Fall 2003 Newsletter

From the Chair Call for KYMAA Nominations
From the Chair-Elect The Annual KYMAA Meeting
From the Student Chapters Coordinator Kentucky Math Mailing List
The Governor's Corner KYMAA Visiting Lecturer Program
KYMAA Teaching Award
Henry L. Adler Teaching Award News from the Chapters!!!

From the Chair

Plans for the spring meeting - April 2-3, 2004 at Murray State University - are coming along nicely (speakers confirmed, etc.). The folks at Murray are good hosts, so I hope everyone can be there. If your department has new faculty, please encourage them to attend, 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.

Another exciting meeting on the horizon is the "Tri-Section" Meeting of the Illinois, Indiana, and Kentucky Sections in November 2004. This will be at the University of Evansville, a beautiful campus centrally located for our Midwest region. The featured speakers will be Brian Confrey, director of the American Institute of Mathematics, and Ron Graham, president of the M.A.A. In addition, Woody Dudley has promised to dust off his famous trisectors talk for the event.

I encourage everyone to consider nominating a colleague for the Kentucky Section's 2004 Distinguished Teaching Award. For many of us, teaching is the heart and focus of our profession. Yet there is the curious privacy of teaching, that 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. (December 1 is the official deadline).

Bill Fenton at wfenton@bellarmine.edu
KYMAA Chair


From the Chair-Elect

On September 13 the officers of the section met with Don Bennett, Renee Fister, and Bob Pervine at Murray to tour the facilities and talk about plans for our annual spring meeting on April 2-3, 2004. Everything seems to be in good hands as you would expect with experienced hosts. The speakers are all lined up. Ted Suffridge, our Distinguished Teaching Award winner in 2003, will be joined by Suzanne Lenhart from the University of Tennessee and Ed Spitznagel from Washington University in St. Louis as our featured speakers. Richard Thompson from the University of Arizona will conduct a workshop on the Mathematics for Business Decisions on Friday afternoon. Maeve McCarthy and Renee Fister have proposed to have a panel discussion at which women will talk about their career experiences in mathematics. I want to encourage all faculty and students to come and consider giving a short talk in one of the contributed talk sessions. Murray is clearly going to be the mathematical center of the state that first weekend in April. I look forward to seeing you there.

John Wilson at wilson@centre.edu
KYMAA Chair-Elect


From the Student Chapters Coordinator

Attention: Math Club Sponsors and all Mathematics and Computer Science Faculty Members

It is time to begin planning for the upcoming KY Section Meeting, which will be held April 2-3, 2004 at Murray State University (MSU). This year, students will join faculty at the Friday night banquet. Meals for students will be at a discounted price.

What else is new at the meeting? The 2004 Meeting will hold a poster session of math and computer science clubs activities. Take pictures and prepare descriptions of your activities. Clubs can prepare self standing poster boards three feet in height and four feet in width to exhibit during the meeting or they can prepare 8 1/2 by 11 entries to be displayed on easels provided by MSU. Students gave thirteen presentations at the 2003 meeting. Begin recruiting presenters to surpass this number at the 2004 meeting. Student presenters will have a choice of a free one-year subscription to the Mathematical Association of America, which includes a monthly publication of the student's choice, or a book.

If you don't have an active club at your institution, recruit a few interested students, hold a meeting and begin brainstorming ideas for activities. Here are some activities that math/CS clubs: movie nights, pizza parties, invited speakers, fun problems, interview a professor, invite an alumni, sponsor a problem solving competition, a bowling night, intramural basketball, intramural soccer, celebrate pi day, celebrate math awareness month, organize to attend the KY Section Meeting. If you have any questions about MAA math clubs or student participation at the meeting, please feel free to contact me.

Dora Cardenas Ahmadi at d.ahmadi@morehead-st.edu
KYMAA Student Chapters Coordinator


The Governor's Corner

Kentucky Section Governor's Report from Math Fest 2003: The annual summer meeting of the Mathematical Association of America (MAA) was held in Boulder, Colorado on July 31-Aug 2, 2003 with 1,027 in attendance. This was my third official meeting while serving as the Governor of the Kentucky Section. The Board of Governors, with over 50 members including each of the 29 Section Governors, several Governors-At-Large and former MAA officers, meets twice each year preceding the start of each MathFest and Annual Joint meeting. The Board of Governors (BOG) is the governing board of the MAA. In Boulder newly installed President Ron Graham maintained a very organized and efficient meeting.

