Department of Mathematics JUNE 2009
Newsletter for Alumni and Friends
From the Department Chair... As department chair, one of the most thrilling experiences is to attend the Spring Commencement and present the graduates in mathematics. This year, when Yang Wang I presented the graduates and watched them stepping up to the podium one by one to receive their diploma, as you once did, I was filled with pride and joy. While a lot has changed since you left MSU, you can always count on more than 70 new graduates to join our big MSU Math Alumni family every year. It has been several years since our last alumni newsletter. It is my desire to reconnect with you more frequently, communicate our exciting stories and hear from you. If you detect excitement in my letter it is because I’m thrilled about the department’s future. The hallmark of any top mathematics department is combining research with strong, diverse educational commitments. Our department is among the National Research Council’s top tier and we continue to attract high quality students and faculty from around the world. Much of the excitement I have felt since joining the department is a direct result of new research programs, initiatives and
faculty members. I joined MSU two years ago after 17 years at Georgia Tech and a year at the National Science Foundation. A national trend shows support for mathematical research stagnating in recent years, yet our external research funding has more than doubled in the last five years in core areas of algebra, analysis, applied mathematics and topology. Building off of MSU’s strength in interdisciplinary research, the department launched the a center for industrial and applied mathematics in 2006 as a vehicle for research collaborations between the department and industry. More details are on page 5, and I invite business leaders to join us in collaboration as we provide real solutions for business and industry. Our faculty are nationally recognized and effectively blend their research and teaching responsibilities. The topology group has recently been awarded a NSF Research Training Group grant and two of our young faculty members have received prestigious NSF CAREER Awards. Our undergraduate program continues to be among the largest and most diverse in the country as we teach a staggering 60,000 credit hours every year! Around 500 students are enrolled in our majors each year. To best serve the multiple interests, we have created several different degrees and specializations in recent years. The Actuarial Science Specialization is one of the more popular specializations and we are in the process of making it a major. We also created special courses including some for future teachers as well as life science students.
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The interdisciplinary nature of our programs along with the research experiences earned one of our students a prestigious Goldwater Scholarship this year. Tory McCoy, a senior from Wexford, Pennsylvania, is a dual major in mathematics and geological sciences. She is a University Distinguished Scholar and also earned first place at the MSU Herzog Mathematics Competition. She exemplifies how our students customize their education with interdisciplinary research experience by blending traditional education with research opportunities available at a tier-1 institution. The graduate program currently has more than 120 doctoral students and we continue to see our alumni going on to become faculty members in top universities. One of our doctoral alums, Jongil Park, is an invited speaker at the 2010 International Congress of Mathematics. This is an honor given to few mathematicians, yet this marks the third consecutive ICM where an MSU alumnus has been invited to speak. While we are all excited about the direction the program is heading, tough challenges are ahead. Like other departments and institutions across the nation, we are making strong sacrifices and painful cuts. No decision is easy and you can be assured that while our budget may be reduced, our commitment to excellence will not. I hope you will be able to join us in making sure the department continues to serve our students and remain a point of pride for years to come. Yang Wang, Ph.D. Chair, Department of Mathematics Michigan State University
The Numbers Puzzle For alumni eager to re-live their college years, try this puzzle currently challenging our students: Professor Cliff Weil selected two natural numbers greater than 1 and gave the sum of the two numbers to Professor T.Y. Li and the product of the two numbers to Professor Tom Parker. He asked them to figure out each other’s numbers. The following conversation took place between the two professors: Prof. Parker to Prof. Li: “I don’t know your number.” Prof. Li to Prof. Parker: “I knew you don’t know my number.” Prof. Parker to Prof. Li: “In this case I now know your number.” Prof. Li to Prof. Parker: “I now know your number, too.” What are their respective numbers, and what are the two numbers Prof. Weil had selected? (You may assume that both Profs. Li and Parker are geniuses.) Send your answer and comments to NatSci4U@msu.edu or use the enclosed envelope. We look forward to hearing from you.
