robbins and Daylene Zielinski are both teaching interdisciplinary courses with a mathematical component for Bellarmine's core curriculum. Respectively they are teaching "Culture and Scientific Creativity" for juniors and "Mathematics and Culture" for freshmen.

Centre College reported by John Wilson: wilson@centre.edu

I believe this is the first year in the 10+ years I have been reporting that there are no staff changes, promotions, retirements, or sabbatical leaves to report. We do have new officers in our student MAA group. Natalie Lents -- President, Tommy Tayman -- Vice-President, Anne Busse -- Secretary, Kathy Wooldridge -- Treasurer.

Eastern Kentucky University reported by Pat Costello: pat.costello@eku.edu

There have been several changes in the faculty since the beginning of last year. With the Fall 2001 semester, Marijo LeVan, Ron Pierce, and David Ng started a three-year retirement transition program where they would teach half time each semester or full time just one semester a year.

On November 2, 2001, David Ng died of a heart attack while taking a nap. David was a member of the department from 1967-2001. David Ng had a long record of scholarly publications in international journals. He was recognized for this as the recipient of the 1998 College Research Award.

Marijo LeVan�s health problems forced her to take full retirement at the end of Fall 2001. Marijo was a member of the department from 1969-2001. She was chair of the department from 1978 to 1984. During that time, she initiated the High School Teachers� Workshop, the EKU Mathematical Sciences Magazine, the Math Tutor Center, and the EKU Symposium in the Mathematical Sciences. Marijo served as Associate Vice-President of Academic Affairs from Spring 1994 through Fall 1995.

During the year, the department did a search for a statistician and found a wonderful new faculty member in Mark Gebert. Mark received his Ph.D. in Statistics from Rice University and taught at Sam Houston State, Meredith, and UK prior to accepting the position at EKU. Besides his outstanding teaching recommendations, Mark brings several years of statistical experience in industry to the classroom. In late spring, Mark played Harold Hill in a production of The Music Man in Harrodsburg.

After being Acting Chair of the department for the 2000/2001 school year, Ken Nelson took a leave of absence during the past year and spent the time at Trinity University (TX). While at Trinity, Ken decided he wanted to try something other than teaching. He started work at the National Security Agency in late summer. Eric Deaton was hired as a Visiting Instructor to replace Ken this year. Eric received his M.S. degree in Mathematical Sciences from EKU in 1997.

Lisa Kay�s daughter, Julia, has recently been diagnosed with Spinal Muscular Atrophy. As a result, Lisa has decided to spend the Fall 2002 semester at home with Julia. Harold Raynor was hired at the last minute to replace Lisa for the fall. Harold received his M.S. degree in Mathematical Sciences from EKU in 2000.

The department has an NSF grant that gives good students scholarships and also pays for membership in the MAA. As a result, it was decided to form an MAA Student Chapter. Most of its activities have been in conjunction with the KME chapter. The monthly meetings included talks on �The RSA Method of Encryption,� �Uses of Mathematics in Economics,� and �Graphing Complex-Valued Functions.� The chapter also attended a two-day regional KME convention at Mississippi State University in the spring that contained many good student talks.

Midway College reported by John E. Sasser: jsasser@fuse.net

Midway is presently building a $6 million dollar Mathematics/Science/Technology Center (Anne Hart Raymond Center for Math, Science and Technology.) This state-of-the-art facility will be the cornerstone of Midway College's efforts to educate and equip students for careers in these disciplines. Construction has begun. We hope to be in the building a year from this coming semester � January, 2003. Secondly, $6 million has been raised for our endowment to support scholarship programs to attract the very best students we can find. Of course, the emphasis will be on women.

I came this past month, as a full-time, Associate Professor of Mathematics. I am the only one in the math department at this time. We will be recruiting faculty for the department in the near future. At the moment, we have a professor of physics and a professor of Psychology teaching a math course each, and a couple of adjuncts. Ruben Schwieger, was the only one in the mathematics department at Midway before I came. I never got to meet him, since he left before I was hired. I do not know where he went.

We do not have any students that are majoring in mathematics at the moment. There are a couple of students that are preparing to be middle school math teachers who attend the evening division. All of this will change in the near future, as we recruit mathematically strong students (especially women) by giving them scholarships in mathematics and the mathematical sciences. We do not have a Student MAA Chapter as yet. I have plans to begin one soon. I am applying to the NSF for a grant that will support seminar lectures, colloquia and meetings. I certainly hope that by this time next year, I will have much more to report concerning mathematics at Midway College.

