SoundBites newsletter October 2015

1. Were you always an artist?

It took me a long time to see myself as an artist at all. I first submitted a solo piece to a mathematical art exhibit in 2011, and even then I asked a colleague in the Art and Art History Department if she thought it was reasonable to submit it.

Most of my recent artwork stems from my collaboration with Ellie Baker, an artist and computer scientist who introduced me to bead crochet, and who proposed a joint artwork with me and Sophie Sommer that we exhibited in 2010. My collaborative research with Baker, which led to our recent book, “Crafting Conundrums: Puzzles and Patterns for the Bead Crochet Artist,” is what made me re-label myself as a mathematical artist, as opposed to a number theorist who likes to make mathematical models.

2. How did you begin incorporating mathematics into your artwork?

The mathematics came first, so it is more a question of how I incorporated art into my mathematics. Since my college days, classmates and colleagues have introduced me to modular origami, intricately patterned friendship bracelets, mobile making, hyperbolic crochet, and many more forms of art that lend themselves to mathematical pieces. Much of my current inspiration comes from my professional colleagues who participate in the annual international Bridges Conference on mathematics and art.

Lorenz manifold

3. What role does visualization play in the teaching of mathematics?

There are some areas of mathematics— geometry, trigonometry, topology, graph theory—where visualization is obviously part of any teaching process. For instance, it would be strange to present trigonometry, which literally means “tri-angle measurement,” without drawing a lot of triangles. I find that mathematical art in particular is a wonderful teaching tool for

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Susan Goldstine is professor of mathematics at St. Mary’s College of Maryland. Susan is also an artist who finds ways to work mathematical proofs into her own deGoldstine signs. Her artwork has been showcased in the Joint Mathematics Meetings Exhibitions of Mathematical Art, and several of her pieces have won awards. Examples of her artwork can be found on her website: http://faculty. smcm.edu/sgoldstine/.

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Susan Goldstine engaging students who are otherwise afraid of math. Part of the reason that I keep so many toys and puzzles and models in my office is that people who visit me are curious about them, which gives me an opportunity to discuss interesting ideas in math in a playful, non-threatening way.

4. What is your favorite art piece, and why?

My current favorite is “Map Coloring Jewelry Set,” which I completed in 2014.

It consists of a necklace, bracelet, and a pair of earrings that are coordinated aesthetically and mathematically, and I think it’s the most polished piece I’ve produced. I am particularly fond of the underlying mathematics, which revolves around the question of how many colors it takes to fill in a map so that regions that touch are different colors. This question turns out to have different answers on different surfaces, three of which are exhibited by the jewelry set. As a bonus, I can wear this artwork—and often do, especially when I give talks about bead crochet.

President: Tuajuanda C. Jordan, PhD

A newsletter for the community, faculty and staff.

Map Coloring Jewelry Set

5. Do you have any art projects that are currently underway?

In 2004, the mathematicians Hinke Osinga and Bernt Krauskopf published a crochet pattern for the Lorenz manifold, a complicated surface that they were studying as part of their research.

They wanted to visualize this surface, which is related to chaos theory and the butterfly effect, in three dimensions, and it occurred to them that they could turn their computer calculations into a set of crochet instructions. I saw Osinga and Krauskopf speak about their model, and I latched onto the idea of making a bead crochet version of the manifold. Bead crochet has a more rigid structure than ordinary crochet and should take less coaxing to exhibit the proper geometry.

What makes this slightly insane is that in bead crochet, I need to make over twice as many stitches as in the original manifold, which is already a huge project. To put this in perspective, “Map Coloring Jewelry Set,” the most intricate piece I’d made at the time, had slightly over 5,300 beads. The beaded Lorenz manifold will take 44,769 beads, of which I’ve crocheted 17,733 so far.

Sarah Jablon ’16 conducted this interview.

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“ D o i ng Well a n d G et t in g B et t er ”

is how President Jordan summed up the current state of the college on Sept. 4. Students, faculty, and staff lined the bleachers of the ARC for the president’s first address of the fall semester. In her remarks, President Jordan announced the 175th anniversary theme, “Celebrating the Past, Forging the Future: St. Mary’s College of Maryland, 175 Years Proud,” acknowledged significant achievements of individuals and departments; and shed light on campus projects, including the introduction of all-gender facilities. Watch President Jordan’s address in its entirety on the SMCM YouTube channel at tinyurl.com/ smcm-sotc2015.