The MSU Department of Mathematics newsletter is published annually by the College of Natural Science for alumni and friends. Copyright 2009 Michigan State University. MSU is an affirmativeaction, equal-opportunity employer. Send correspondence to: Dept. of Mathematics, c/o College of Natural Science Advancement Office, 103 Natural Science Building, East Lansing, MI 48824. Ph (517) 353-9855. E-mail: natsci4u@msu.edu. Contributing writers: Yang Wang, Gordon Shetler, and Mike Steger. Photography: Gordon Shetler, Mike Steger and Kurt Stepnitz.
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NSF Award Supports Geometry and Topology The department continues to have success with a Research and Technology Group (RTG) award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to teach and research geometry and topology. The RTG grant currently supports four graduate students and three postdoctoral researchers, with plans to add more of both next year. The group studies low-dimensional topology and geometric analysis.
“The RTG grant has been quite successful in teaching graduate students and postdocs,” said professor Ron Fintushel, principal investigator for the award. “This grant addresses the production of research mathematicians and teachers of mathematics who are interested in geometry and topology.”
The grant also makes it possible to bring in guest lecturers and visitors to the Math Department. Every lecture is recorded and used on the geometry and topology website (http://www.math.msu.edu/gt/) for continued access. The research environment reaches all levels of the mathematics program.
The students and postdoctoral assistants contribute to research in geometry and topology using techniques including gauge theory, geometric analysis, pseudoholomorphic maps, knot invariants, surgery techniques, 3-manifold topology and mapping class groups.
Fintushel noted that the grant has also brought many top students to the department. The grant has increased visibility of the program which has attracted talented students from around the globe to study geometry and topology.
Activities began in 2005 and the program has reached hundreds of students through seminars at the undergraduate, graduate and research levels. “Our plan is to streamline the path to the Ph.D. and to provide enhanced research opportunities,” said Yang Wang, chair of the department. “The RTG provides eleven months of support for new graduate students with no teaching duties for the first two years of study. During their third year, the students are supported as teaching assistants.”
“One key is how successful our students have been,” Fintushel said. “It’s a measure of how good the teaching program is as well as the program at-large. When people hire young Ph.D.s, they typically do it on the reputation of how well you train students – and ours have been doing very well.” “We have had students give invited lectures at the International Congress of Mathematics for the last several meetings,” Fintushel said. “Since there are very few invited lectures, this is a great honor for our students.”
Mathematics Study Abroad Partnerships For the fourth year in a row, MSU lead the nation in study abroad participation among public universities in the U.S., according to the Institute of International Education. The opportunity to experience the different cultural influences on the international language of mathematics is an intriguing aspect of the college experience, and for mathematics students, it works in both directions.
The department has focused on creating programs that provide longer, more intensive experiences than the shorter summer or winter break programs led by MSU. “The department’s Study Abroad programs are direct enrollment programs with partner universities around the world,” said Wellington Ow, professor and director of mathematics Study Abroad. “MSU students spend an entire semester taking classes at the other university. The sustained exposure to different mathematics professors and students helps provide them with a greater understanding of the international influences on mathematics. Spending an entire semester abroad has an enormous impact on their learning.” Students in the program take a full schedule of courses at a foreign institution for the complete semester. Ow said that the students often find the language issue not to be as complicated as they thought, given mathematics is universal. Instead, students learn and improve their communication skills while adjusting to the foreign environment. According to Ow, the more popular programs are those in English-speaking countries or the program at the City University of Hong Kong where all instruction is done in English.
