MathNews

On May 1, 2009, the Department of Mathematics recognized the following award and scholarship recipients within Mathematics and Actuarial Science.

College of Science Awards

College of Science Outstanding Seniors: Arman Sabbaghi, Mathematics and Mathematical Statistics; Rachel Smith, Actuarial Science and Statistics, minor in Management;  Zachary Sylvan, Physics and Mathematics

College of Science Outstanding Juniors: Philip Hebda, Mathematics; Alex Morton, Actuarial Science

College of Science Outstanding Sophomores: Eric Krafcheck, Actuarial Science, Daniel Stratman, Mathematics

College of Science Outstanding Freshmen: Parker Crosby, Actuarial Science, Sung Jun Ma, Mathematics

Mathematics Advisor Award: Peter Cook

Mathematics Awards

Michael Golomb Math Award: Haiyun Zhao

Eugene V. Schenkman Memorial Award: Kun-Chieh Wang

Jerison Memorial Award in Analysis: David Franco

Glen E. Baxter Memorial Award: Philip Hebda, Joshua Rendall

Merrill E. Shanks Memorial Award: Ryan Hoffman, Jessica Markstrom

Senior Achievement Award: Amber Meyerratken, Arman Sabbaghi, Zachary Sylvan, Haiyun Zhao

MAA Math Competition team (4th place): Justin Chen, Eric Haengel, Daniel Stratman

Putnam Exam: Kun-Chieh Wang (61.5 score).  Other student participants: Brian Pace, Daniel Stratman

Spira Award for Summer Research: Alex Krzywda

Mathematics Scholarships

Thomas Arai Scholarship: Justin Chen

Leonard D. & Anna W. Berkovitz Scholarship: Jeremy Cunningham

Mark Hoppy Memorial Scholar: Jeremy Cunningham

Andris A. Zoltners Scholar: Remy Spoentgen

Virginia Mashin Scholars: Catherine Cohoat, Christopher Cunningham, Brian Pace, Joshua Rendall, Rebecca Seahorn, Remy Spoentgen, Roger Tabchouri, Robert Winding

Helen Clark Wight Scholars: James Gilmore, Megan Giordano, Linley Johnson, Mark Knight, Kristina Rubiano, Catherine Warner

Actuarial Science Awards

Actuarial Science Outstanding Senior: Rachel Smith

Actuarial Science Outstanding Junior: Alex Morton

Actuarial Science Outstanding Sophomore: Eric Krafcheck

Actuarial Science Outstanding Freshman: Parker Crosby

The Exam Awards were presented on April 6th to the following students: Abdul Rahim Ab Ghani, Robert Fulton, Jacob Libauskas, Divvya Aggarwal, Nicholas Georgopoulos, Kevin Libby, Molly Amstutz, Grant Goedde, Rebecca Lumley, Jennifer Aschenbrenner, Angela Hancock, Lisa McGuire, Robert Astleford, Sarah Haynes, Alex Morton, Steven Balog, Erin Hennessey, Elizabeth Moss, John Carroll, Matthew Hewitt, Brett Newman, Vaidehi Chhaptrapati, Michael Hoyer, Daniel O’ Toole, Greg Chomanczuk, Siliang Hu, Katie Poon, Frank Cinfio, Lingbo Huang, Katherine Quinn, Chris Cunningham, Eric Hyland, Xuelu Ren, Jeremy Cunningham, Dhaval Jadhav, Sarah Ryan, Melanee Dallas, Ian Jones, Trent Sahlin, Sally Diesslin, Jacqueline Keller, Brian Schwartz, Darren Doehrmann, Eric Krafcheck, Rachel Smith, Kristen Dyson, Petrina Kusliawan, J. Daniel Stout

Actuarial Science Scholarships

AEGON Scholarship: Eric Krafcheck

Alumni Scholarship: William McCartney

Daniel Rubin Scholarships: Thomas Edson, Trent Sahlin

Swiss Re Scholarships: Angela Hancock, Rebecca Lumley, Elizabeth Moss

Problem of the Week Fall 2008

First Prize award : David Elden

Certificates of Merit – Undergraduate: Michael Burkhart

Certificates of Merit – Graduate Students: Richard Eden, Sambit Palit, Huanyu Shao, Phuong Thanh Tran

Problem of the Week Spring 2009

First Prize Award: Xingyi Qin

Certificates of Merit – Undergraduates: Andrew Bohn, Michael Burkhart, Wenyu Zhang

Certificates of Merit – Graduate Students: Huanyu Shao, Phuong Thanh Tran, James Vaught, Tairan Yuwen

Graduate Awards

Gerald R. MacLane Award: Yu Tsumura

2008-09 Outstanding Teaching Assistants: Sarah Bryant, Robert Bridges, Kuan-Hua Chen, Jia Li, Prahlad Vaidyanathan, Nicholas Wegman

Teaching Academy, Associate Member: Jaebang Kim

Committee for the Education of Teaching Assistants: Robert Bridges

(CETA) – Celebration of Graduate Student Teaching: Sarah Bryant.  Honorees: Prahlad Vaidyanathan, Nicholas Wegman

