Register
Register online for the conference with a credit card. Priority registration deadline is Sun Mar 22 at 3pm; online pre-registration closes Wed Mar 25 at 3pm, with online last minute registarion continuing through Mar 28.
Students applying to present a poster register by submitting their application by Thurs March 12 at 5pm (More info)
Spring 2026 SoCal-Nev Section Meeting
University of Southern California
Saturday, March 28, 2025, 8:30am - 4:45pm (tentatively)
(Directions and Map)
Tentative Schedule
- 8:30-12:00pm Registration
Foyer of Taper Hall 101 - 8:30-10:30 Poster Presenter check-in
Foyer of Taper Hall 101 - 9:00 Welcome Remarks
Taper Hall 101 - 9:15-10:15 Invited Address by Thomas Murphy, CSU Fullerton
You can square a cubic segment
Taper Hall 101 - 10:15-10:45
State of the Section: Open Meeting (for all attendees)
Taper Hall 101 - 10:45-11:00 Refreshment Break
- 11:00-12:00 Section NExT Workshop & Student Panel/Workshop
- 12:00-1:00 Lunch
(pre-order before 3pm Sun 3/22) - 12:20-12:50 Lunch Information Session on
MAA SoCal-Nevada Section's Carol Crawford Award for Excellence in Undergaduate Teaching
Organized by the Section Teaching Award Committee: Konrad Aguliar, Pomona College, and Shanna Dobson, CSU Los Angeles - 1:00-2:00 Invited Address by Uduak George, San Diego State University
Quantifying the impact of environmental exposures to toxicants on embryonic development
Taper Hall 101 - 2:00-2:10 Conference Photo
- 2:10-2:20 Refreshment Break/Poster Set-up
- 2:25-3:25 Student Poster Session
View the Call for Posters and apply to present
Organized by the Program Board: Bahar Acu, Pitzer College, Amelia Stone-Johnstone, CSU Fullerton, and Christina Edlholm, Scripps College - Location TBA
- 3:30-3:45 Closing Remarks
Taper Hall 101
Directions and Maps
Taper Hall is located on the corner of W 34th St and Trousdale Parkway. View Taper Hall and other USC locations on their Interactive Map.
Information about the best parking location and related permits will be available closer to the meeting.
Registration Information
All registrations will take place online though Eventbrite, even those onsite at the conference.
Poster Presenters: Poster application deadline Thurs March 5 at 5pm. Up to two presenters for a poster that has been accepted will recieve a discount code for free student registration and lunch that they can use to register through Eventbrite. Additional student poster presenters additional student poster presenters above 2 need to pre-register here at the student rate.
Priority Registration+ Lunch option: register by Sun March 22 at 3pm for a lower registration rate, as well as a printed nametag and registration packet. Registering by the priority deadline enables you to add on a lunch to your order. It also minimizes stress and helps us have a more accurate catering count. After choosing your ticket type, be sure to scroll down to "Add-ons" to order your lunch!
Online Pre-Registration (no lunch): registering by Wed March 26 at 3pm guarantees a printed nametag and registration packet. It also helps us with planning. There is no longer an option to add a lunch.
On-site/Just-In-Time Registration: All registration is completed online. You can register on-site, but it will be through the online platform and require an online payment method. Your nametag is not pre-printed and a registration packet is not guaranteed. There is no option to order lunch.
Registration Fees
| Registration type | by Sun 3/22 3pm | by Sat 3/28 12:30pm |
| Nonmember | $40 |
$45 |
| MAA Member | $30 |
$35 |
| Student | $20 |
$25 |
Student Poster Presenter |
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| Lunch Add-on Select the Add-on lunch option when you register before 3pm on Sun 3/22. Lunch options are listed below and on the registration page. |
3/20. Choice of half sandwich, full sandwich, or salad from Mendocino Farms. See info below.
$20 Lunch add-on |
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Questions about registration
Questions about registration can be directed to Karrolyne Fogel, the meeting coordinator.
Lunch Options
If you pre-register by 5pm on Sun 3/22, you can order a box lunch to pick up at the conference site. We offer the following box lunch choices provided by Corner Bakery.
- UPTOWN TURKEY AVOCADO Sandwich: oven-roasted turkey, bacon, avocado, lettuce, tomato, mayonnaise on harvest bread. Served with chips, fruit, cookie, and water.
- Gluten-light UPTOWN TURKEY AVOCADO Sandwich option (not guaranteed to be 100% gluten-free). Served on gluten free bread. Served with potato chips, fruit, carrot sticks, and water.
- VEGAN DELIGHT Sandwich: Avocado, arugula, tomato, cucumber, roasted red pepper, balsamic vinaigrette on focaccia roll. Served with chips, fruit, cookie, and water.
- CHICKEN CAESAR Salad: romaine, grilled chicken, Parmesan, house-made croutons, Caesar dressing. Served with a cookie, freshly baked bread, and water.
- HARVEST Salad: mixed greens, grilled chicken, sweet crisps, bleu cheese, walnuts, apple, dried cranberries, balsamic vinaigrette. Served with a cookie, freshly baked bread, and water.
Attendees are also welcome to bring their lunch and eat outside near the conference site.