The agenda is sent to the governors several days ahead of the actual meeting and gives an outline of the issues that we are to discuss. The meeting lasts for the duration of the day and is a rapidly moving stream of motions, reports, discussions and opinions of the journal editors on the many issues to which our organization must respond. I want to briefly touch on some of the issues from this summer's MathFest 2003.

One issue which demanded considerable discussion was the need for increased MAA participation from the level I universities. Last year approximately 1,000 Ph.D.s in mathematics were awarded. However, graduate students are often not familiar with the MAA even though a large number of them will likely find employment in a college or university setting where there is a strong emphasis on undergraduate mathematics instruction. The large research universities often have very few MAA members. Overall the membership in the MAA is holding its own but it was agreed that increased participation and membership from this group should be one of our top goals. It was noted that a one-year membership to the MAA is given to new Ph.D.s.

The MAA is in sound financial shape according to MAA Treasurer John Kenelly. We were presented with detailed financial reports on all aspects of the financial life of the organization. After a slow down in 2002, 2003 is turning out to be a good year and a projected operating budget for 2004 was approved. The MAA has an operating budget of 6 million, administers around 6 million in grants, and has a 6 million endowment. The endowment recently doubled due to the generous gift of 3 million dollars from Paul and Virginia Halmos. This latter gift has been earmarked to support the renovation of the Carriage House behind the MAA headquarters in Washington, D.C. into a mathematical conference center.

Project NeXT is reported in good financial condition as other sources in addition to the support of ExonMobil have been obtained. The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, the American Statistical Association, American Mathematical Society and Symbolic Logic Inc. are currently providing support for Project NeXT.

The MAA sponsored travel tour to Greece was described as a huge success. The efforts will be repeated next spring with a sponsored tour to England. Watch for information on applying for this travel tour this fall on the MAA web page.

Two of the MAA's major efforts are the PREP (PRofesional Enhancement Program) and the PMET (Preparing Mathematicians to Educate Teachers) programs. Both are sponsoring workshops that should be of interest to many MAA members. PREP is an umbrella program which can support a variety of professional development efforts in a variety of fields while the PMET program will again be offering workshops in 2004 for faculty interested in working with pre-service teachers. Full-page descriptions can be found in the April 2003 FOCUS as well as on the MAA web page.

The MAA continues to offer many new texts, all of which can be purchased online from the web site www.maa.org. If you haven't recently looked at these offerings I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

The Section awards for distinguished teaching are illustrated in the August/September 2003 FOCUS. Again, congratulations to Ted Suffridge of the University of Kentucky, who is the Kentucky Section winner for 2003.

The MAA is a very complex and active organization. Its newly designed web page contains information about most of the activities mentioned in this report. It will be worth your time to look at it regularly. As Governor of the Kentucky Section it is my responsibility to both encourage and provide communication between the Kentucky Section and the MAA. If I can be of any help to any of our members in any way please let me know. As an example, if you are interested in serving on any of the numerous MAA committees please let me know. Our organization depends heavily upon the good works and efforts of its members.

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


KYMAA Teaching Award - Call for Nominations

Nominations for the Kentucky Section's 2004 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 2004 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 2005 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 10, 2003, 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, 2003. 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):

  • Daylene Zielinski at dzielinski@bellarmine.edu
    Department of Mathematics
    Bellarmine University
    2001 Newburg Road
    Louisville, KY 40205

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, 2004, 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 Daylene Zielinski at dzielinski@bellarmine.edu.


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 extra ordinarily 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 $1,000 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.


Call for KYMAA Nominations

The term of our current Vice-Chair and Student Chapters Coordinator expire this spring, so we are seeking nominations for candidates for these offices. 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, including self-nominations!

