ContinuUM Newsletter of the Department of Mathematics at the University of Michigan 2003-2004 Virginia Young Named to Nesbitt Professorship

In 2003 the department welcomed cases, but otherwise require an extensive Virginia (Jenny) Young, who became the analysis to even prove a solution exists. inaugural holder of the Cecil J. and Ethel M. “I am very excited to be in a mathemat- Nesbitt Professorship in Actuarial Math- ics department again; it was one of the ematics. Young is both a Ph.D. and an FSA most attractive aspects of the position,” and is one of the preeminent actuarial re- says Young. “I am looking forward to searchers in the world today. working with the AIM (Applied and Inter- After receiving her Bachelor’s in math- disciplinary Mathematics) program, and ematics from Cumberland College, Young helping to establish a stronger graduate entered the graduate program in mathemat- program presence in financial and actuarial ics at the University of Virginia. She com- mathematics. I want to contribute to the pleted her Ph.D. in just three years with a growth of the actuarial math program here dissertation in algebraic topology. “When I at Michigan, and broaden the scope to in- look back, I now realize that my graduate ca- clude topics in casualty actuarial math. I am reer was too short,” says Young. “How- also looking forward to continuing my re- ever, I had an excellent advisor and mentor search with others in the department like in Robert Strong.” After a two-year Kristen Moore.” postdoctoral fellowship at the Institute for Actuarial Assumptions” with Frees, et al. “For many years we have been seeking Advanced Study, she worked from 1986- The paper treats statistical estimation of pa- to hire a leader for financial/actuarial math- 1990 as an assistant and later associate pro- rameters for a linear model that predicts fu- ematics with research credentials appropri- fessor of mathematics at Cumberland ture Social Security liabilities of the federal ate to the distinction of the program, as well College in Kentucky. government. The authors analyze time se- as expertise and experience in and contact In 1990, seeking to use her mathematical ries data from the historical rate of inflation, with the profession outside the university,” skills in an area that was more applicable to returns on treasury notes, the wage rate, says Chair Trevor Wooley. “We believe real life, Young pursued a career in the actu- and the unemployment rate. This paper is that we have found the ideal candidate. The arial field. For three years she worked at the very much related to the work that Cecil appointment of Jenny Young will ensure the Wausau Insurance Company; during this Nesbitt did in the area of Social Security. continued health and progress of the un- time she passed all of the examinations to Young is also deeply interested in the dergraduate actuarial program and provide become a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries theoretical underpinnings of prediction momentum for the development of a fully- (FSA). In 1993, Young joined the faculty of models. In their joint work “Equity and functioning master’s program.” the School of Business at the University of Credibility,” Young and Promislow study “We are delighted that Professor Young Wisconsin, Madison in the Department of the comparative advantages of linear least has joined us as we celebrate 100 years of Actuarial Science, Risk Management and squares methods of prediction versus the the Michigan Actuarial Program,” says Pro- Insurance. She began as an assistant pro- entropy methods which occur in information fessor Curtis Huntington, Director of the fessor, and was promoted to associate pro- theory. On the theoretical side the most ex- Actuarial and Financial Mathematics Pro- fessor in 1999. She has also passed citing of her works is the recent collabora- gram. “With her addition to the faculty, we examinations 1-5 of the Casualty Actuarial tion with Zariphopoulou. In this work they are in a position to aggressively revitalize Society. are concerned with optimizing portfolios both the research and graduate student During her tenure at Madison she won containing cash, hedgeable risky assets like component of our program as we start the four different prizes for two papers on the stocks, and non-hedgeable liabilities such second hundred years of offering excel- topics of group health underwriting and So- as insurance policies. The mathematics in- lence in actuarial education and research.” volved is the mathematics of stochastic cial Security actuarial assumptions. In 1999 “The honor of being the inaugural she was co-winner of the Halmstad Prize for control theory and its associated non-linear partial differential equations. The problems holder of the Nesbitt Chair is just over- the best paper in actuarial science from the whelming,” says Young. “Nesbitt’s work is Actuarial Education and Research Fund for in partial differential equations that occur are exactly solvable in a few remarkable known worldwide, and it will have a lasting the paper “Forecasting Social Security impact on the actuarial profession.” View from the Chair’s Office Trevor Wooley

Few sectors of the economy have Our Applied and Interdisciplinary Math- able to students who, on the one hand, are escaped the unwelcome effects of the eco- ematics program is expanding to fulfill the excited about the opportunities that math- nomic downturn, and with state budgets scope that we envisioned for it a decade ematics has to offer, yet do not have the se- being squeezed both by declining tax rev- ago. Aside from the more traditional ele- cure financial backgrounds needed to be enues, and by federal cutbacks, public ments fitting between Applied Mathematics confident in being able to continue their universities across the nation have experi- and Engineering and the Natural Sciences, studies, is one that has grave implications enced the largest budget cuts in two we have been developing components in for the extent to which we as mathemati- decades. Although the storm clouds had Financial Mathematics and Computer Sci- cians will be inclusive as a profession. I been visible on the horizon for a couple of ence. In particular, with Virginia Young know that it would have been absolutely years, the budgetary hurricane that hit the joining us as the first occupant of the impossible for me to obtain a college educa- academic community over the past two Nesbitt Professorship in Actuarial Math- tion without the significant support that I years stopped many institutions in their ematics, our Actuarial Program will be re- received at a public institution, and I am ap- tracks. Here at Michigan, it is with unex- stored to its position as a national leader palled that the doors of opportunity seem pected relief that I report that the Depart- (see the article in this issue for more news to be closing for so many hard-working and ment of Mathematics has, thus far, not only on Actuarial and Financial Mathematics). enthusiastic students who ought to be con- weathered this storm without sacrificing Moreover, in Fall of 2004 the Department tributing, as mathematicians, to our future. cherished features of our undergraduate will welcome Jeff Lagarias, Anna Gilbert In this ContinuUM we report on the results and graduate programs, but through hard and Martin Strauss from AT&T Research of our first Alumni/Alumnae Solicitation for work and good fortune, achieved measured Laboratories, and this will provide a sub- scholarship funds, and happily we were progress in enhancing the Michigan Math- stantial boost for our teaching and research able to help four students this year. As a ematics experience. activities that bridge mathematics and com- community of mathematicians, we will need puter science. A major success for us has to work hard with such endeavors to pro- The long, strange trip through this in- been to meet the formidable challenge in vide the support that is increasingly essen- teresting period began with news of a 6% this depressed budget climate of making tial for the health of our profession. Part of budget cut and a hiring semi-freeze. The progress on the strength of our traditional this work will involve reminding our col- next year saw another budget cut roughly core activities, while at the same time devel- leagues who have employed their math- half that magnitude. Given that 90% of our oping these new and exciting areas that are ematical training with success in other budget is spent on salaries of instructors so important both in the academic environ- arenas that this mathematics base requires and support staff, such a cut seemed ment and the modern workplace. their help to prosper. daunting indeed. Still, with the news that some institutions were experiencing back- Despite our successes in these gloomy When I first arrived here at Michigan, I to-back funding reductions totaling 30%, times, it is worth reflecting on some hard well remember the speech delivered by the we comforted ourselves by noting that it truths that cannot be ignored if current and then Chair of the Department at the start-of- could have been much worse! Indeed we future generations of students are to ben- year faculty meeting. It was an awesome have handled a large part of this cut efit from the opportunities that mathematics and terrifying experience with much talk of through more efficient management of our offers in such abundance. It is apparent belt-tightening, of becoming accustomed to class offerings without untoward conse- that public education is undergoing a piv- cutbacks, of impoverished futures, and that quences for our students. Furthermore, otal transition that, unfortunately, seems was all before the most depressing part of while the College of LSA rationed depart- unlikely to be reversed. As recently as 1988, the speech. Although I have been tempted ments across the college to filling one posi- over half of the University of Michigan to dust off a copy of this speech in recent tion each per year, independent of the size general fund revenue came from the State years, the truth of the matter is that the ex- of the department, through good fortune of Michigan. Next year, less than 28% of perience that we offer our students is better and a fair measure of skullduggery, we have that revenue will come from the State. The than ever, and that our Department offers circumvented this semi-freeze by filling no shortfall is made up partly from greater ex- an exciting environment rivaling any in the fewer than seven permanent faculty posi- ternal research funds, but primarily from tu- nation. So while this may not be the best of tions over the past two years. You will hear ition increases. The challenge of making times for the Department, it is certainly far more about these new faculty members in our outstanding “public” education avail- from the worst of times! this and future editions of ContinuUM.