Advanced Graduate Teacher Certificate Recipient: Jaebang Kim

Graduate School Excellence in Teaching Award: James Price

Keedy Scholarships (incoming students): Deaghan Hallihan, Andrew Homan, James Packett, Anthony Rizzie

Zoltners Graduate Scholarship (incoming students): Alan Legg, Mariana Smit Vega Garcia, Lloyd West

Carl Cowen Exceptional Promise Award: Erin Malloy (incoming)

T. T. Moh Fellowship: Qing Han (incoming)

Prof. Dongbin Xiu is the recipient of a 2009-2010 “Teaching for Tomorrow Award.”  He will be matched with two highly experienced Purdue faculty who will over the next year address important topics and experiences related to teaching and student learning, and he will receive $1000 in faculty development funds.

Funding for the awards is made possible by the Purdue classes of 1944 and 1945

The 4th Symposium on Analysis & PDEs will be held May 26-29 on the occasion of the 55th birthday of Professor Nicola Garofalo, in recognition of his scientific achievements and his dedication to the mathematical community.

It will bring together some of the world’s most prominent specialists in the general areas of Partial Differential Equations, Harmonic Analysis, and Geometric PDEs. One of the purposes of the symposium is to introduce prospective and young researchers to a larger mathematical community and help them to establish professional connections with key figures in their areas of interest.

Furthermore, the symposium will provide an opportunity to summarize some of the most recent progress in the field, exchange ideas towards the solution of open questions, and formulate new problems and avenues of research.

Organizing Committee: Donatella Danielli, Arshak Petrosyan, and Aaron Yip (Department of Mathematics)

See the conference webpage for more information. Download poster

The following Mathematics Department TAs are recognized this month as part of the 2009 Purdue Celebration of Graduate Student Teaching:

Graduate School Excellence in Teaching Award

• James Price

Purdue University Graduate Student Award for Outstanding Teaching

• Sarah Bryant
• Robert Bridges
• Prahlad Vaidyanathan
• Nicholas Wegman

The 2008-2009 Ruth and Joel Spira Teaching Award recipients were honored on April 16. This award recognizes professors who excel in teaching and inspiring students

This years’ awardees are:

• Dongbin Xiu:  Outstanding Teaching by a Junior Faculty Member
• Arshak Petrosyan:  Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching
• Bernd Ulrich:  Outstanding Graduate Teaching
• Greg Buzzard:  Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching

Artists Scott Frankenberger and Linda Vanderkolk will talk about non-repeating tile patterns — “Penrose tilings” — at a Math Club sponsored talk Thursday, April 9, at 6 pm in Armstrong 1010.

Frankenberger and Vanderkolk were top math students in their high schools and started college as math majors before switching to art. Frankenberger is a Purdue alumnus and former visiting ceramics instructor. Vanderkolk is a continuing lecturer in the Patti and Rusty Rueff Department of Visual and Performing Arts.

They worked together to create the mural “Tesselation Tango” at the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute in Berkley, California and a mural at Ivy Tech’s main hall. Frankenberger has also created murals for Purdue’s Food Science Building and Caterpillar in Lafayette.

Download the flyer.

Mathematics Department staff were among those recognized at the annual College of Science “Staff Awards Program” and luncheon on February 4, 2009 at the Purdue Memorial Union.  Staff who celebrated service anniversaries in 2008 were also recognized.

CoS Awards

Kelly Beranger — Professional Achievement Award
Kelly joined the department in 2005 as web editor.  She earned a bachelor’s degree at Purdue in English and film studies in 1998 and previously worked as a writer for the Journal and Courier.

Peter Cook — Outstanding Service Award
Peter Cook earned a master’s in mathematics at Purdue in 1970 and since then has taught mathematics and served as the department’s Schedule Deputy.

Robert McGraw — Professional Achievement Award
Robert has been Computer Systems Manager for the department since 2003.  He previously held programmer/analyst positions in Florida, Saudi Arabia, New Mexico, and Colorado before coming to Purdue in 2001 as manager of computing facilities for Electrical and Computer Engineering.

Triva Woodley — Customer Service Award
Triva earned a bachelor’s degree from Purdue’s School of Management in 2001 and has been Business Manager for the Departments of Mathematics and Statistics since 2005.

Service Anniversaries

Nancy Eberle — 40 years

Terry Loro — 20 years

Purdue’s Math Club is hosting a talk by Prof. Brad Lucier of the Departments of Computer Science and Mathematics entitled The Nature of Numbers: Real Computing on Tues. Dec 9, in BRNG 2290 at 6 pm.  Download the flyer.

In elementary school, we are taught about numbers in a concrete way – numbers consist first of single digits, then finite strings of digits.  We were shown how to add, subtract, multiply, and divide these representations of numbers.  What happens if you continue with the constructive approach to numbers and operations on numbers that began in elementary school?  Can you compute as many digits as you like of pi or the square root of 2?

The Math Club is dedicated to promoting enthusiasm and interest in mathematics on the campus through exposing students to exciting branches of mathematics they may have yet to explore in a casual, friendly and fun atmosphere.  You can find out more about the club at their website.