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

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.
  • soon; until this committee is settled, nominations may be sent to Bill Fenton, KYMAA Chair, at wfenton@bellarmine.edu


The Annual KYMAA Meeting

Our 2004 KYMAA Annual Meeting is scheduled for April 2-3, 2004 at Murray State University, Murray Kentucky. Further information will be appearing on our 2004 Annual Meeting and 2004 Meeting Program webpages in the coming months.

Some of the relevant dates and deadlines:

  • February 2, 2004 - Call for Contributed Papers in Winter Newsletter
  • February 27, 2004 - Deadline for Abstracts for Contributed Papers
  • March 17, 2004 - Deadline for Meeting Registration
  • April 2-3, 2004 - Some fun and mathematics at the Annual Meeting

Our schedule of hosts for future section meetings is:

Spring 2004 Murray State University
Fall 2004 University of Evansville
Spring 2005 Morehead State University
Spring 2006 Centre College

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 the fall newsletter last year, 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

We are sorry to announce that Bill Hardin has left us for the College of St. Rose in Albany, NY, to be closer to his family. To fill that position, Anne Raymond has moved from Bellarmine's School of Education over to the Mathematics Department. Anne is a Bellarmine graduate with a Ph.D. in mathematics education from Indiana University. We are delighted to have her join us.


Berea College reported by James Lynch: James_Lynch@berea.edu

We have two new faculty joining us this year for temporary terms:

  • Linda Williams, Assistant Professor (degree from UK) and
  • Laura Schmidt, Assistant Professor (Ph.D. from UK)
Two faculty have left us:
  • Steve Boyce has retired after 36 years of service and
  • Bob Powers has left academia.
Jan Pearce and James Blackburn-Lynch were promoted from Assistant Professor to Associate Professor.


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

For the second straight year I report that we have no changes in faculty, no promotions, and no sabbatical leaves. We are an incredibly stable group. I am sure that next year there will be all kinds of news. Neil Eklund has announced that this will be his last year before retirement. Neil has served us well since joining Centre's faculty in 1974. We will be conducting a tenure-track search to fill his position. We will also be searching to fill a tenure-track joint appointment in math and physics.

The Student Math Association has gotten off to a fast start. The new officers are Zaid Ahmed, Caroline Henderson, Yulia Makiyevskaya, Oksan Atilan, and Marli Baumann. We had a great evening of pizza and problems early in September. There are definite plans for a couple of visiting speakers this fall as well as an alumni career panel discussion at homecoming, the annual math vs chemistry (and maybe physics) croquet match and our Math Function social gatherings sprinkled in of Wednesday afternoons. It looks like a vigorously mathematical term.


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 2003 semester, Paul Bland, Betty Givan, and Don Ryoti started a three-year retirement transition program where they will teach half time each semester or full time just one semester a year.

During the year, the department did searches for two mathematicians and found two wonderful new faculty members in Shane Redmond and Vineet Gupta. Shane received his Ph.D. from UT-Knoxville doing a thesis on Zero-Divisor Graphs of Rings and taught for two years at Southeastern Louisiana University. Shane is a Project NExT fellow. Vineet just finished his Ph.D. at Caltech doing a thesis on Conformal Laminations and Generalized Weldings. Vineet is a certified helicopter pilot.

At the last minute, the Provost approved Lectureship positions. Eric Deaton and Kay Black were hired as Lecturers this year. Eric received his M.S. degree in Mathematical Sciences from EKU in 1997. Kay received her M.S. degree in Mathematical Sciences from EKU in 1997.

Most of the MAA Student Chapter activities have been in conjunction with the KME chapter. The monthly meetings included talks on "Modular Origami Polyhedra," "Sequences and Society," and "Triangular Numbers." The chapter also attended a national KME convention at Oral Roberts University in the spring that contained many good student talks.


Georgetown College reported by William Harris: William_Harris@georgetowncollege.edu

Homer White has returned from a year-long sabbatical at Cornell University, where he held a Teaching Program Visiting Faculty position.

Our Student MAA Chapter has plans for an active year. In early September, we held a beginning-of-the-year opening picnic/games night in conjunction with our Student ACM group. Guest speakers are among the activities in the works for the Fall semester.