The partnership in Hong Kong is reciprocal and this semester was the first time students from City University attended MSU. Xiaochen Xing, a junior from Beijing, and Jundai Song, a junior from Tianjin, are both mathematics majors at City University and came to MSU for the spring semester. They are the first mathematics students to participate in the program between MSU and City University. “Mathematics study abroad works in both directions,” added Ow. “Our partnerships don’t just impact MSU students, but we can help provide an equally engaging program to foreign students who wish to experience MSU.” Xing and Song both decided to attend a semester at MSU in order to best experience college in the U.S. They intend to pursue graduate degrees from programs in the U.S. and they felt coming to MSU for a semester would give them a good understanding of the differences and what to expect. “The biggest surprise was the size,” said Xing. “MSU is much larger, as City University only has about 40 students in each grade. It was different being in large classes and experiencing the size of the campus.”
Xiaochen Xing and Jundai Song attended MSU this spring as part of a program between the MSU Department of Mathematics and City University of Hong Kong. The department currently organizes full-semester study abroad mathematics programs with 11 institutions in Australia, China, Ecuador, Mexico and the U.K.
The class structure is also different, according to Jundai Song. Where the focus in Hong Kong is on the final exam, she said the classwork at MSU is more distributed throughout the semester with many items contributing to your grade and not just the final exam. While issues like transportation, campus size and dorm cuisine required some adjustment, both students found their reception at MSU to be warm and welcoming. “Experiencing the Final Four basketball games in McDonel Hall was exciting,” said Song. “It was great seeing everyone come together; clapping and cheering for one event. It was my first time watching basketball and a very memorable experience. It is something I will never forget.”
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Program Challenges Gifted Youth For some gifted middle school and high school students, mathematics can seem trivial and mundane. For these talented students, a rigorous program led by the department seeks to challenge and excite them while preparing them for high level coursework in college. The Cooperative Highly Accelerated Mathematics Program, or CHAMP, pairs gifted high school students between 7th and 10th grade with mathematics professors at MSU. Students learn four years of high school math – algebra, geometry and pre-calculus – in four intensive semesters.
The Triangular Duel Puzzle Reminisce about your days as a student by solving this puzzle currently challenging our students: Aaron, Alexander and Thomas have agreed to fight a three-way pistol duel under the following unusual conditions. After a random draw determine who fires first, second and third, they take their places at the corners of an equilateral triangle. It is agreed that they will fire single shots in turn and continue in the same cyclic order until two of them are dead or incapacitated. At each turn the man who is firing may aim wherever he pleases. All three duelists know that Aaron always hits his target, Alexander is 80 percent accurate and Thomas is 50 percent accurate. Assuming that all three adopt the best strategy, and that no one is killed by a wild shot not intended for him, who has the best chance to survive? What are the exact survival probabilities of the three men? Send your answer and comments to NatSci4U@msu.edu or use the enclosed envelope. We look forward to hearing from you.
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“These gifted kids need to be challenged,” said Pavel Sikorskii, Executive Associate Director for Undergraduate Programs. “We challenge them. We use high school material, but teach them as if they were college students; we write tests for them like we would for college students. They rise to the challenge and excel at many levels.” Students attend a 2.5-hour class each week, where they do problems and go over their homework, which can amount to more than eight hours per week. In between class periods, there is an online community where the students can get help with their homework, connect with professors and share experiences with their cohort of students. After students complete the program, they have the option to take more advanced classes by enrolling at MSU, or another local college, while they are in high school. The CHAMP program was started 23 years ago and is a joint effort between the Department of
Mathematics and the Honors College. All of the instructors for the program come from the math department. Each year, between four and six professors teach in the CHAMP program. “Faculty really enjoy teaching these classes and influencing these young minds,” Sikorskii said. “We volunteer to do this on top of our regular duties.” Students are selected for the program based on their SAT and ACT scores. The program costs $900 per student to operate, with almost half of the cost covered by private foundations and Intermediate School Districts. The rest is paid for by a combination of school districts, parents and the Intermediate School districts. “I run into people all the time whose children have been through the program,” Sikorskii said. “All they have to say to me is ‘thank you, the program challenged my student and helped them get ahead,’ everything I have heard has been very positive.”