See more news of the University of Michigan Department of Mathematics on our website http://math.lsa.umich.edu

2 Hochster Named Distinguished University Professor

In 2004 Professor Mel Hochster was ics, both in the classroom and in coffee MATHEMATICS: We’ve come a long way - named the Jack E. McLaughlin Distin- room discussions, is contagious. His mag- or have we?” Hochster discussed the situa- guished University Professor. The Distin- netic personality draws students to his tion of women mathematicians and other guished University Professorship beautiful mathematics, and then his excel- women scientists, partly from a historical recognizes Hochster’s many outstanding lent guidance (and abundance of good perspective, and partly in terms of problems contributions as a scholar, gifted teacher ideas for thesis problems) sustains them as that exist today. There is overwhelming evi- and mentor of students, and generous con- they are led deeper into research. dence of gender bias in the evaluation of tributor to the life and mission of the depart- job candidates and in many other contexts. ment and the university. The Professorship Even when procedures seem to be objective is named in honor of his colleague, the late and fair, studies have shown that gender Professor Emeritus of Mathematics Jack E. bias is significant and pervasive. While McLaughlin (1923-2001). McLaughlin gender bias may not be conscious, it is held served on the UM Mathematics faculty equally by men and women. from 1958-1994. Hochster says he “chose Through his work with the STRIDE pro- Jack because, besides being a very close gram (Science & Technology Recruiting to colleague and friend, I admired his inspired Improve Diversity & Excellence), Hochster teaching of undergraduates as well as his has worked with other UM faculty to dis- courage in dealing with the challenges he seminate information about gender bias, faced in life”. recommend procedures to alleviate bias, Hochster is considered one of the most and provide guidelines for recruiting and eminent mathematicians in the world, and is hiring procedures. “We have to make a devoted teacher and mentor of students people aware of the problem, particularly of every level—from undergraduate the unconscious nature of gender bias” through graduate, postdoc, and beyond. He Hochster says, “and make tools and pro- is arguably the best commutative algebraist cesses available to departments to help ad- in the country and perhaps the world. His dress the problem.” influence on the field is all-pervasive; he Research has personally touched the lives of many of At the undergraduate level, Hochster the most successful practitioners of commu- has helped coach Michigan’s prize-winning Hochster’s deep insights have had a tative algebra. Putnam Exam team, a mathematical competi- profound influence on the study of Cohen- tion for undergraduates. He takes an active Macaulay rings and modules. The Cohen- After graduating from Harvard (B.A.) Macaulay property is a structural property and Princeton (Ph.D.), Hochster was a fac- interest in the program for math majors, regularly teaching and revising its core of commutative rings and their modules that ulty member at Minnesota and Purdue be- allows one to completely describe the ele- fore joining UM in 1977. He has been a courses. And even at the most elementary level, Mel Hochster is an effective and ments of a ring in terms of generators in a named Collegiate Professor in Mathematics unique way. Although technical to an out- since 1984. In recognition of his excellence popular teacher who cares about students as individuals: during a recent semester of sider, the Cohen-Macaulay property plays a in research he was elected in 1992 to both very important role in the field of commuta- the American Academy of Arts and Sci- teaching Math 215, Hochster photographed every single one of his over 100 students so tive algebra, and a vital concept in many re- ences and the National Academy of Sci- lated branches of mathematics. ences. In 2003 he was given the Margaret that he could learn and use their names. and Herman Sokol Award from the UM in During three recent summers, he has In his most famous theorem, the recognition of his outstanding teaching and been an instructor in the Michigan Math Hochster-Roberts Theorem, Hochster as- mentoring. and Science Scholars program, working with serts that certain rings arising in representa- talented high school students in a two week tion theory (specifically, rings of invariants Teaching and Mentoring intensive program that introduces tech- of reductive group actions) are always Cohen-Macaulay. This remarkable and Hochster has had a profound effect on niques like recursion and ideas from number theory, using properties of the Fibonacci beautiful result is used daily by mathemati- the quality of education at UM, particularly cians, mostly outside Hochster’s own field. graduate education. Since 1981, he has numbers as a starting point. served as the official thesis advisor for 26 Of the 29 Ph.D. theses Hochster has su- Hochster’s more recent research, most UM Ph.D.s, plus 3 others at Minnesota. pervised, twelve were written by women. An of it in collaboration with his former post- Some students had come to the UM specifi- even greater proportion of his recent post- doc Craig Huneke, has been the introduc- cally to work with Hochster, while an even docs have been women. In a field with so tion and development of the subject of tight larger number of his thesis students have few women at the top levels, this is a truly closure. Tight closure is a closure operation been those who arrived at the UM open impressive statistic, and something that performed on ideals in commutative rings. minded but unsure of what direction to pur- Hochster supports fervently. In his lecture Its definition is based on reduction to prime sue. Hochster’s enthusiasm for mathemat- for the Sokol award, entitled “WOMEN IN Continued on page 11