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

The Morehead State University Department of Mathematics and Computer Science welcomes three new faculty members this fall:

  • Mike Dobranski, Assistant Professor of Mathematics, who is currently finishing his Ph.D. in Mathematics at the University of Kentucky;
  • Maureen Doyle, Assistant Professor of Computer Science, who is currently finishing her Ph.D. in Scientific Computing and Computational Mathematics at Stanford University;
  • Tim O'Brien, Assistant Professor of Mathematics, who earned his Ph.D. in Mathematics at Kansas State University.
Ted Pack, Instructor of Mathematics, retired at the end of the 2002-2003 academic year after 22 years of service.


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

Murray State University’s Mathematics and Statistics faculty have had another capital year in teaching, research, and scholarly activities! We have two new faculty members:

  • Dr. Omer Yayenie works in analytic number theory. He received his Ph.D. from Temple University in July 2003.
  • Dr. Paul Johnson, joins us from University of Iowa, where he received his Ph.D. in May 2003. His work deals with representations of Dihedral groups on quantum computers.
In the area of promotions, we are pleased to announce that Dr. Maeve McCarthy, Dr. Rob Donnelly, and Dr. Ed Thome were promoted to associate professors. Drs. McCarthy and Donnelly were also granted tenure. After 34 years of service, Dr. Gary Jones chose the early retirement option. His expertise will be missed.

In terms of awards, Dr. Fister was selected as an Outstanding National Collegiate Teacher. Several faculty have been fortunate enough to have their research supported by grants. Dr. McCarthy, Dr. Fister, and Dr. Siefker have received KY NSF EPSCoR grants. Also, Dr. McCarthy has been awarded an NSF Research for Undergraduate Institutions grant. Dr. Bennett along with other colleagues in the College of Science, Engineering, and Technology has secured an NSF grant for scholarship funds for students majoring in computer science, engineering, and mathematics. Our professors have had approximately 20 papers accepted for publication while teaching 17,000 credit hours for Murray State.

The Euclidean Mathematics Club has been busy this year. This club have been fortunate to receive the participation of many students, both members and nonmembers. The club hosted a cookout and a Halloween party. In November, Dr. Rick Klima from Appalachian State University presented a Talk on Cryptography. During the Christmas Banquet, jointly organized with Pi Mu Epsilon, Dr. Renee Fister shared some of her cancer research to over 35 students and faculty members. In March, Dr. Kennan Shelton from Rhodes College gave a talk on the "Singled Out" Game. February held a bowling competition against Pi Mu Epsilon featuring 12 members of the math club. February also saw a revival of our Problem of the Month. March saw the Nth Annual (N=5) Calcutta Lottery at the home of Dr. Wayne Bell. In April, four students gave talks at the KYMAA meeting at Bellarmine.


Northern Kentucky University reported by Kirsty Fleming: flemingk@NKU.EDU

NKU is pleased to welcome the following new faculty:

  • Dr. Mary Baggett, Tenure Track, Assistant Professor, University South Carolina, SC; BS Math Education 1975, University of Tennessee, TN; MS Math 1980, Idaho State University, ID Florida State University, FL; PhD/MS Statistics 1997/1994, ASQ Certified Quality Engineer 6/2002
  • Patricia Sisson, Temporary/Full Time, Lecturer from Bowling Green State University, OH BS 1989, MS 1992
Kevin Kirby was promoted from Associate Professor to Full Professor. He was also named as the Evan Stein Professor of Biocomputing. Dr. Peter Moore has retired; he has served at NKU since 1973. Dr. Andrew Long was named as the College of Arts and Sciences Outstanding Junior Faculty member.

We have two talks coming up in the next couple weeks:

  • On October 1, 2003 at 3:30 PM, Dr. Charles J. Colbourn from Arizona State University will present "Quality Control in Manufacturing Oligo Arrays"
  • On October 13 at 7:30pm in the Otto Budig Theatre, Dr. Ed Burger from Williams College will present "MAGIC WITH MATHEMATICS Is the formula faster than the eye?"


Somerset Community College reported by Roger Angevine: Roger.Angevine@kctcs.edu

As of July 1st, Roger Angevine is no longer division chair. Gail Stringer is currently serving as the new division chair. In addition, two faculty were promoted this past spring: Gail Stringer to Professor and David Behrman to Associate Professor.