Actuarial Science Program Develops Undergraduate students at MSU have the option to earn a concentration in actuarial science. The interdisciplinary specialization prepares students for employment in many fields of the financial services sector as it combines classes in math, statistics, finance and economics. The department launched the actuarial science specialization in the fall of 2003 and between 60 and 70 students have been enrolled in the program each year. On average, 15 students graduate with the concentration each year. “The student response was good and surprisingly immediate,” professor Wellington Ow said. “This specialization adds an alternative career path for students into a job that pays well and has a good description. This program has attracted some of our best students.”
The specialization is the first step in establishing a degree program for actuarial science. As a specialization, it provides students with extra emphasis in areas important to careers where there is a need to weigh the financial consequences of risk.
it has also attracted students from finance and engineering.
Currently, the department is investigating the expansion of the program toward a bachelor’s program with a potential graduate program as well.
“We’ve had great support from our graduates,” Ow said. “The advisory board serves as a useful resource and allows us to ensure that the program reflects the changing business landscape by providing students with a rigorous program that will benefit them throughout their career.”
The majority of students who enroll in the concentration are math and statistics students, however
An alumni actuarial advisory board has been created to advise the department on trends in the field and to keep up with changes in actuarial science in the business world.
Center Builds Partnerships with Business The department launched the Michigan Center for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (MCIAM) led by professor Gang Bao in 2006 as a way to administer the industrial math professional masters program while developing intensive partnerships with businesses.
The center provides businesses with high-end computational and modeling solutions. While doing this, the center simultaneously develops interdisciplinary students with real-world problem solving skills and personal contacts. This allows for an easy transition to business upon graduation.
In its short history, the center has already collaborated with more than a dozen major corporations in insurance, automotive and pharmaceutical industries. The center provides research and modeling in biological, information and optical, environmental/ energy, and materials sciences.
In the last year, the center has created summer graduate fellowships and has hosted three workshops on multiscale modeling, computation and signal processing. It also conducts a weekly seminar and a distinguished speaker series. The center provides a good solution for businesses while giving students real-world experience and to benefit their careers.
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ALUMNI CLASS NOTES Neil Larks, B.A. ’59, is enjoying retirement by serving as a garden docent at Rancho Los Cerritos in Long Beach, Calif.
Physicians and Investigators. He is also a member of the United States Adopted Names Council that negotiates the generic names for all drugs marketed in the United States.
Marilyn Capelli Dimitroff, B.A. ‘66, president of Capelli Financial Services in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., is the 2009 chair of the Certified Wayne Carpenter, B.S. ’61, Financial Planner Board of retired after 43 years of Standards – the regulatory/ teaching in public schools. credentialing body for C.F.P. Shirley Gloss-Soler, B.A. ’64, certification. She also serves Jerald Murdock, B.S. ‘61, is happily retired in Coloon the Financial Planning is co-author of the recently rado Springs and indulging Coalition that is working revised high school algebra her love of gardening, skiing, toward new federal regulatext Discovering Advanced and travel. tion of financial advice at the Algebra and Discovering fiduciary standard of care. Algebra. Wilbur McReynolds, ’64, ‘65, is retired from a career in William Thompson, B.A. ’66, Alan Harvey, B.S. ’62, retired actuarial science at Metropol- is a faculty member teaching after teaching high school itan Life Insurance Company. math at Muskegon Commath for 38 years. munity College and Baker Cynthia Brown, B.S. ’65, is College of Muskegon. Stanly Steinberg, B.S. ‘62, a professor and past chair M.A. ‘63, is professor emeri- of the