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This academic year, St. Mary’s College will embark on developing a three-year strategic plan that will position the college for continued success. President Jordan has been charged by the Board of Trustees to lead the strategic planning process and deliver a final plan for Board approval by May 2016.

“I welcome the challenge,” said President Jordan during the fall 2015 State of the College Address, where she announced the start of the strategic planning process. “I know that to get this done, we, the entire SMCM community,

must work together in a focused, collaborative, and collegial manner. I have no doubt we will get this done.”

Stay abreast of the process throughout the year by visiting the strategic planning website at www.smcm.edu/strategicplan

New Research by Visiting Assistant Professor Troy Townsend Puts Us Closer To DIY Spray-On Solar Cell Technology A new study out of St. Mary’s College of Maryland puts us closer to do-it-yourself spray-on solar cell technology— promising third-generaTownsend tion solar cells utilizing a nanocrystal ink deposition that could make traditional expensive silicon-based solar panels a thing of the past.

In a 2014 study, published in the journal Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, St. Mary’s College of Maryland energy expert Troy Townsend introduced the first fully solution-processed all-inorganic photovoltaic technology.

While progress on organic thin-film photovoltaics is rapidly growing, inorganic devices still hold the record for highest efficiencies which is in part due to their broad spectral absorption and excellent electronic properties. Considering the recorded higher efficiencies and lower cost per watt compared to organic devices, combined with the enhanced thermal and photo stability of bulk-scale inorganic materials, Townsend, in his 2014 study, focused on an all-inorganic based structure for fabrication of a top to bottom fully solution-based solar cell.

A major disadvantage compared to organics, however, is that inorganic materials are difficult to deposit from solution. To overcome this, Townsend synthesized materials on the nanoscale. Inorganic nanocrystals encased in an organic ligand shell are soluble in organic solvents and can be deposited from solution (i.e., spin-, dip-, spray-coat) whereas traditional inorganic materials require a high temperature vacuum chamber. The solar devices are fabricated from nanoscale particle inks of the light absorbing layers, cadmium telluride/cadmium selenide, and metallic inks above and below. This way, the entire electronic device can be built on non-conductive glass substrates using equipment you can find in your kitchen.

The outstanding challenge facing the (3-5 nm) inorganic nanocrystals is that they must be annealed or heated to form larger ‘bulk scale’ grains (100 nm to 1 μm) in order to produce working devices. Townsend recently teamed with Navy researchers to explore this process.

explained Townsend, “but you can’t just heat the crystals by themselves, you have to add a sintering agent and that, for the last 40 years, has been cadmium chloride, a toxic salt used in commercial thin-film devices. No one has tested non-toxic alternatives for nanoscale ink devices, and we wanted to explore the mechanism of the sintering process to be able to implement safer salts.”

In his latest study, published this year in the Journal of Materials Chemistry A, Townsend, along with Navy researchers, found that ammonium chloride is a non-toxic, inexpensive viable alternative to cadmium chloride for nanocrystal solar cells. This discovery came after testing several different salts. Devices made using ammonium chloride (which is commonly used in bread making) had comparable device characteristics to those made with cadmium chloride, and the move away from cadmium salt treatments alleviates concerns about the environmental health and safety of current processing methods.

The team also discovered that the role of the salt treatment involves crucial ligand removal reactions. This is unique to inorganic nanocrystals and is not observed for bulk-scale vacuum deposition methods. “A lot of exciting work has been done on nanocrystal ligand exchange, but, for the first time, we elucidated the dual role of the salt as a ligand exchange agent and a simultaneous sintering agent. This is an important distinction for these devices, because nanocrystals are typically synthesized with a native organic ligand shell. This shell needs to be removed before heating in order to improve the electronic properties of the film,” said Townsend about the discovery. Because nanomaterials are at the forefront of emerging new properties compared to their bulk counterpart, the study is important to the future of electronic device fabrication.

Townsend plans for further research to increase the efficiency of the all-inorganic nanocrystal solar cells (currently reaching five percent), while building them with completely non-toxic components.

“When you spray on these nanocrystals, you have to heat them to make them work,”

First-year Halcyon Ruskin enjoyed the scenery as she competed in the Second Annual Seahawk Invitational at Jefferson Patterson Park (St. Leonard, Md.) on Sept 19. Seahawk women finished fifth in the 11-team field while Ruskin finished 17th out of 90.