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

This past year, six graduate students received their doctoral degrees, and eleven graduate students received their masters' degrees. Congratulations to our graduated students!

The Mathematics Department made statewide headlines when math faculty Paul Eakin and Carl Lee, together with Professor Emeritus Wimberly Royster and colleagues from the College of Education, received a five-year, $22 million grant to strengthen pre-K through twelfth grade mathematics in Eastern Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia.

John Lewis awarded first Ralph and Norma Edwards Research Professorship in Mathematics: By the unanimous recommendation of a departmental search committee, John Lewis was honored with the first Edwards research professorship in Mathematics. John is a specialist in harmonic analysis and partial differential equations.

Carl Lee wins Outstanding Teaching Award: Carl Lee was one of four full professors campus-wide to receive the Provost's Award for Outstanding Teaching at the senior faculty level. Carl combines a passion for research, a deep love of teaching, and the ability to inspire students-particularly future teachers-by his own outstanding example.

Ted Suffridge honored by KYMAA for outstanding teaching: Ted Suffridge was selected as this year's winner of the Kentucky MAA award for distinguished college and university teaching in mathematics. Joining previous award winners Brauch Fugate and James Wells, Ted was cited for his outstanding record as a graduate advisor and an effective undergraduate teacher.

Faculty Promoted: Assistant professors Margaret Readdy and Changyou Wang were promoted to Associate Professor with Tenure this spring. Zhongwei Shen was promoted to Full Professor.

Faculty Visitors for 2003-2004:

  • During the coming year, Stephen Seif will take a leave of absence from the University of Louisville to participate in outreach activities related to the Appalachian Mathematical Sciences Partnership. Steve is an algebraist and has worked extensively in mathematics outreach at the University of Louisville.
  • Also joining the faculty for a two-year visiting position is Heide Gluesing-Luerssen. Professor Gluesing-Luerssen works in control theory and algebraic coding theory, and holds the position of Oberassistentin in the Department of Mathematics at the University of Oldenburg in Germany. She will be working with members of the algebra group and faculty in the Department of Computer Science in the College of Engineering.
  • Sergey Kitaev will be visiting the Discrete Mathematics group for academic year 2003-2004. Professor Kitaev is a 2003 doctoral graduate of Goteberg University in Sweden and will be working with Professors Richard Ehrenborg and Margaret Readdy. He studies enumerative combinatorics, formal languages, graph theory, and coding theory.


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

Our new tenure-track Assistant Professors this year are:

  • Ferhan Atici (Ph.D., University of Nebraska) and
  • Jens Harlander (Ph.D., University of Oregon).
In addition, there are three Visiting Assistant Professors this year:
  • Jean-Claude Evard (Ph.D., Lausanne, Switzerland),
  • Peter Sepanski (Ph.D., Princeton University),
  • Christopher Winfield (Ph.D., UCLA).
William Ullery (Ph.D., University of Arizona) is a Visiting Professor this fall, on sabbatical leave from Auburn University. New Instructors this year are Hope Marchionda (Ph.D. candidate, Clemson University) and Molly Wesley (Ph.D. candidate, University of Kentucky). Bruce Kessler has been granted tenure and is on sabbatical leave during the fall 2003 semester. The following faculty have started full-time retirement:
  • Virginia Hanks after 33 years of service,
  • Mary Barr Humphrey after 23 years of service,
  • Kyle Wallace after 33 years of service,
  • Carroll Wells after 35 years of service.

The 23rd annual WKU Mathematics Symposium will be held November 21-22, 2003. The theme is Mathematics from Zero to Infinity: Elementary Topics which Recur in Advanced Settings. Invited speakers are Paul Sally, Jr. from the University of Chicago and Bernd Schroeder from Louisiana Tech. This year we will have special sessions for student papers, with funds available through MAA NSF-RUMC (NSF Grant DMS-0241090) to support student travel and lodging. More information is available at http://www.wku.edu/~tom.richmond/symp03.html.

WKU will be hosting the Southeastern Section meeting of the American Mathematical Society on March 18-19, 2005.