Uduak Z. GeorgeSan Diego State University |
Uduak Z. George received her Ph.D. in Mathematics from the University of Sussex in the United Kingdom. She is an Associate Professor of Mathematics at San Diego State University (SDSU) and the Co-Director of the SDSU Artificial Intelligence (AI) Lab for Cancer-Related Health. In her research, she utilizes ordinary differential equations, partial differential equations, graph network modeling, and machine learning to study biological systems. Her current research involves designing novel approaches to integrate mathematical modeling with laboratory experimentation to advance our understanding of biological organ development, with the goal of elucidating how developmental processes impact long-term health. Dr. George has received significant recognition for her research, including the National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development (NSF CAREER) Award, the AIM-AHEAD Leadership Fellowship, and the SDSU Presidential Research Fellow Award. As an educator, she is committed to emphasizing the importance of calculus and linear algebra in undergraduate and graduate-level courses to broaden the understanding of the complex biological systems that shape nature. She enjoys engaging with her community through K-12 outreach activities, where she demonstrates the applications of mathematics in science and engineering. These efforts reflect her passion for illustrating that while math may appear abstract, its true elegance shines when those ideas are used to solve pressing real-world problems. Dr. George received the 2020 Most Influential Faculty Award from the SDSU Department of Mathematics and Statistics, an honor selected by the Outstanding Baccalaureate Candidate. She also received the 2024 Outstanding Faculty Award from the SDSU College of Sciences. |
Quantifying the impact of environmental exposures to toxicants on embryonic development
Exposure to toxicants can negatively impact embryonic development, long-term organ function, and disease susceptibility, but these effects remain poorly quantified. Traditional laboratory experimentation alone faces limitations in deciphering the impact of toxicant exposures at an organ-specific level, particularly at high throughput. In this talk, I will discuss how integrating laboratory experimentation with computational modeling enables the quantification of the effects of chemical exposures on embryonic development in zebrafish (Danio rerio), a widely used vertebrate model for high-throughput toxicity testing.
Thomas MurphyCSU Fullerton
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Thomas Murphy is a Professor of Mathematics at Cal State Fullerton. He grew up in Ireland on a dairy farm, and studied in Ireland and London under Jurgen Berndt. Since coming to CSUF, he has worked with a wide array of undergraduate projects, many connected with his primary research interests in Riemannian and complex geometry. |
You can square a cubic segment
A central question in Greek mathematics was to determine when it was possible to "square" a shape, meaning to construct a square with the same area using only compass and straightedge. For instance, the famed problem of squaring a circle was not settled until 1882. The only infinite family of shapes which we know how to explicitly square are segments of parabolas, a result of Archimedes. We find the first infinite family of such shapes since then (namely, segments of cubic curves), and place our result in a historical context. The talk will be accessible to anyone who has taken a calculus course. This is joint work with M. Rathbun (CSUF).
Callum RickardUniv. Southeran California |
Calum Rickard is currently a Dornsife Teaching Fellow in Mathematics at USC. This fall, he will join the University of Nevada, Las Vegas as a teaching-track Assistant Professor of Mathematics. Calum has also taught at UC Davis and last summer he was a faculty member at BEAM LA. He completed his PhD in Applied Mathematics at USC. |
Section NExT Workshop: Kinetic Mathematics Activities
Calum Rickard, a USC teaching fellow and future teaching-track assistant professor at the University of Nevada, will guide us through a number of kinetic mathematics activities about combinatorics and probability. We could learn pigeonhole principle through magical chairs or perform handshake lemma. At the end, we will break into groups to brainstorm similar activities in other branches of math.
Shanna DobsonCSULA Konrad AguliarPomona College |
Shanna Dobson and Konrad Aguilar are both members of the Teaching Awards Committee for the Southern California-Nevada Section. Konrad Aguilar is the Section Chair and holds a position at Pomona College. Last year he chaired the Awards committee as the Section Vice Chair. Shanna Dobson is SoCal-Nevada Section’s current Section Vice Chair and holds a position at Cal State LA. Both have previously served on the section's Program Board. |
Lunch Information Session on MAA SoCal-Nevada Section's Carol Crawford Award for Excellence in Undergaduate Teaching
In this information session, Shanna and Konrad will give a helpful and extensive overview of our MAA SoCal-Nevada Carol Crawford Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching. They will discuss the criteria for eligibility, the guidelines for nomination, and the criteria for evaluation, as well as walk through the nomination process. Shanna and Konrad hope to demystify the process and support our fellow faculty in nominating their eligible colleagues. The session is open to all interested attendees!
Student Poster Session
Students (undergraduate and graduate) are invited to submit short proposals for the Poster Session of the Spring 2026 Section Meeting of the MAA, taking place on Saturday, March 28 2026 at University of Southern California.
Here are some ideas of what students can present:
- Results of masters thesis, honors, senior, or independent study projects
- Results of classroom projects or modeling contests
- Results of REUs or other summer research programs
- Historical investigations in pure or applied mathematics
- Solutions of problems from the Putnam Exam or from the Monthly or other journals
Applications to present in the poster session are submitted online. Applications include submitting an abstract (max 150 words) and are due by 5pm on Thurs March 12, 2026.
Each poster abstract should only be submitted once. You will have an option to list a second co-presenter/author who will also be emailed a discount code for free student registration. (You can have more than 2 presenters, but only two will be eligible for the registration discount code).
Additional presenters beyond two should register for the meeting through the online student registration.
The MAA Mathematical Communication website has useful articles about giving an effective talk, including poster presentations (scroll down to that heading) and also writing an abstract. Be sure to check out their helpful tips!
Direct questions to the Program Board: Bahar Acu (Bahar_Acu@pitzer.edu), Amelia Stone-Johnstone (astonejohnstone@Fullerton.edu), and Christina Edholm (CEdholm@Scrippscollege.edu)