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Students enrolled in a Community Sustainable Design course, cross-listed between environmental studies and art, and led by Barry Muchnick (assistant professor of environmental studies) and Carrie Patterson (professor of art), are working alongside community partners to design and build

F a c ul t y/St a f f Ac c omp l i shme nt s Princeton University Press has contracted a Chinese translation of Charles Adler’s (professor of physics) book, “Wizards, Aliens and Starships.”

This past summer, Leonard Cruz (assistant professor of theater, movement and dance) led workshops for the Maryland Hall for the Arts and Impuls Bremen in Germany. “Falling Man,” Cruz’ solo performance which debuted in the Boyden Gallery in 2014, performed at the San Diego Fringe Festival, Arts Center Main Stage, and the Minnesota Fringe Festival for its summer 2015 tour.

Cruz

Jennifer Tickle (associate professor of psychology) and Wesley Jordan (professor of neurosciences and psychology) and their students presented at the 2015 annual meeting of the Eastern Psychological Association in Philadelphia, Pa. The topics presented were “Masculinity and muscles: Comparing social and gender identity influences on the Tickle Jordan drive for muscularity” by A.L. Hain and J.J. Tickle; “Uses and gratifications from social media sites: Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, YikYak and Facebook” by E. Ford, G. Chao, and J.J. Tickle; “Use of e-cigarettes and perceptions of e-cigarette users and vaping regulations” by O. Hussey, S. Ward, C. Canter, and J.J. Tickle; “Contingent self-worth and Facebook social comparison” by J.U. Kanu and J.J. Tickle; “Strategic self-presentation and sexuality in homosexual, heterosexual, and bisexual online dating profiles” by L. Taylor and J.J. Tickle, and “Delayed extinction following pre-exposure is abolished by a context change” by C.M. LaCourse, W.P. Jordan, and R.N.

Danielle Carter Kushner (assistant professor of political science) is co-author of the article “Do public goods have to be public? Not in some African countries” published Sept. 23 in The Washington Post blog on political science research. The post is an outgrowth of Kushner’s piece “Introduction to the Special Issue: The Politics of the Nonstate Provision of Public Goods in Africa” published in the fall 2015 edition of the journal Africa Today.

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H. Anna Han (associate professor of psychology) presented research at the annual meeting for the Society for Personality and Social Psychology in Long Beach, Cal. The topics presented were “Low-level construal facilitates behavioral execution of goals” by H.A. Han, P.S. Stillman, and K. Fujita; “The role of presentation format in stimulus categorization and evaluation in dieting self-control conflicts” by J.J. Carnevale, K. Fujita, H.A. Han, and E. Amit.

Photo taken by Bill Wood

Aileen Bailey (professor of psychology) co-authored with alums Keighly Bradbrook ’14 and Hannah Dantrassy ’14 the article, “Corticosterone mediates the synaptic and behavioral effects of chronic stress at rat hippocampal temporoammonic synapses” which was published by the Journal of Neurophysiology in July 2015.

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On Friday, Sept 11, staff members participated in the second annual campus cleanup at the waterfront. From left to right: Francis Raley, Dan Branigan, Angie Draheim, Mary Grube, Rob Webb, Bobby Clements, Mary Johnston, Kelley Hernandez, Jackie Trenholm, Lisa Smith, Nicole Lay, Cyrus Chimento, Renee Boley, Maury Schlesinger. Missing from photo: Bill Nash, Steve Gregory, Conner Blouin, Bill Ward, Adam Werblow (he took the photo!)

two sustainable tiny houses to explore the connections between sustainable design and community art education. The partnership is with the Forrest Career and Technology Center, the Greenwell Foundation, Lexington Park Elementary School, and the Three Oaks Center. Want to help? October 24 is a community work session at Forrest Career and Technology Center from 3-5 pm.

Bailey

Pamela Mertz (associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry) helped lead an education workshop entitled “RCN-UBE: Integrating Evolution and Homeostasis with the Core Concepts of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology” at the Experimental Biology 2015 meeting in Boston, Ma., on March 31, 2015. She also served as a judge for the 19th annual American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB) Undergraduate Poster Competition on March 28.

Mertz