3 2003 & 2004 MLK Day Observances

The 2003 Marjorie Lee Browne Collo- the National Science Foundation Director’s His career began at Hunter College of quium, the department’s event celebrating Equal Opportunity Achievement Award. In the City University of New York, where he Martin Luther King Day on January 20, fea- 1997, Vélez received a White House was part of an accelerated B.A./M.A. pro- tured Dr. William Yslas Vélez. Dr. Velez is President’s Award for Excellence in Science, gram for exceptional undergraduates. a Distinguished Professor of Mathematics Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring. Petters graduated from Hunter in 1986 and at the University of Arizona. His talk, en- In his talk, Vélez addressed the scarcity was the recipient of many awards in math- titled “The Para- of minority mathematics faculty at Ph.D. ematics and physics. In 1999, he was hon- keet is Gasping,” granting institutions. He established a link ored by his Alma Mater by being inducted addressed the small between math literacy and civil rights, quot- into the Hunter number of minori- ing Robert Moses: “In today’s world, eco- College Hall of ties, particularly nomic access and citizenship depend on Fame. Chicanos, on the math and science literacy.” This literacy Petters’s re- mathematics facul- provides access to technical careers. search is on gravi- ties at Ph.D. grant- It seems that the mathematical commu- tational lensing, ing institutions. nity has not embraced these principles. In which deals with Vélez graduated 1977, there were seven Chicano research how light is dis- from the University mathematicians at Southwestern Ph.D. torted by the of Arizona in 1968 with a major in mathemat- granting institutions. No others were hired warping of space ics and a minor in physics. In March 1968, for 20 years. For U.S. students to survive and time. He has he was activated by the U.S. Naval Re- and flourish in our universities the faculty been a pioneer in serves and sent to the Tonkin Gulf, where should reflect the nation’s population. Di- establishing gravitational lensing as an area he served aboard aircraft carriers for two versity is important, but it does not mean of research in mathematical physics. Petters years. After his Naval service, Vélez began importing mathematicians from other coun- is the leading author of the book titled graduate school at the University of Ari- tries. The one dimensional focus of math- “Singularity Theory and Gravitational Lens- zona, earning a Master’s Degree (1972) and ematics departments on research has had a ing,” which he co-authored with Harold a Doctorate (1975), in mathematics. In 1975, detrimental effect on students, particularly Levine of Brandeis University and Joachim he accepted a position as a Technical Staff minority students. Even with good grades, Wambsganss of Potsdam University in Ger- member at Sandia Laboratories in Albuquer- U.S.-born minority students are ignored many. This book is the first to put gravita- que, New Mexico, where he worked on during graduate recruiting. tional lensing on a rigorous mathematical problems dealing with the command and foundation. He has won an Alfred P. Sloan Lasting change comes from institutional control of atomic weapon systems. In July Research Fellowship and a National Science change, which can only occur within math- 1977, Vélez accepted a position as Assistant Foundation Early Career grant award. ematics departments. The changing role of Professor at the University of Arizona, and Petters was recently awarded the first math in society and the mathematician’s became a full Professor in 1989. In 1998, Blackwell-Tapia Prize in Mathematical Sci- place in it should serve as a major impetus Vélez was selected as a University of Ari- ence by Cornell University and the Math- to change. Vélez hopes that his work at the zona Distinguished Professor. ematical Sciences Research Institute. University of Arizona in mentoring minority While his research interests have been mathematics majors to continue on to suc- Petters has given back to the African- in number theory and algebra, Vélez has al- cessful careers or graduate studies will American community by dedicatedly help- ways been interested in the ways that math- serve as an example to help increase the vis- ing and mentoring many minority students ematics is applied. He has held positions at ibility of Chicanos and other minorities in ranging from those in elementary school to various military labs, where he has applied mathematics departments nationally. the Ph.D. level. He was also Director of the mathematics to solve problems occurring in Reginaldo Howard Memorial Scholarship military communication systems. He worked Program, which offers full tuition to Duke’s as a consultant to the Naval Ocean Systems The 2004 Colloquium featured Dr. Arlie best African-American undergraduates. Center in San Diego for four summers and O. Petters, Professor of Mathematics and Petters has consequently received several received four patent applications dealing Physics at Duke University. He received a community-service awards. with signal processing for military communi- Ph.D. in Mathematics in 1991 from M.I.T. In Petters’ talk, entitled “Reflections on cation systems. Vélez also published sev- 1993 Petters became an assistant Professor Race: An Academic Journey,” detailed his eral articles dealing with issues in at Princeton. In 1998 he was recruited to personal experiences being an immigrant mathematics education and policy issues. Duke, and he became the first African- from Belize and experiencing life in the American to be tenured in the Mathematics Vélez was a Program Officer for Algebra United States as a teenager. He related the Department at Duke and the first elected to and Number Theory at the National Science challenges he faced as he navigated intel- Duke’s prestigious Bass Society. In 2003, he Foundation from 1992-93. He was President lectually through higher education. Be- also became the first African-American to of the Society for the Advancement of cause of his race, he felt that there were hold a joint appointment in Math and Phys- Chicanos and Native Americans in Science additional pressures placed on him, as well ics at Duke. from 1994-96. In July, 1993 he was awarded as additional opportunities available to him.

4 Growing up in Belize, Petters was ex- posed to an ethnically diverse and rich cul- New Center Will Focus on ture. He was unprepared for some of the biases that he experienced when he came to Teaching Mathematics the United States. He learned to overcome racial encounters to his own benefit. His A new initiative to study methods for ulty, postdocs, and graduate students inter- family encouraged him and never allowed teaching mathematics has been undertaken ested in working to improve teacher’s him the opportunity to quit. Petters felt that by the University of Michigan. The Center knowledge of mathematics for teaching. A he had earned the right to be where he was for Proficiency in Teaching Mathematics role of the Center is to learn how to better studying what he was, and didn’t allow (CPTM) is a collaboration between the Uni- prepare mathematics teachers, to focus on other people to taint his opportunities. versity of Michigan School of Education the ways of understanding mathematics This attitude allowed him to remain posi- and the University of Georgia College of that are critical for teaching. Most factors tive and energized throughout his academic Education. It aims to improve the capacity that affect mathematics education in the career. Petters encourages young students of the system of professional education for U.S. are far outside our influence. However, to develop a positive attitude, and accept teachers of mathematics. Principal investi- for the factors we can influence, such as challenges as the opportunity to prove their gators for the Center at UM are Professors what goes on in our courses for prospective abilities. Students should be provided the Deborah Ball (Education), Hyman Bass teachers and communicating how profes- means to explore the sciences and given a (Mathematics), and Edward A. Silver (Edu- sional mathematicians can contribute to im- chance to learn in a diverse atmosphere that cation). A $10.3 million, five-year grant from proving mathematics education, we look encourages acceptance. the National Science Foundation (NSF) forward to interacting with researchers from The 2004 Marjorie Lee Browne Collo- funds the center. the Center to have the best possible math- quium also included a tribute to Dr. Arthur Professor Ball notes that a major prob- ematics teacher education program at E. Bragg, who passed away in 2002. As a lem to which the center will devote its re- Michigan.” member of the UM Mathematics Depart- sources is that teachers’ mathematics CPTM will support and investigate a va- ment, Bragg pursued a doctorate in math- preparation often has been insufficient for riety of approaches to the education of pro- ematics from 1950 to 1961, and served in the the mathematical demands of teaching. The fessionals who teach teachers of Army during 1951 and 1952. His academic Center brings together mathematicians and mathematics, both pre-service and practic- achievements at the UM were admirable. In mathematics educators to develop a better ing. These teacher educators include doc- a 1963 letter, former department chair George understanding of what constitutes math- toral students in mathematics and Hay commented “…I must say that I have ematical knowledge for teaching and how mathematics education, post-doctoral fel- seldom seen such a fine record in course teachers can be helped to develop such lows seeking to develop specialization in work. You are to be congratulated on hav- knowledge. the mathematics education of teachers, ing a most unusual ability in mathematics.” The need to better prepare teachers for practicing mathematics educators, math- Bragg’s thesis research was in the area of mathematics teaching is substantial; more ematics teacher leaders, local curriculum special functions, and he studied under Pro- than a quarter of all students of mathemat- and professional education specialists as fessor Earl Rainville. He taught in the ics in grades 7-12 have teachers who have well as mathematicians. Projects to be de- Mathematics Department and was recog- neither a major nor a minor in their subject veloped by the Center include study groups nized as a skilled educator, achieving the of instruction. At the same time, the human and summer institutes. Local partners in prestigious level of junior instructor. resources for training new mathematics these activities include Michigan State Uni- Bragg left UM in 1961 and had an out- teachers are dwindling. In Ph.D.-granting versity, UM Dearborn, Western Michigan standing career in mathematics education. institutions, more than half the faculty will University, and the Oakland Intermediate He continued his career at Tuskegee Uni- be eligible for retirement in two years, and School District. versity, and then moved to Virginia State nearly 80 percent will be eligible in 10 years, CPTM will also work to improve national University as an Associate Professor. In according to the NSF. and international capacity for the education 1962 Bragg became Chair of the Department Professor of Mathematics Al Taylor of teachers of mathematics by building con- of Mathematics at Delaware State College shared information on the need for such an nections between the Center and the pri- and served in this capacity until 1989. Dur- initiative, and the opportunities the Center mary professional organizations whose ing this time he gave untiringly of his time, will bring to the Department of Mathemat- members teach and work with teachers of talents and interests to improving the de- ics. “Increasing the number and quality of mathematics. partment and enhancing the college aca- mathematics teachers is a critical problem The center is part of a $100 million NSF demically, physically and financially. for the U.S., one that math departments, par- initiative across the country to improve Bragg’s military career spanned over 34 ticularly in public universities, should not teaching and leadership in mathematics, sci- years of active and reserve duty in the fail to address. Indeed, mathematics depart- ence and technology. Of the three new cen- Army. He retired in 1988 with the rank of ments play a crucial role in the mathematical ters funded this year, the UM School of Lieutenant Colonel. In recognition of his education of teachers by providing almost Education is a major collaborator on two of dedicated service to education and the com- all the mathematical content courses for them, the CPTM in mathematics education, munity, Bragg was awarded an honorary them. In our department there are many fac- and the other in science education. doctorate degree in science from Delaware State College in 1990.