Morehead State University reported by Kathryn M. Lewis: k.lewis@moreheadstate.edu

The Morehead State University Department of Mathematical Sciences welcomes three new faculty members this fall:

Kris Cebulla Thompson, Assistant Professor of Mathematics, who is currently finishing her Ph.D. in Mathematics Education at the University of Iowa;
Troy Meadows, Instructor of Mathematics, who earned his B.S. in Mathematics at Morehead State University;
Chris Schroeder, Assistant Professor of Mathematics, who earned his Ph.D. in Mathematics at Kansas State University.

Gerd Fricke was recently granted tenure and promoted from Associate Professor to Professor. Lloyd Jaisingh, Professor of Mathematics, received Morehead State University�s Distinguished Teacher Award this past spring. Gordon Nolen and Joyce Saxon, both Associate Professors of Mathematics, retired at the end of the 2001-2002 academic year after 35 years and 37 years of service, respectively. Both of them are teaching half-time at MSU this academic year.

Murray State University reported by K. Renee Fister at renee.fister@murraystate.edu

New Faculty at Murray State University: Dr. Dubravko Ivansic received his B.S. from University of Zagrebi in 1989, his M.A. from the University of Oklahoma in 1993, and his Ph.D. from the University of Oklahoma in 1998. He comes to us from George Washington University where he worked from 1998-2002. His research area is topology, in particular hyperbolic manifolds. He enjoys teaching calculus and topology.

Promotions: K. Renee Fister received tenure and promotion to associate professor. She has been at Murray State since 1996.

Recent Retirements: Harvey Elder retired in May after 40 years of service to Murray State. He was a major influence on our students through his many activities, including his work with the Euclidean Mathematics Club and Pi Mu Epsilon.

Student MAA Chapter Activity: In October, the Euclidean Mathematics Club(EMC) had a progressive dinner involving both student and faculty homes. We also had the annual Halloween party. The members that attended dressed in their Halloween costumes, participated in a pumpkin carving contest, and cooked hot dogs around a nice bonfire. To end the fall semester, the EMC and Pi Mu Epsilon held their annual banquet at Tom's Grille. The night began with the initiation of the new Pi Mu Epsilon members. Following this, Dr. Christopher Mecklin gave an entertaining talk about the validity of astrology based on statistics. The spring semester was filled with lots of athletic-related activities including mini-golfing at Sullivan's where the faculty (with the help of Dr. Bell) demolished the students. The EMC also kept their bowling champion crown as they defeated the Honors Program-twice. We also celebrated the NCAA championship game with a party at Hart College where we also voted on the recipient of the Max G. Carmen Junior scholarship. We also had a variety of guest speakers including Dr. Erica Klampfl from Ford Motor Company and Dr. Katherine Brandl of Centenary College. For pictures of all these great events visit the EMC/Pi Mu Epsilon web page: http://campus.murraystate.edu/org/math/index.html.

Other Appropriate Newsletter Items: We have given talks, published papers, and written grants. We've given talks at local conferences in Georgetown College and Western Kentucky University and have presented papers at national conferences in cities such as New Orleans and San Diego. We've even given presentations overseas in Italy and Greece. Further, our faculty have been invited to speak at many prestigious universities, such as Wake Forest, MIT, the University of New South Wales (in Austrailia), University of Peking (in China) and Instituto Superior Tecnico (in Portugal). We've also published many papers between us. In the last year, we've had articles accepted for publication in respected journals such as International Journal of Mathematics and Mathematical Sciences, Quarterly of Applied Mathematics, Journal of Discrete Mathematics, and Topology and its Applications. Three of our faculty members received Research Enhancement Grants from the KY National Science Foundation Program to Stimulate Competitive Research. Maeve McCarthy also received a three year national research grant from the National Science Foundation. Also, Renee Fister became the eighth professor in the history of our department to receive the distinguished Murray State Presidential Research Fellowship. In addition, Ed Thome was selected by the College of Science, Engineering and Technology as the recipient of the Regents Teaching Award.

Northern Kentucky University reported by Kirsten Fleming: flemingk@nku.edu

This year, the new faculty include:

Dr. Carl E. Miller, Assistant Professor, B.S., 1993, University of South Carolina-Spartanburg; M.S., 2000, University of South Carolina; Ph.D., 2002, University of South Carolina.
Dr. Kirsten Fleming, Professor and Chair, B.Sc., 1985, University of London, U.K.; Ph.D., 1989, University of Birmingham, U.K.

The following members of our faculty will be on sabbatical in the coming academic year: Dr. Don Krug, 02-03; Dr. Don Galli, Fall 02; Dr. Phil McCartney, Fall 02; and Dr. Chuck Frank, Spring 03.

We also which to highlight the Sehnert Lecture, Monday October 29, by Ivars Peterson. See http://www.nku.edu/~math/sehnertlecture.html for news about the upcoming Sehnert lecture. Please see http://www.nku.edu/~math/news.html for other department news.

