MATHEMATICAL ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA

NEW JERSEY SECTION

 

REPORT OF THE GOVERNOR                                                                             FALL 1998

Theresa C. Michnowicz

 

BOARD OF GOVERNORS MEETING

The Meeting of the Board of Governors at Mathfest98 in Toronto was held on Wednesday, July 14, 1998, at the Delta Chelsea Hotel. Topics on the agenda included finances, meeting schedules, appointments, awards, and new programs.

The Finance Committee reported an improvement in our financial status primarily due to an increase in contributions and to a decrease in publication expenses and administrative costs at the DC office. The committee is exploring ways to increase the membership. Please encourage your colleagues to join the MAA, which can now be done via the Web (http://www.maa.org/mbsvcs/mbsvcs98_index.html).

Mathfest99 will be held in Providence, RI, July 31-August 2, 1999. Given that other summer meetings had already been scheduled - the International Congress on Mathematics Education (ICME) in Japan, July 31-August 7, 2000, and the AMS meeting celebrating World Mathematical Year 2000 (http://www.ams.org/meetings/wmy2000.html) at UCLA, August 7-12, 2000) - the feasibility of holding a MAA summer meeting in 2000 generated extra-lively discussion. The Board voted to hold Mathfest2000, August 3-5, 2000, at a West Coast campus in order to accommodate those wanting to attend both the MAA and the AMS meetings.

In business conducted by mail, the board elected Deanna Haunsperger and Steve Kennedy, both of Carleton College, as Editors-Elect of Math Horizons, and Mary K. Heid, Pennsylvania State University, as Governor-at-Large representing Teacher Educat ion, to fill the unexpired term of James R. C. Leitzel, who passed away last winter. The Board approved Carl Pomerance (MAA-NJ speaker), University of Georgia, as the 1999 Hedrick Lecturer. Pomerance will deliver the lectures at Mathfest99.

Aparna W. Higgins, University of Dayton, and Joseph A. Gallian (MAA-NJ speaker), University of Minnesota at Duluth, will join the staff of Project NExT as co-directors. For other appointments and awards please see MAA Online (http://www.maa.org/awards /gallian.html).

The board approved the establishment of a lectureship in memory of James Leitzel, a recent director of Project NExT. The first of these lectures will take place at the Mathfest99. The MAA is accepting contributions to support this endowment (http://www .maa.org/aboutmaa/give.html).

The Board agreed to the proposal for the Association for Research in Undergraduate Mathematics Education (ARUME) to conduct activities at national MAA meetings for a five-year trial period. The ARUME newsletter will be posted on MAA Online.

MATHFEST98

MathFest98 at Ryerson Polytechnic University, Toronto, was a success with the attendance exceeding that of Atlanta Mathfest97. The program committee was chaired by J. Kevin Colligan (MAA-NJ speaker), National Security Agency. Barbara Osofsky, Rutgers University, was a member of the program committee and a member of the committee for the MAA short course, Mathematical Deceptions.

New Jersey was well represented on the program. Jean Taylor (MAA-NJ Speaker), Rutgers University, delivered the Hedrick Lectures. She spoke on Geometric Variational Problems. Invited speakers included Andrew Odlyzko, AT&T Labs, "Primes and Zeros of the Zeta Function: Conjectures and Computations"; Henry O.Pollak, Columbia University, "Stability and Sensitivity in High School and College Mathematics"; and Margaret H. Wright, Bell Laboratories, Lucent Technologies, "The Interior-Point Revolution in Constrained Optimization."

JOINT WINTER MEETINGS 1999

The winter joint mathematics meetings will be held in San Antonio, January 13-16, 1999 (http://www.ams.org/amsmtgs/2031_intro.html). Robert F. Almgren, University of Chicago, is the organizer of the MAA short course, Mathematics in Finance. Barbara Osofsky, chair of the short course committee, encourages those planning to attend the short course to register as soon as possible.

 

tmichnowicz@njcu.edu, michnowicz@aol.com

 

 

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