computer science Carole Minor, B.A. ‘68, was tus at the University of New department at Portland State named a Presidential TeachMexico and is actively work- University. ing Professor at Northern ing on the design of mimetic Illinois University. finite difference methods for Don Benbow, M.S. ‘66, has discretizing the partial difrecently co-authored Certified Richard Sgarlotti, B.S. ‘68, ferential equations in conReliability Engineer Handbook, M.A. ‘70, recently retired tinuum mechanics. Certified Six Sigma Black Belt from the Nah Tah Wahsh Handbook, 2nd Ed. and the Public School Academy Jeff Hack, B.S. ‘63, has reChinese translation of Certi- in the Hannahville Indian tired as a software engineer fied Quality Engineer HandCommunity near Escanaba, and is a Silver Life Master for book, 2nd Ed. Mich. He published Creating the game of bridge. a Sacred Place for Students in Gary Bond, B.S. ‘66, is Mathematics with the NaPeter Rheinstein, B.A. ’63, retiring after 26 years in the tional Indian School Boards M.S. ’64, served for more Dept. of Psychology at Indi- Association and heads the than 25 years as a senior ana Univ.-Purdue Univ. InEducators of Native Amerimanager at the U.S. Food dianapolis. IUPUI is hosting can Students. He also directs and Drug Administration a Festschrift in his honor this a summer STEM camp for and is president-elect of the September before he begins a American Indian Students Academy of Pharmaceutical second career at Dartmouth. and coordinates a math-
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Department of Mathematics
ematics competition at the National American Indian Science and Engineering Fair. Joel Boyd, B.S. ‘69, is the interim director for the Career English Language Center for International Students at Western Michigan University. Robert Rietz, B.S. ‘70, is the Chief Pension Actuary for Deloitte Consulting and was recently named to the Actuarial Board for Counseling and Discipline. Linda Petlichkoff, B.A. ’72, is a professor at Boise State University and received a Crystal Apple Award from the MSU College of Education in 2008. Rob Polsgrove, B.S. ‘72, is retiring this summer from Center Line Public Schools and Oakland Community College after 37 years of teaching math and science at the junior high, middle school, high school and community college levels. Dean Sanders, M.S. ’67, Ph.D. ’72, is a professor in the Department of Computer Science/Information Systems at Northwest Missouri State University. He is a codeveloper of Jeroo, a widely
used pedagogical tool to help won the State Mathematics novices learn some fundaContest for Small Schools in mental concepts of computer 2008. programming. Uttara Naik Nimbalkar, Ronald Simon, BS ‘67, has Ph.D. ’79, is the head of the been elected Chairman of Department of Statistics and the Board of the six AutoCentre for Advanced Studies Owners Insurance Group at Pune University, India. companies. Gerald Weightman, M.A. ‘80, Kevin Karplus, B.A. ‘74, is a recently celebrated 23 years professor in bioinformatics at as a computer applications the University of California, developer with The St. Paul/ Santa Cruz. Travelers Insurance Companies in St. Paul, Minnesota. Nancy Nelson, B.A. ‘74, retired after 34 years of Jeanne Cavelos, B.S. ‘82, teaching mathematics at Wil- is director of Odyssey, a liamston High School and is workshop for writers of now a part-time instructor fantasy, science fiction and with Michigan State. horror. She has published two books, The Science of Mark Squillace, B.A. ‘74, is The X-Files and The Science of director of the Natural ReStar Wars, and appeared on sources Law Center and will the History Channel’s special soon be celebrating 25 years Star Wars Tech. as a professor at the University of Colorado School of Edward Aboufadel, B.S. ‘86, Law. is a professor of mathematics and the department chair at Raymond Greenwell, M.S. Grand Valley State Univer‘76, Ph.D. ‘79, is a professor sity, in Allendale, Mich., and of mathematics at Hofstra is the principal investigator University and has coaufor a REU grant from the Nathored the books Finite Math- tional Science Foundation. ematics and Calculus with Applications. Jeff Beranek, B.S. ’84, M.S. ‘87, is section head of the Jeffrey Houtteman, B.S. ’77, Census Statistics Section of is teaching high school math- the U.S.D.A. National Agriematics at Brighton Area cultural Statistics Service. Schools after a 25-year career with Household Internation- Mohamed Elgindi, Ph.D. ‘87, al/HSBC Finance. is the principal investigator of Summer Undergraduate Edward Imgrund, B.A. ’78, Research Experience in Pure has been a math teacher at and Applied Mathematics at St. Dominic High School in the University of WisconsinO’Fallon, Missouri for 29 Eau Claire and recently years and their math team organized a workshop on