5 for a year’s sabbatical.” Jackson will use Faculty Kudos the fellowships to further her research in mathematical modeling in biomathematics, Jinho Baik was awarded an American physics and nonlinear dynamics theory, ex- in particular, mathematical models for can- Mathematical Society Centennial Re- periments and applications. The APS- cer growth and treatment. She also re- search Fellowship. The primary selection GSNP Vice-Chair position is the start of a ceived one of the University’s National criterion for the Centennial Fellowship is four-year appointment that evolves in sub- Science Foundation (NSF)-funded AD- the excellence of the candidate’s research, sequent years into the duties of the APS- VANCE program Elizabeth Caroline Crosby recognizing only 2-4 scientists each year. GSNP Chair-Elect, Chair, and Past-Chair. Research Awards. The award will extend a Alexander Barvinok published his Doering also received a Humboldt Research mathematical model of tumor encapsulation book “A Course in Convexity” through the Award for Senior U.S. Scientists. This to include certain effects of the interaction American Mathematical Society. award is given to researchers with interna- among tumor cells, the extracellular matrix tionally recognized academic qualifications and interstitial fluid. In June 2003 Jackson Andreas Blass was the program chair and honors the academic achievements of was awarded the Amoco Faculty Teaching for the 2003 annual meeting of the Associa- the award winner’s lifetime. Award winners Award from the UM. Most recently Jackson tion for Symbolic Logic. are invited to carry out research projects of was chosen by LSA as the recipient of the Anthony Bloch has been elected a Fel- their own choice in Germany in cooperation Robert D. and Janet E. Neary Faculty low of the Institute of Electrical and Elec- with colleagues. Award. This award is intended to support tronics Engineers. He has been elected on Robert Griess, Jr., received the faculty research. the basis of contributions to nonlinear dy- University’s Harold R. Johnson Diversity Smadar Karni was promoted from As- namics and geometric control of physical Service Award, recognizing his commitment sociate Professor to Professor. She also re- systems. The IEEE Fellow is one of the to the development of a more culturally and ceived one of the University’s National most prestigious honors of the IEEE, and is ethnically diverse campus community. For Science Foundation (NSF)-funded AD- bestowed upon a very limited number of 10 years, Griess has led the department’s VANCE program Elizabeth Caroline Crosby members. The number of IEEE Fellows annual effort in the King/Chavez/Parks Col- Research Awards. She will use the award to elected in a year is no more than one-tenth lege Day visitation program. He displays fund a speaker series and two one-day of one percent of the total IEEE voting his commitment to diversity through taking symposia featuring women in applied and membership. In addition, Bloch’s book personal and direct interest in students interdisciplinary mathematics. “Nonholonomic Mechanics and Control” from under-represented minorities who en- was published by Springer-Verlag this year. Bruce Kleiner was promoted from As- ter the mathematics program. sociate Professor to Professor. Brian Conrad received from the Phil Hanlon has been named the Rackham Graduate School, a Henry Russel Bob Megginson was selected by the University’s Associate Provost for Budget- Award for the year 2004. This award is con- National Association of Mathematicians to ary and Academic Affairs. Phil had been ferred annually to recognize distinguished present the 2003 Albert Turner Bharucha- Associate Dean for Finance and Planning scholarship or authorship (including cre- Reid Lecture. The talk is given each year at in LSA for the past four years. ativity in the arts) and conspicuous ability the NAM Faculty Conference on Research as a teacher. Mel Hochster received the 2001-02 Mar- and Teaching Excellence. The topic was garet and Herman Sokol Faculty Award in contributions of Native Americans to math- Harm Derksen has been awarded an the Sciences. This award, one of the most ematics. This talk honors the contributions NSF CAREER Award for Science and Engi- distinguished awarded by the University, is of the African-American mathematical bi- neering. The Faculty Early Career Develop- conferred on a tenured faculty member of ologist Albert Turner Bharucha-Reid, ment (CAREER) Program is a highly the University in the sciences, for contribu- whose career accomplishments included competitive Foundation-wide activity that tions to graduate education and research. serving as Dean of the School of Arts and offers the National Science Foundation’s Sciences at Wayne State University in the most prestigious awards for new faculty Trachette Jackson received five distin- 1970s. Megginson was recently named As- members. The CAREER program recognizes guished honors this sociate Dean for Undergraduate and Gradu- and supports the early career-development year, and was pro- ate Education in the College of LSA. activities of those teacher-scholars who are moted from Assistant most likely to become the academic leaders Professor to Associate Peter Miller was promoted from Assis- of the 21st century. Derksen was also pro- Professor. The Alfred tant Professor to Associate Professor. moted from Assistant Professor to Associ- P. Sloan Research Fel- Kristen Moore received one of the ate Professor. lowship is an extraordi- University’s National Science Foundation narily competitive Charlie Doering was elected Vice-Chair (NSF)-funded ADVANCE program Elizabeth award with Fellows se- of the American Physical Society’s (APS) Caroline Crosby Research Awards. She will lected from the very best scientists of their Group on Statistical and Nonlinear Physics use the award to facilitate completion of a generation. The 2003 Career Enhancement (GSNP). The APS-GSNP handles fellowship research program in actuarial and financial Fellowship from the Woodrow Wilson Na- nominations, conference organization, and mathematics, and help develop the math- tional Foundation is intended to “assist tal- general scientific and public and policy out- ematical tools available to analyze the fi- ented junior faculty to pursue scholarly reach issues for the American Physical So- nancial environment. Moore also received research and writing...by providing support ciety in the areas of modern statistical an Excellence in Education award from LSA.