Owensboro Community College reported by Karin Chess : Karin.Chess@kctcs.edu

As for news from Owensboro Community College, nothing has changed except that our enrollment is up.

St. Catharine College reported by Sr. Ann F. Leonard: aleonard@sccky.edu

The following are full-time math faculty at St. Catharine College:

New faculty member Don Johnson at djohnson@sccky.edu
Sr. Ann F. Leonard our MAA contact at aleonard@sccky.edu
William Moore at wmoore@sccky.edu
Amer Shaw at ashaw@sccky.edu

University of Kentucky reported by Carl Lee: lee@ms.uky.edu

Visiting Faculty This Year:

Xingyan Fan Visiting Scholar Research area: Solid Mechanics Beijing University of Aeronautics & Astronautics, China Host: Chi-Sing Man
Mojia Huang Visiting Professor Research area: Solid Mechanics Host: Chi-Sing Man
Ritva Hurri-Syrjanen Visiting Scholar Research Area: Analysis Ph.D. University of Jyvaskyla Host: John Lewis and David Adams
Chaoyuan Liu Full-Time Lecturer Director of Mathematics Resource Center
Andrew Martin Full-Time Lecturer Research area: Algebra Ph.D., Iowa State University

At the spring 2002 commencement, Emeritus Professor Wimberly Royster received an honorary doctorate from the University of Kentucky to thank him for his many years of service to the University and to the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

During the past year, Chi-sing Man has held a University Research Professorship. This award has allowed him to bring several research collaborators to the Mathematics Department. Among the visitors is Roberto Paroni of the University of Sassari, Italy who received his doctoral degree from UK under Man's direction. During the past year, Man has continued his research on the elastic properties of metals and textured materials.

David Johnson retired from the Department of Mathematics at the end of the spring 2002 semester. David came to Kentucky in 1970 after finishing his doctoral degree at the University of Virginia. While at Kentucky, David held visiting positions at Oxford University and the University of Manchester.

Craig Huneke of the University of Kansas has agreed to give the third Hayden-Howard lecture during the 2002-2003 academic year. Craig is a leading figure in commutative algebra. Visit the department's web page at www.math.uky.edu for up-to-date information on the time and date of this lecture.

University of Louisville reported by Kevin F Clancey at k.clancey@louisville.edu

New Faculty/Visiting Professors:

Assistant Professor, Ryan Gill, Ph.D. 2002, U Texas Dallas: Speciality - Statistics.
Assistant Professor, Kiseop Lee, Ph.D. 2002, Purdue University: Speciality - Statistics, Financial Mathematics.
Visiting Assistant Professor, Gregory Bell, Ph.D. 2002, U of Florida: Speciality - Topology.
Visiting Assistant Professor, Ruth Brackebusch, Ph.D. 1985, Ohio State: Speciality - Functional Analysis.
Visiting Assistant Professor, Sherwin Kouchekian, Ph.D. 2000, U of Tennessee: Speciality - Functional Analysis.
Fall Semester Visiting Professor, Harry Miller, Ph.D. 1966, Illinois Institute of Technology
Fall Semester Visiting Professor in the UofL Liberal Studies Program, Michael J. Crowe, Ph.D. 1965, University of Wisconsin.

Promotions to full professor: Grzegorz Kubicki and Robert C. Powers and to associate professor: Grzegorz Rempala. Sabbatical leaves include: Richard Davitt for Spring 2003 semester, Michael Jacobson for Fall 2002 semester, Robert McFadden for 2002-2003 academic year, and Prasanna Sahoo for Spring 2003 semester.

The Big News Flash: The University of Louisville Mathematics Department now offers a Ph.D. in Applied and Industrial Mathematics. For additional information, check out the webpage math@louisville.edu.

Western Kentucky University reported by Mark Robinson: Mark.Robinson@wku.edu

Paul Hill (Ph.D., Auburn University) joins the department this year as our new Department Head. Dr. Hill has served at Emory University, the University of Houston, Florida State University, and Auburn University. He has held the Ralph and Jean Storm Chair at Baylor and was awarded the Distinguished Graduate Faculty Lecturer at Auburn.

Also joining the faculty this year, as Assistant Professors, are Lan Nguyen (Ph.D., Ohio University) and Wayne Tarrant (Ph.D., University of Georgia). Ferhan Atici (Ph.D., University of Nebraska) is a Visiting Assistant Professor this year.

In addition, Bruce Kessler has been promoted from Assistant Professor to Associate Professor. David Neal is on sabbatical leave during the fall 2002 semester.

The 22nd Annual WKU Mathematics Symposium will be held October 18-19, 2002. This year's theme is Financial Mathematics. Invited speakers include Dr. Warren Nichols of Florida State University and Dr. Giray Okten of Ball State University. Further details can be found at the website http://www.wku.edu/~bettina.richmond/Symp2002.html