Albion College
[reported by Robert Messer]Darren Mason (on leave from Department of Mechanical Engineering at MSU) is a Visiting Assistant Professor. • Mark Bollman completed his dissertation this past summer and has received a PhD degree from CMU.Andrews University
[reported by Donald Rhoads]Associate Professor Kenneth Franz retired October 1, 2001 after long service teaching remedial and general education courses. • Yun Myung Oh (PhD from MSU in Riemannian geometry) was appointed Assistant Professor (part time). Shandelle Henson (previously at C of William and Mary, PhD from U of Tennessee in dynamical systems and bifurcation theory) was appointed Associate Professor.Calvin College
[reported by Daryl Brink]Rachelle Ankney (PhD in combinatorics from George Washington U) has joined the faculty. James Bradley has returned to Calvin from Washington, DC after spending the last year and a half at the State Department in the William C. Foster Visiting Scholar Program.Central Michigan University
[reported by Ahmed Assaf]Doug Lapp and Jungsywan Sepanski have been promoted to Associate Professor. • New faculty include Azita Manouchehri (math education), Nate Brown (analysis, on leave at MSU), and visitors Dave Renfro (analysis), Jintae Kim (applied math), and Boris Bekker (combinatorics). • Leela Rakesh is on sabbatical leave this fall at Dow Chemical.Ferris State University
[reported by James Howard]Ed Straley retired at the end of last winter semester. Vaclav Konecny and Betty Arnold will be retiring at the end of this semester. • Shaw Walker, Bohodir Siddikov, Sandra Brigance, and Hengli Jiao have joined the faculty this fall in tenure-track positions. • Lakshmi Mukundan was promoted to Full Professor.Grand Valley State University
[reported by Paul Fishback]The Department of Mathematics and Statistics has now split into two departments. Steve Schlicker is the new chair of the Department of Mathematics. Ed Aboufadel and Carl Arendsen are the new assistant chairs. • New faculty members this fall include Associate Professor Nancy Mack (PhD from U of Wisconsin), Assistant Professor Rebecca Walker (PhD from WMU), and Visiting Assistant Professor Tao Wu (PhD from Northwestern U). • After three years of helping plan the Michigan Undergraduate Mathematics Conference, the GVSU Mathematics Club has passed on its leadership role to Calvin C. Calvin will host the conference this year, and Randy Pruim (rpruim@calvin.edu) will serve as conference coordinator. • At MathFest in Madison this past summer, Jody Sorensen was awarded the MAA’s George Polya Prize for expository writing in recognition of the article “Will the Real Bifurcation Diagram Please Stand Up!”, which she and Chip Ross wrote for the January 2000 issue of The College Mathematics Journal. • Paul Fishback and Steve Schlicker currently serve as co-directors for the Section’s High School Visiting Lecture Program (HSVLP). Since they will step down from this position at the end of this year, the Section seeks a new HSVLP director.Hillsdale College
[reported by Mark Watson]Bob Hesse has accepted a position at Saint John’s U (Minnesota). John Boardman was granted tenure and promoted to Associate Professor. Nancy Watson has accepted a one-year position in the department.Hope College
[reported by Todd Swanson]John VanIwaarden has retired after 40 years at Hope. • Assistant Professors Aaron Cinzori (PhD in applied mathematics from MSU, previously at Allegheny C in Meadville, PA) and Jillian McLeod (PhD in topological algebra from Howard U and previously a Visiting Professor at Hope) are now part of the faculty. • The mathematics department hosted a “Week of Math” October 15–20. Some of the department activities during this week included a career dinner, a student problem-solving session, dinner and a movie the mathematics way, and a problem-solving contest for high school students.Lake Superior State University
[reported by Brian Snyder]Brian Snyder was selected as a Project NExT National Fellow for the 2001–2002 academic year.Lawrence Technological University
[reported by M. Merscher]We are sorry to report the death of Zaven Margosian, chair of the department for many years and former Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. • Robofest 2001, headed by Chan-Jin Chung, was held at LTU in the spring. • Join your colleagues at the Michigan Section annual meeting at LTU on May 10–11, 2002.Northern Michigan University
[reported by Roxin Zhang]Three new faculty have joined the department: Assistant Professor Stephen Smith (doctorate in mathematics education from MSU, more recently at CMU) and temporary instructors Roger Contois (MA in mathematics education from NMU) and Ken Culp. • We are considering a policy that would require all students to attain a minimal level of mathematics proficiency before graduating. Acceptable entry criteria such as freshman placement test results, high school courses and grade point averages, and mathematics scores on the ACT or SAT are being considered. Students who do not meet the criterion will have to pass designated college courses. In anticipation of an increased demand for beginning level mathematics courses, the university is considering the use of online classes and will be looking closely at McGraw-Hill’s ALEKS this month. If your college or university is using or has used this product or ones like it, we would appreciate hearing from you; please contact interim department head Donald Zalewski (dzalewsk@nmu.edu). • On March 31, 2001 NMU hosted a collegiate programming contest in Marquette, with 21 teams representing five schools (Algoma U C, LSSU, MTU, NMU, and UM–Flint) participating. NMU’s Team Denny, consisting of students Mike Kowalczyk, Matt Murphy, and Denny VandenBerg, won the competition, and NMU also took first place in the school rankings.Oakland University