6 Karen Rhea has been awarded an Excel- David Radnell - Rutgers Univ., Vertex lence in Education Award from the College New Junior Operator Algebras (Hildebrandt) of LSA. This award acknowledges her dedi- Nathan Reading - University of Minne- cation and special contributions to under- Faculty sota, Algebraic Combinatorics graduate education. Assistant professors who joined the de- James Rossmanith - University of Chris Skinner was promoted from As- partment during the past and current aca- Washington, Applied/Scientific Computing sociate Professor to Professor. demic years are listed here with their (VIGRE) Peter Smereka was promoted from As- doctoral institutions and area of specialty. Elizabeth Stanhope - Dartmouth Col- sociate Professor to Professor. Emina Alibegovic - Univ. of Utah, Alge- lege, Differential Geometry (VIGRE) Karen Smith received a Faculty Recog- braic Topology (Hildebrandt) Howard Thompson - University of Cali- nition Award from UM for outstanding con- Lyudmyla Barannyk - New Jersey Insti- fornia, Algebraic Geometry tributions as a teacher, scholar and member tute of Technology, Fluid Dynamics of the University community. Julianna Tymoczko - Princeton Univ., Jason Bell - Univ. of California, San Di- Group Theory (VIGRE) Joel Smoller was a Rothschild Visiting ego, Algebra and Analytic Number Theory Professor at the Newton Institute of the Bernardo Uribe - Univ. of Wisconsin, University of Cambridge in summer 2003. Gautam Bharali - Univ. of Wisconsin, Algebraic Topology Complex Analysis Kannan Soundararajan was awarded Monica VanDieren - Carnegie Mellon the 2003 Salem Prize. The Salem Prize is David Bortz - North Carolina State Univ., Logic (Hildebrandt/VIGRE) awarded every year to a young mathemati- Univ., Applied/Mathematical Biology Hui Xue - Columbia Univ., Number cian judged to have done outstanding work Elizabeth Burslem - Northwestern Theory in the field of interest of Raphael Salem, pri- Univ., Dynamical Systems Yongwei Yao - Univ. of Kansas, Algebra marily the theory of Fourier Series. Andrew Christlieb - Univ. of Wiscon- Divakar Viswanath has been awarded sin, Numerical Analysis David Kausch - Univ. of Michigan, Ab- an Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship, an extraordi- stract Algebra/Ring Theory. David joined Tommaso de Fernex - Univ. of Illinois, narily competitive award involving nomina- the department’s Actuarial and Financial Algebraic Geometry (Hildebrandt) tions of the very best scientists from Mathematics program as an Adjunct around the country. David Gammack - Univ. of Surrey, Math Associate Professor. Biology Sijue Wu was chosen by LSA as the recipient of the Phyllis and William Wolff III Yevgeny Goncharov - Univ. of Illinois, Faculty Award. This award was established Numerical Analysis by the LSA Dean’s Office to be used for Alexander Gorodnik - Ohio State Univ., faculty research support. Dynamical Systems These junior faculty received funding Russell Goward - Univ. of Missouri, Al- for summer 2003 and sumer 2004 through gebraic Geometry (VIGRE) Rackham Faculty Grants and/or Fellow- Peter Hasto - Univ. of Helsinki, Com- ships for Research: puter Science (Gehring Fellow) Math Problem Mahdi Asgari Samuel Hsiao - Cornell Univ., Combina- Lyudmyla Barannyk torics (NSF Fellow) You are playing a game. Your Gautam Bharali Bogdan Ion - Princeton Univ., Represen- opponent chooses a polynomial David Bortz tation Theory (Hildebrandt) P with non-negative integer Andrew Christlieb Elmas Irmak - Michigan State Univ., coefficients: you don’t know Tommaso de Fernex Topology/Geometry what it is. You are allowed to Bogdan Ion Hyunsuk Kang - Univ. of Pennsylvania, choose an integer a and ask for Complex Analysis the value of P(a). You may then Elmas Irmak choose an integer b and ask for Gregory Lyng Muthukrishnan Krishnamurthy - Purdue Univ., Number Theory (Hildebrandt) the value of P(b). After that, to Jani Onninen Gregory Lyng - Indiana Univ., Topol- win, you must determine what the Nikola Petrov ogy/Geometry polynomial is. Is there a fool- Bernardo Uribe Sergiy Merenkov - Purdue Univ., Com- proof strategy for winning this Hui Xue plex Analysis game? Jani Onninen - Univ. of Jyväskylä, (Answer elsewhere in the Nonlinear Analysis (Hildebrandt) ContinuUM) Nikola Petrov - Univ. of Texas, Dynami- cal Systems

7 New Senior Faculty Members

In addition to Virginia Young (see page ered the strongest researcher of his genera- 1) several new tenured or tenure-track fac- tion in this area. He solved a conjecture of ulty were appointed this year. Hales-Moy-Prasad on the domain of valid- ity of the Harish-Chandra-Howe local ex- pansion that is considered extremely deep and difficult work. Other major results in- clude a description of the nilpotent orbits of p-adic groups and the parametrization of conjugacy classes of maximal unramified tori. Ruth Lyttle Satter Prize in Mathematics and the Morningside Silver Medal in Mathemat- ics. She was an invited speaker at the 2002 International Congress of Mathematicians in Beijing, one of the highest honors for a research mathematician. Wu established herself as a top analyst by making Jinho Baik joined the department as an groundbreaking contributions to the study Assistant Professor. He received his Ph.D. of water waves and of vortex sheets. Her from the Courant Institute of Mathematical success in these areas is particularly im- Sciences at New York University, and has pressive considering that her training was held a Veblen Research Instructorship at not in fluid dynamics. Princeton University and the Institute for Advanced Study. Baik is an analyst with a strong component in probability. He has Junior Faculty worked on several different kinds of prob- Patrick Nelson, who previously had a lems, including the structure of random per- three-year appointment in the department, Research Highlight mutations and Young diagrams, has now become an Assistant Professor. Assistant Professor Tibor Beke percolation, and random walks. The Baik- Nelson received his Ph.D. from the Univer- was awarded a two-year “incubation” Deift-Johansson theorem is viewed as a sity of Washington. He held post-doctoral grant under the heading of CARGO very deep, important result that has im- positions at Duke University and the Insti- (Computational and Algorithmic Rep- pressed people in the area and triggered tute for Mathematics and its Applications resentations of Geometric Objects). enormous research activity. prior to coming to UM. In 2002, he received The sponsors are NSF (National Sci- a Career Award at the Scientific Interface ence Foundation) and DARPA (De- from the Burroughs Wellcome fund. fense Advanced Research Projects Nelson’s research in mathematical biol- Agency). The objective is to find ogy uses delay-differential equation models coding methods, based in part on to- to study infectious disease, mainly HIV/ pological graph theory, that facilitate AIDS. His work uses many techniques in- fast transmission and creation of digi- cluding asymptotics, stability analysis, pa- tal maps. Beke is partnering with the rameter estimation, the theory of dynamical senior scientist at MetaCarta, Inc., a systems, and scientific computing, and he company that provides services for is also involved in the development of both the intelligence community. theory and numerical algorithms for dealing The immediate goal of the program with delay-differential equations. is to provide map-transmitting capa- Sijue Wu joined the department as a bilities for low bandwith hand-held Stephen DeBacker joined the depart- Professor with tenure. She received her devices. Services like MapQuest and ment as an Associate Professor. He re- Ph.D. from Yale University. Since 1990, she Mapblast on the Internet can be used ceived his Ph.D. from the University of has held positions at the Courant Institute, if there is a good net connection and Chicago. He was awarded a National Sci- Northwestern University, University of high-resolution screen, but are not ence Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship Iowa, Institute for Advanced Study, Univer- practical for more remote applications. from 1998-2001, and held the position of sity of Maryland, and Harvard University. Beke is involved in the broader Dickson Instructor at the University of Chi- Wu is a deep and original researcher context that uses topological graphs cago from 1999-2001. Most recently he was to describe not just two-dimensional a Peirce Assistant Professor at Harvard. working in the areas of partial differential equations, fluid dynamics and harmonic images (like a road map) but also DeBacker has done outstanding work in analysis. In 2001, she received both the three-dimensional configurations (like p-adic representation theory. He is consid- a solid body in space). 8 Faculty Profile - Associate Professor Brian Conrad

