Another Math Department Newsletter
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Department of Mathematics University of Toronto April 2008 Chair's Report ....................................................................... 1 The Changing of the Guard .................................................. 2 John Bland Honoured ........................................................... 2 In a number of ways, this Alumni News ........................................................................ 2 has been a transitional year A Great AlumnusCONTENTS Chair’s Reportfor the Department of Math- J.C. Fields (1863 - 1932) 2007 - 2008ematics. John Bland has Posthumous Degree finished two terms as chair, Robert Barrington Leigh (1986 – 2006) with only a one year break A Greeting Card from Alice in between. We are all very Arts and Science Spring Reunion 2007 Our Undergraduates .............................................................. 4 grateful for all the work he Thoughts on Teaching has done in the last 8 years Putnam Results 2006 to build the department. I University of Toronto Undergraduate Mathematics am serving as pinch hitter Competition, March 2007 chair for the second time in An Undergraduate Math Conference in Canada 4 years until Kumar Murty 2007 DeLury Awards (TA) Famous Problems .................................................................. 4 Professor Jeremy Quastel, takes over as our new chair Trisecting an Angle the Origami Way Acting Chair in July 2008. We are all looking forward to Kumar’s There is More than One Way to Publicize the Solution of leadership for the next few years as the department builds a Famous Problem on its successes. The dean of Arts and Sciences, Pekka A Very Intriguing Problem Life Embraces Mathematics .................................................. 6 Sinervo, is also stepping down, to pursue his research in Knots in Brains experimental high energy physics with the Atlas project. A Phishing search is presently on for his replacement and in the mean- Keyfitz Public Lectures May 2007 time, Meric Gertler will serve as acting dean. With all this Fascinating New Task for Dean Pekka Sinervo .......................7 transition, my job would have been all the more difficult There is Music in Mathematics ............................................. 7 but for the dedicated help of our wonderful staff and fac- New People in the Department ............................................ 8 ulty. In particular, we are very lucky to have such dedicated Awards for Faculty ................................................................ 8 young faculty as Robert Jerrard serving as Undergradu- Obituaries ............................................................................. 9 ate Chair, Robert McCann serving as Associate Chair and Keith Ranger (1935 – 2007) Henry Kim as Graduate Coordinator. Remarkably, Henry Israel Halperin (1911 – 2007) and Robert are doing this while also serving as chief editors Our Graduates ..................................................................... 10 Grads at Mosaics of the Canadian Journal of Mathematics. From the Graduate School ................................................. 11 This year we welcome our freshman class of Coxeter 2007 Ph.D.'s Assistant Professors, Brian Street, from Princeton, and Pledge Sheet ........................................................................ 12 Frédéric Rochon, from Stony Brook University. We were delighted to hear that Brian just won an NSF postdoc which he will partially use at U of T in the next few years. Erich W. Ellers, George A. Elliott Even in an era of very tight resources at the university, EDITORS the department continues to grow. Presently we have about Robert J.Y. Aumann, Edward J. Barbeau, Ida Bulat, Christie Darville, 60 faculty across the three campuses, about 40 specialists at Meric S. Gertler, Iva Halecheva, Allyn Jackson, Beverley Leslie, Kathryn St George and about 140 students now in our graduate pro- Mann, Amanda Peet, JeremyCONTRIBUTORS Quastel, Joe Repka, Pekka Sinervo, Catherine gram. The strength of our department in research is high- Stanley-Albarda, Stuart H. Smith, Srinivasa Swaminathan, Nicolle Wahl lighted by the large number of external awards. Michael Chair of the Department of Mathematics for a three-year term Goldstein is on leave with the highly prestigious Guggen- beginning 1 July 2008 and ending 2011. heim and Eckhard Meinrenken has the Steacie. Jim Col- “Professor Jeremy Quastel has agreed to serve as Acting liander is the recipient of the McLean Award. Lisa Jeffrey Chair of the Department of Mathematics from 1 July 2007 to has been elected to the Royal Society of Canada. 