[reported by Jerry Grossman]Eddie Cheng and Alan Park have been promoted to Associate Professor with tenure. • Alan Park is on sabbatical leave for the year; Jerry Grossman and Jack Tsui will be on sabbatical this winter. • The department hosted two conferences on October 13: the Great Lakes Section meeting of SIAM, and the Thirty-fourth MIGHTY (MIdwest GrapH TheorY conference). • Famed and controversial logician Gregory Chaitin (IBM) gave a campus-wide address in October about randomness in mathematics. • The Summer Mathematics Institute is expected to continue this summer, offering for the seventh year college-level courses for bright high school students. Details can be found at www.math.oakland.edu/ousmi.html.Siena Heights University
[reported by Toni Carroll]Lana Taylor and Toni Carroll were appointed Teaching Learning Mentors as part of the Ameritech Faculty Development Technology Program and as Faculty Experts in Residence for the Support for the Advancement of Learning and Teaching. As such they are committed to develop their own expertise in technology-enhanced instruction and commit themselves to helping their colleagues develop these skills. • Madeline Muntersbjorn (U of Toledo) spoke on History of Calculus.University of Detroit Mercy
[reported by John O’Neill]Ron Mosier, formerly of DaimlerChrysler, has joined our faculty full-time. Frank Saba has left us for UNLV. • John Dwyer has been elected to the Board of Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility. • Jeffe Boats spoke at the SIAM Conference at OU on October 13. • We held our annual Technology Discovery Day for high school students on October 19.University of Michigan–Ann Arbor
[reported by H. Montgomery]We are sad to report the death of Professor Emeritus Jack McLaughlin. He was an especially esteemed teacher in all areas of mathematics, whose sets of difficult exercises have been widely distributed. His research spanned many areas of algebra. • New faculty are as follows: Associate Professor Kannan Soundararajan (number theory), and Assistant Professors Michael Bolt (several complex variables), Paul Hacking (algebraic geometry), Patricia Hersh (combinatorics), Paul Horja (mirror symmetry), Ben Joseph (combinatorics), Russell Mann (number theory), Michael Roitman (vertex algebras), David Schneider (mechanics), and Divakar Viswanath (ordinary differential equations). • The department is grateful to Al Taylor for serving as chair for the past six years. The acting chair this year is Alejandro Uribe; next year, Trevor Wooley will start as chair. • Chris Skinner has been awarded a Packard Grant. • An AMS sectional meeting will be held in Ann Arbor on March 1–3. • The Fred & Lois Gehring special year in complex analysis will occur in 2001–2002 (see www.math.lsa.umich.edu/~kverma/scv2001-2).University of Michigan–Dearborn
[reported by Frank Papp]There are two new faculty: Assistant Professor Amal Amleh (PhD in applied mathematical sciences from U of RI, recipient of numerous awards, including a Fulbright scholarship) and Associate Professor Rheta Rubenstein (doctorate in curriculum development from WSU, certified 7–12 mathematics teacher and author of numerous books). • Michael Lachance is on sabbatical leave this academic year.University of Michigan–Flint
[reported by Steve Althoen]Shu-Yi Tu (PhD from UC Santa Barbara in partial differential equations) has been hired as Assistant Professor. • Ken Schilling is serving as interim chair, while the new chair elect, Mehrdad Simkani, is on sabbatical this fall. • The 35th annual Math Field Day, a competition for high school students from throughout Michigan, will be held on February 26. Thirty-three teams participated in 2001; the team from Troy High School won the championship. For more information, visit the event’s Web site (www.flint.umich.edu/Departments/math/Field_Day).Washtenaw Community College
[reported by James Egan]Diane Turelli and Kristin Chatas have joined the full-time faculty. Hanan Wahab has been appointed to a temporary full-time position. Martha Showalter is now Dean of Math, Natural and Behavioral Sciences.Wayne State University
[reported by Daniel Frohardt]Visiting faculty this year include Nguyen Hung (National U of Vietnam, algebraic topology), Zbigniew Jurek (U of Wroclaw, probabilistic limit theory), and Byungchul Song (Kangnung National U, combinatorics). • John Klein and Zhimin Zhang have been awarded tenure. George Yin has received the Board of Governors’ Distinguished Faculty Fellowship and a College of Science Teaching Award. Guozhen Lu has been awarded a Career Development Chair. • Robert Berman is on a second one-year leave of absence to work on a special assignment from the provost’s office. Daoqi Yang is on leave for the academic year. Leon Brown is on medical leave this semester. John Klein and José-Luis Menaldi are on sabbatical leave this semester. Kay Magaard, Boris Mordukhovich, and George Yin will be on sabbatical leave next semester. • The home page for this year’s colloquium series is www.math.wayne.edu/~sarah/colloq/colloq.html.Western Michigan University
[reported by Dennis Pence]Effective July 1, 2001 the former Department of Mathematics and Statistics was split into two separate departments, the Department of Mathematics and the Department of Statistics. The two new departments are both still housed in Everett Tower, and they continue to cooperate on many activities, including the use of graduate teaching assistants. • Michael Kinyon, who comes from Indiana U–South Bend and works in differential equations, has joined the faculty. • David Ross (Rochester Institute of Technology) gave a colloquium talk and Pi Mu Epsilon banquet talk in October.
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