As a child, Associate Professor Brian math major lead to a decent job? This is of Conrad never considered mathematics as a course a most reasonable question, and the career. An intensive eight-week summer parents are often pleasantly surprised when math program during high school made him I tell them about the range of job options realize that math is a “living subject.” available to people with strong analytical Conrad says that “math is really about training, such as in math biology, industry, ideas, not formulas. Unfortunately, that’s national security, and finance. The fact that something not so widely known. More stu- this department offers courses related to all dents would be interested in math if they of these fields is a big attraction for stu- understood this.” dents who have an interest in math but also Conrad, who joined the department in are considering careers in other fields.” 2000 and was promoted to Associate Pro- Conrad also organized the Undergradu- fessor in 2001, is a rising star who works in ate Math Club. Each week, 15 to 20 math algebraic geometry and number theory. The majors meet for pizza and pop in the Nesbitt overlap of these fields has applications undergraduate common room and hear a both within theoretical mathematics as well presentation by a faculty member or gradu- as in development of cryptographic sys- ate student on a topic outside of the stan- tems needed for secure electronic telecom- dard curriculum. “I think the most munications. important aspect of the math club is that it A native of Long Island, Conrad is the enables undergraduates interested in math son of a high school math teacher. His expe- to meet others with similar interests,” he in 2003; this thesis work was awarded the says. “It seems to have also led to an in- riences at the summer program convinced Wirt & Mary Cornwell Prize from the de- him to major in math at Harvard. He earned crease in the number of students majoring partment. He is also advising three other in math.” his Ph.D. in 1996 from Princeton. graduate students, and is very pleased with Conrad has been widely recognized for the activity of the number theory group in Conrad has given presentations at sum- his work on the Shimura-Taniyama Conjec- the department. Since coming to Michigan, mer math programs for high school stu- ture, which concerns properties of elliptic Conrad has been an outstanding educator dents, and when he first came to UM he curves over the rational numbers; this work and mentor, staying involved in outreach gave monthly talks to students at a math helped to complete a program initiated by activities at all levels. He was chair of the and science program at Churchill High Wiles’ proof of Fermat’s Last Theorem in mathematics honors program, and partici- School in Livonia, Michigan. He now works 1993. His area of general interest, arithmetic pated in reorganizing the two-year honors individually with students from that pro- geometry, is concerned with the use of geo- math sequence. “I find that sometimes the gram on research projects. “I enjoy working metric structures to investigate problems honors students want to jump ahead into with students at the high school to help that arise from number theory. In addition courses for which they are not really pre- them think clearly about mathematical to his work on elliptic curves, he has done pared, so I try to help them to see that it is ideas,” he says. The student he supervised work in non-archimedean geometry and the not enough just to know the answers. They in 2002-03, Ethan Street, was the only stu- arithmetic of modular curves, and has writ- need to understand the theory behind the dent from Michigan selected as a top 40 fi- ten a book on duality for schemes. He is solutions before they move on to more ad- nalist in the Intel (formerly Westinghouse) presently working on a geometric analogue vanced courses.” Science Talent Search, and Ethan also won top honors in the International Science and of an old conjecture on prime numbers, and “As Honors Chair, I met a lot of pro- is completing a book on modular forms. Engineering Fair (first place in math and a spective undergraduates and their parents trip to the Nobel prize ceremonies in De- In July 2002, Conrad was awarded a during campus visits, and the top question cember). In 2003 he enrolled at UM and has Presidential Early Career Award for Scien- the parents always have is: Will getting a completed his freshman year. tists and Engineers in a ceremony at the White House. This award is considered the nation’s highest honor for professionals at the outset of their independent research ca- reers, and recognizes the most promising Solution to Math Problem young researchers. In addition, he received Surprisingly, you can determine the whole polynomial from just two values. First ask a Sloan Foundation award in 2001, and was for the value of P(1). This is the sum of the coefficients, and so is an upper bound for a Clay Foundation Fellow from 2000-2002. all of them. Take b to be any larger integer, and ask for the value of P(b). This Conrad’s research and leadership poten- number, written in base b, gives the sequence of coefficients. For example if P(n) = tial were evident to the department when he 3n2 + 4n + 2 then P(1) = 9. Take b = 10. Then P(10) = 342. Of course, we usually write was recruited. His first graduate student, numbers in base 10, but this method works just as well no matter what b is. Mihran Papikian, defended his dissertation