30 June 2008, while Professor Murty is on research and Although much of the department is now housed in our study leave. impressive new facilities in the Bahen Centre at 40 St George, “These appointments have both Provostial and Academic space continues to be a pressing issue for the department. In Board approval. particular, the 6th floor of Bahen only accommodates about “I would like to thank Professor John Bland for his hard 2/3 of the department. Some faculty have offices in tempo- work, dedication, loyalty and leadership to the Department rary space in the Earth Sciences building across Huron Street, and the Faculty of Arts and Science while he served as and the graduate students have had to make do with several Chair over the last eight years.” spaces scattered across campus. The plan is for us and Sta- tistics to have the top four floors of 215 Huron, connected by a bridge spanning the 3 metres between the 6th floor of Bahen and the 7th floor of 215 Huron. The plan has been a little delayed due to delays in Philosophy’s move out of 215 Huron, as well as the change in administration at the faculty level, but is expected to be completed in the next two years. Progress took place last fall when we obtained the 10th floor of 215 Huron, which now houses several faculty and staff, the dynamics lab, and a large proportion of our graduate students, with a very pleasant graduate student lounge and John Bland Honoured lovely views of the city. There has been a lot of activity in the department and at the Fields Institute with thematic programs in Opera- tor Algebras in the fall, Harmonic Analysis this winter, and Arithmetic and Hyperbolic Geometry coming up next fall. Yum-Tong Siu of Harvard University will hold the first Fac- ulty of Arts and Science Dean’s Distinguished Visiting Pro- fessorship associated to next fall’s program, and will offer Dean Pekka Sinervo and Professor John Bland a course on “Transcendental Methods in Algebraic Geom- etry”. Balint Virag has done a great job of organizing exciting An Academic Leader Reception took place on May 30th, Blyth lectures. Last year the Blyth Lecturer was Okounkov, 2007, in the Faculty Club of the University of Toronto. The who went on to win the Fields Medal. This year we had host was Dean Pekka Sinervo. three wonderful and accessible lectures on number theory Dean Sinervo took the opportunity to thank Professor from Manjul Bhargava. As well, this summer the University John Bland for his outstanding contributions to the Depart- of Toronto will play host for the first time to the Canadian ment of Mathematics and the Faculty of Arts and Science Undergraduate Mathematics Conference. over the last eight years. These are very much appreciated We are extremely grateful for all the contributions from by us all. our mathematical community which make our department such a great place for teaching, learning and research. J.Q. Please send your messages to the Chair at [email protected] Or at Our AddressAlumni (since fall of 2005):News The Chair Department of Mathematics On 23 July 2007, the Department of Mathematics got the University of Toronto following Memorandum from Professor Meric S. Gertler, The Changing Bahen Centre the Acting Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Science. 40 St. George Street, Room 6290 “I am pleased to announce that Professor Kumar Murty Toronto, Ontario, has agreed to accept the position as Chair and Graduate of the Guard Canada M5S 2E4 2 A scholarship fund has been established to honour the J.C. Fields (1863 – 1932) memory of Robert Barrington Leigh. Fittingly, the schol- arship will be awarded to students in the Departments of A Great AlUmNUS John Charles Fields is best Mathematics and Physics, on the basis of academic merit remembered for his zeal- and financial need. ous endeavours to promote research in mathematics and to obtain funding for Catherine Stanley graduated in mathematics from the Uni- it. He conceived the idea of A GREETING CARD from AlICE versity of Toronto in an international award for 1988 and got her Ph.D. excellence in mathematical in 1995. She is now research. He persuaded the teaching mathematics International Mathematical at Acadia University in Union to hold the Interna- Wolfville, Nova Scotia. tional Congress of Math- Catherine sent us this ematicians in Toronto in remarkable Christmas 1924. The financial support card, drawn by her 14 that he was able to obtain year old daughter Alice. for this congress was so Catherine writes: J.C. Fields successful that there was “My family and a surplus, which provided I live in an off-grid the main incentive for his idea of an international medal. home in the Gaspereau He canvassed for the medal and found support from vari- Valley, just outside of ous institutions. Ill health prevented him presenting his pro- Wolfville. My husband Drawn by Alice Albarda posal in person at the Zurich Congress in 1932; he suffered Hans Albarda is an from heart problems. A few days before his death he drew up artist, involved in the a will, with J.L. Synge at his bedside, including an amount local political and environmental community. Wolfville has of $47,000 to be added to the funds for the medals. He did been a wonderful town to raise my daughters Alice (14) not live to attend the congress but his plans were still put and Janna (12), a small town blessed with a rich intellectual forward. Adopted at the International Congress of Math- environment and, like most of Nova Scotia, full of music ematicians at Zurich in 1932, the first Fields Medals were and art.” awarded at the Oslo Congress of 1936. The full story of how this idea became a reality is C.