Alumni Staying Connected Thank you to everyone who contributed news on their career accomplishments. We like to hear from alumni and encourage you to stay connected... • Visit the alumni section of naturalscience.msu.edu and use the on-line form to send your career news and address updates. • Network with alumni by joining the MSU College of Natural Science groups on Facebook.com or LinkedIn.com. • Join the alumni association and become involved in the college alumni organization. • Visit the department website for the latest news at http://www.math.msu.edu. Application of Analysis in Mathematical Biology. Todd Swanson, M.A. ‘89, received the Janet L. Andersen Award for Excellence in Teaching from Hope College. Jongil Park, Ph.D. ’96, has been invited to speak at the 2010 International Congress of Mathematicians at the University of Hyderabad, India. This is the third consecutive I.C.M. where an MSU alumnus has spoken (Eleny Lonel, Ph.D. ’96, in 2002 at Beijing and Grisha Mihalkin, Ph.D. ’93, in 2006 at Madrid). Hanni Nichols, M.S. ’99, is an academic specialist at MSU’s Lyman Briggs College and is involved with MSU’s Math, Science and Technology Summer Program for Academically Talented Middle School Students. Thomas Mark, Ph.D. ’00, is assistant professor of mathematics at the University of Virginia.
Camillia Barnes, B.S. ’02, MS ‘02, is graduating in June from Harvard University with a Ph.D. in Mathematics and her specialization is Enumerative Combinatorics. Karen Brunner, B.S. ‘03, is a mathematics teacher at Okemos High School in Okemos, Mich. Matt DuPrey, ’06, is teaching music and math in St. Clair Shores, Mich. Gina Dattolo, B.A. ‘07, received an M.A. in Mathematics Education last year from Columbia Univ. Teachers College and teaching mathematics at the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis High School for International Careers in Times Square, New York. Antonio Johnson, B.S. ’08, coached Peter Vetal Elementary in Detroit as they won the state championship in the Set Theory game of OnSets as part of the Michigan League of Academic Games.
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DEPARTMENT OF MATHEMATICS College of Natural Science 103 Natural Science Building East Lansing, MI 48824-1115
NSF Career Awards
New Department Faculty
Faculty members Di Liu and Jeff Schenker recently received Faculty Early Career Development Awards from the NSF – one of the NSF’s most prestigious and competitive awards for junior researchers.
Join us in welcoming these new faculty who recently joined the department:
Di Liu is studying numerical methods for the simulation of stochastic chemical kinetic systems with multiple time and spaces scales. The support from the award will enable investigation of biological systems involving gene regulations, which is becoming new focus of genomic research, through collaboration with biologists at MSU. The research findings will provide useful scientific computing tools for life sciences. Schenker is studying the behavior of waves traveling through different forms of imperfect media. The award allows for better understanding of how waves scatter from imperfections while passing through complex materials. The findings could make for further advances in semiconductors and provide fundamental knowledge for theoretical physics. NSF career awards recognize faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through the integration of education and research. Each 5-year award provides the faculty member a firm foundation for a lifetime of integrated contributions to research and education.
Matt Hedden earned his Ph.D. from Columbia University. His research interests are in Knot theory and low dimensional topology, Heegaard Floer homology, gauge theory and Symplectic geometry. Ben Schmidt earned his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. His research interests include non-positive curvature, locally symmetric spaces, geodesics, hyperbolic dynamics, geodesic flows and large group actions. Ignacio Uriarte-Tuero earned his Ph.D. from Yale University. His research interests are in Potential theory, Fourier analysis, functions of a complex variable and functional analysis. Dapeng Zhan earned his Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology and came to MSU from Yale. His research interests are in probability theory, statistical mechanics and stochastic Loewner evolution.