9 Three Faculty Members Retire

Eugene F. Krause, Professor of Math- tions are simply outstanding, and his com- Mort Brown, Professor of Mathematics ematics in the College of Literature, Science, mitment to his own teaching and to the in the College of Literature, Science, and the and the Arts and the School of Education, teaching profession are evident. In review- Arts, retired from active faculty status on retired from active faculty status on Decem- ing his teaching evaluations, the majority May 31, 2004. ber 31, 2002. stated that Krause was “the best teacher I Brown attended the University of Wis- ever had at UM” or that the course was After receiving his bachelor’s and doc- consin, and “the most useful for my teaching career.” torate degrees from the University of Wis- received his Krause was effectively “teaching the teach- consin, Krause (as he will always be known Bachelor of ers” of generations to come. Many of his to the hun- Science de- students realize the valuable tools and re- dreds of gree in 1953 sources they gained from Krause’s instruc- mathemat- and his Ph.D. tion when they begin teaching, and contact ics educa- in Mathemat- him to thank him for their knowledge and tion ics in 1958. experience. students He was an in- who took Krause’s dedication and strong teaching structor at his did not go unrecognized by the University. Ohio State courses) In 1979 he won the AMOCO Foundation University joined the Good Teaching Award; in 1982 he won the prior to join- UM Depart- Ruth M. Sinclair Award in LSA Freshman- ing the Uni- ment of Sophomore Counseling; he received the versity of Mathemat- College’s Excellence in Education Award Michigan Mathematics Department on a fel- ics in 1963 three times, Excellence in Concentration Ad- lowship from the Office of Naval Research. as an in- vising award in 2001, and was recognized Brown was promoted to assistant professor structor. He became a Professor in 1977, by the Panhellenic Association of Michigan in 1959, and became a Professor in 1964. and served as Associate Chair for Educa- as an outstanding teacher. In 1993 he was During his tenure, he directed seven Ph.D. tion, from 1975-79. named a Fulbright Scholar and spent a year students. at Rhodes University in South Africa. He Krause began his mathematics research Early in his career, Brown was recog- was a frequent speaker at both national and career in the area of algebra but soon mi- nized as an expert in topology, and he has regional meetings of the National Council of grated toward mathematics education. For presented papers and lectures by invitation Teachers of Mathematics and the School the past 20 years, Krause managed the on topology, high dimensional topology, Science and Mathematics Association. The mathematics education program, personally and dynamical systems at universities and award that likely holds most meaning for counseling a myriad of students who went institutes throughout the world. In 1963 him was given to him by his last math edu- on to teach at the elementary and high Brown received a Sloan Foundation Fellow- cation class in 2002: After nominating him school levels. He was able to show his stu- ship. In 1966 he received the Veblen Prize (unsuccessfully) for the University’s dents how to demonstrate the complexities from the American Mathematical Society for Golden Apple Award, which signifies the and beauty of mathematics to young stu- his proof of the generalized Schonfliess best teacher at the University as chosen by dents. Krause was able to utilize his mas- theorem. He later grew interested in dynami- the students, Krause’s class presented him tery of the subject to not only communicate cal systems on 2-dimensional manifolds with an engraved “golden apple” paper- with his students, but also to explain ways and, with Walter Neumann, gave an under- weight, citing the paramount role he played of teaching these ideas to others. Krause standable and acceptable proof of a fixed- in their educational careers. always felt that rather than writing about point theorem conjectured by Poincaré and teaching and how to teach, he could To honor Krause’s commitment to en- Birkhoff. The original “proof” by Birkhoff in achieve more by writing textbooks, which gaging new teachers in the art and science 1913 and “correction” in 1925 were consid- embody new ideas. His publications include of teaching mathematics, a fund has been ered controversial. His visiting appoint- the books “Elementary Mathematics for established in the School of Education to ments have included Cambridge Teachers” (with C. Brumfiel), “Introduction help new teachers of mathematics continue University’s Topology Institute, the Univer- to Linear Algebra,” “Introduction to the to enhance their skills and abilities. The sity of Warwick, the Imperial College of Theory of Arithmetic,” and “Mathematics I fund will provide support for classroom ma- London, Institute des Hautes Etudes and II.” He contributed several articles to terials, conference travel and other profes- Scientifiques in Paris, and the Institute for math-education journals and was consid- sional development opportunities related to Advanced Study at Princeton. ered a top expositor. Krause’s monograph the teaching of mathematics. Donations can Brown was active in administration at “Taxicab Geometry” is popular with both be sent to UM School of Education, 610 the department, college and university lev- students and teachers. East University, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1259; els. In the Mathematics Department he ATTN: L. Stoianowski. Please indicate the During his tenure at UM Krause was served as Associate Chair for Education, a donation is for the Eugene Krause Fund. considered a stellar teacher. His courses member of the Executive Committee on sev- were quite demanding. His teaching evalua- eral occasions, and Doctoral Committee 10 Chair. He was a member of the LSA Execu- ematics Department. Federbush joined the tral gas the effects of the long-range elec- tive Committee and the Rackham Executive University of Michigan Mathematics De- tromagnetic interactions are screened out. Board. He served on the Board in Control of partment in 1966 as a Lecturer. He was pro- As part of his work on field theories he de- Intercollegiate Athletics for three years. Pro- moted to associate professor in 1967 and to veloped a set of orthogonal phase space lo- fessor Brown was active in the Senate Advi- Professor in 1971. calized functions–known as “wavelets”– sory Committee on University Affairs In 1965 Federbush received a Sloan which are divergence free. In a 1993 paper (SACUA) and was the committee’s chair in Foundation Fellowship. In 1975 he was a he explored a new direction, applying these 1981-82. John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellow, wavelets to the Navier-Stokes equations of As Associate Chair for Education in the and was a member of the Institute for Ad- fluid dynamics. His current main research late 1980s, Brown began implementing the vanced Studies with a grant-in-aid. Eleven interest is in the Heisenberg model for first major revision of the undergraduate doctoral students received their Ph.D. de- quantum spin systems. calculus program in nearly 20 years. In the grees under his direction in either physics early 1990s he initiated cooperative learning or mathematics. From 1991 to 1997 in calculus classes, dedicated classrooms Federbush was Associate Chair for Educa- with new technology to that approach, tion in the Mathematics Department. He implemented a specialized training program served on many departmental committees for instructors, and oversaw the adoption of and several college committees, and was the Hochster, continued from page 3 a reform textbook. The new introductory unofficial social chair of the Mathematics characteristic, where one then takes ad- calculus courses incorporated group learn- Department. The latter role provided vantage of the Frobenius operator. Tight ing, a graphing calculator, team homework, Federbush with ample opportunity to ex- closure has provided deep new insight into and smaller classes. Brown is credited with hibit his prowess as a polyglot. the structure of commutative rings and has providing a significant model for the na- As a teacher, Federbush handled the found striking applications to a surpris- tional calculus reform movement, and was many and varied courses in applied math- ingly diverse collection of problems. active on numerous national and state cal- ematics, including many of the specialized Hochster and Huneke’s notion of a ‘test culus reform committees. After the reform of and demanding courses designed for engi- ideal’ for tight closure has turned out to the calculus program, he continued as Di- neering students. He and a colleague devel- have deep connections with ‘multiplier ide- rector of the elementary program in the de- oped student computer lab materials als,’ another current hot topic in algebraic partment for several years. utilizing Matlab that continue to be used in geometry arising for yet different reasons. To acknowledge his efforts in reforming the current introductory differential equa- Tight closure even appears to have inter- calculus education and learning, Brown re- tions course, Math 216. esting connections with a subject as seem- ceived Excellence in Teaching Awards from ingly remote as differential operators. Federbush is a mathematical physicist the College of LSA in 1992 and 1993. He was Despite these apparently deep and diverse working in statistical mechanics and quan- named a Thurnau Professor in 1994, recog- connections with other fields, tight closure tum field theory. Early on he became inter- nizing his contributions to undergraduate is important and beautiful in its own right ested in the part of field theory that could education. as an elegant tool for unifying and illumi- be put on a firm mathematical foundation, nating many basic constructions in com- and in applications of field theoretic ideas mutative algebra, including Cohen- Paul Federbush, Professor of Math- to other areas of mathematics. One of his Macaulayness, integral closure, and ho- ematics in the College of Literature, Science, most influential papers (in 1969) was an in- mology modules. and the Arts, retired from active faculty sta- finitesimal version of Nelson’s hypercon- tus on May tractive inequality in field theory. The Diversions Federbush inequality later became known 31, 2004. While mathematics keeps him quite as the logarithmic Sobolev inequality and is Federbush busy, there are other diversions and inter- widely used in the theory of partial differen- received a ests in Hochster’s life. These include cryp- tial equations. Bachelor of tic crosswords and bridge. He is the Science from Another important work was his 1975 unofficial organizer of a lunchtime bridge the Massa- paper on the stability of matter, which gave game that involves nearly twenty faculty chusetts Insti- a new proof of a classic result of Dyson and members and graduate students over the tute of Lenard that a large neutral system of elec- course of a week. Most days he can be Technology in trons and nuclei does not collapse. Unlike found at lunchtime in the common room or 1955, and in the original paper, the Federbush approach at a local restaurant with other bridge afi- 1958 a Ph.D. showed that the technique of phase space cionados. The game is always open to new in Physics localization is central to the proof. Phase players, and new faces appear frequently. from space localization became a focus of His home life is as active as his profes- Princeton Uni- Federbush’s research, particularly in prov- sional life, with a 14-year-old daughter and versity. From 1958 to 1966 he was an in- ing results about correlations in Euclidean 8-year-old triplets to make sure there is structor and assistant professor in the field theory. His most impressive result was never a dull moment. He has a grown son M.I.T. Physics Department. The year 1964- the proof in 1981 (with David Brydges) of who is a mathematician and two grandchil- 65 was spent on leave in the M.I.T. Math- “Debye” screening, that in a charged neu- dren as well.

11 Math Department Chosen for Carnegie Program

The Carnegie Foundation for the Ad- disciplinary community create models and departments will propose changes in their vancement of Teaching has selected the evidence of success to inform others in the program intended to better meet the agreed University of Michigan as a national, multi- field. “We’re working with departments that upon outcome goals. Taking a scholarly ap- year partner in a project to improve doctoral are committed to being stewards of their proach, departments further commit to gath- education at American universities. disciplines,” Golde says. “We don’t just ering evidence about the impact of the The foundation’s Carnegie Initiative on mean a preservation of the heart and es- changes. the Doctorate (CID), a research and action sence of the field, although that’s important, “We are in a strong position to assist project designed to support departments’ but we chose those departments that have a the Carnegie Foundation in a prolonged ex- efforts to more purposefully structure their critical eye toward the future, that are will- amination of reform in doctoral education,” doctoral programs has tapped U-M’s Chem- ing to take risks and move the discipline for- said Earl Lewis, former Dean of the Horace istry, English, Educational Studies and ward.” The initiative has three interacting H. Rackham School of Graduate Studies. “I Mathematics departments to participate in elements: a conceptual analysis of doctoral am pleased that the initiative has chosen the five-year study. The departments will education, design experiments in depart- four Michigan units to participate in this im- analyze all aspects of their doctoral pro- ments, and research and dissemination. portant national project. That all four of our grams and link specific activities to desired UM and The Ohio State University were projects were selected for inclusion is a outcomes. the only institutions to have four depart- clear sign of a level of commitment of the Carnegie Senior Scholar Chris Golde ex- ments chosen to participate as partners. University and our colleagues to change.” plained that the project goals are to support The 32 partner departments of the CID have The initiative is funded by the Carnegie and study experiments in doctoral educa- committed to a serious deliberation about Foundation and by the Atlantic Philanthro- tion with leading graduate programs, and to the purposes and desired outcomes of their pies, which identifies and supports leaders document and analyze the character of doctoral programs. Departments will con- and organizations dedicated to learning, those initiatives. Then, working with these sider the strategies currently used to meet knowledge-building and solving pressing innovative units, the project will help the those goals. As a result of the deliberations, social problems. 2004 MMSS Program

The Michigan Math and Science Schol- Participants could choose from a variety mation on how you can support this pro- ars (MMSS) had a highly successful 2004 of courses in areas of mathematics, financial gram through corporate or personal dona- program. Initially known as “math camp,” mathematics, mathematical modeling, em- tions, please visit the MMSS website at and offering courses only in mathematics, bryology, field biology, genome sequences, www.math.lsa.umich.edu/mmss/. the MMSS program is in its ninth year and physics, statistics, and astronomy. In the The MMSS website includes detailed offers courses in all areas of science to photo below, students from the Financial information and many more photos from the bright high school students from around Mathematics course visit the trading floor 2004 program, and will be updated with in- the world. of DTE Energy in Ann Arbor. Group activi- formation on the 2005 summer program. ties and field trips also included the Detroit Attendance at the two sessions this Addresses: summer totaled 252 students. MMSS has Science Center, Ann Arbor Art Fair, and Ce- become known internationally; 49 of this dar Point amusement park. www.math.lsa.umich.edu/mmss year’s participants were from foreign coun- Some financial assistance for tuition was or email [email protected]. tries. The Busan Science Academy in Korea available for participants this year. For infor- sent 36 high school students to participate in MMSS. “I think our website has been the main impetus to the increased enrollment from other countries,” says MMSS pro- gram coordinator Warren Noone. “It was exciting to have the U.S., Canada, and seven other countries represented this summer. Besides the program’s obvious academic benefits, these kids were part of a di- verse student body and gained exposure to other cultures.”

12 100 Years of Actuaries A Chronology of Actuarial Faculty Some time in 1902 (or 1903), the first lec- Harry Panjer was good, and we hosted an- tures in Actuarial Mathematics took place other meeting in 2004. Members at UM at the University of Michigan. James W. Elsewhere in this issue, you have been James W. Glover 1895-1938 Glover began instruction in the mathemat- introduced to Virginia “Jenny” Young, FSA, ics of finance and insurance, and soon de- Ph.D., the initial holder of the Cecil J. and Walter O. Menge 1928-1937 veloped a broad curriculum in actuarial Ethel M. Nesbitt Professorship in Actuarial Thomas N.E. Greville 1931-1933, science. The exact starting date is a little Mathematics. Jenny joined us for the fall, 1937-1940, 1962-1963 unclear. What is clear is that Michigan has 2003 semester. In addition, we are pleased at least a century of actuarial excellence in that David T. Kausch, a 1994 Michigan Cecil J. Nesbitt 1937-1980 education and research to celebrate, and Ph.D. graduate as well as an ASA, EA celebrating is just what we did in 2003-04. joined us at the same time. Carl H. Fischer 1941-1974 In April 2003, we had our inaugural Ac- With Kristen Moore, Ph.D., ASA and Marjorie Van Eenam Butcher tuarial Commencement. Supported by the myself, the Michigan Actuarial Program is 1947-1956 Cecil J. Nesbitt Commencement Lecture starting the second century of its existence Fund that was established with memorial with 4 full time actuarial faculty members, all Robert W. Butcher 1950-1956 donations upon Nesbitt’s passing, the 2003 of them with professional actuarial creden- Allen L. Mayerson 1956-1971 graduates, parents and friends joined to- tials (ASA or FSA) and all of them holding gether for a “mini” graduation ceremony, doctorates. In addition, enrollment in our Donald A. Jones 1959-1991 followed by a catered luncheon in the undergraduate degree programs is quite ro- atrium of East Hall. The commencement bust and we have a steady stream of Newton L. Bowers, Jr. 1965-1969 speaker was Susan M. Smith (BS Math Master’s degree candidates, as well. 1963) who also happens to be a resident of Hans U. Gerber 1972-1982 Our students maintain an active stu- Ann Arbor and recently retired from the lo- W. James MacGinnitie 1973-1985 cal office of Towers, Perrin. In 2004 the dent-run organization, the Student Organi- commencement speaker was R. Stephen zation of Actuaries, with programs in Charles L. Trowbridge 1979-1983 Radcliffe (MS 1968 ), President of American academics, sports and social activities. In United Life Insurance Co. of Indianapolis. 2003 there was an outreach program to a lo- Howard Young 1987 - 1997 cal high school by 4 of our students. We We plan to make this an annual tradition Marjorie A. Rosenberg 1991-1994 and to bring back former students of Cecil would like to develop a more extensive out- Nesbitt to be commencement speakers. reach program to area schools—to provide Curtis E. Huntington 1993 - present us with an opportunity to inform high In August 2003, we hosted the 38th Ac- school students about the actuarial field Kristen S. Moore 1999 - present tuarial Research Conference to celebrate and to give our students the opportunity to the first 100 years of the Michigan Actuarial develop their public presentation skills. David T. Kausch 2003 - present Program, and also “in celebration of the life The club also organizes several on-campus Virginia R. Young 2003-present of Cecil J. Nesbitt.” It was fitting to have visits from interested employers. the conference back in Ann Arbor, which also hosted the first conference. We are excited about the start of the next 100 years for the Michigan Actuarial Below: Guests at the Actuarial Research There were 41 scientific papers presented Program and look forward to hearing from Conference Dinner: (top l-r) David by 40 different researchers, representing 6 any of our alumni/ae if you have any ques- Kausch, Kristen Moore, Howard Young, countries (and Ohio State—it not being quite tions or suggestions for us. Curtis Huntington; (bottom l-r) Jim clear how to count that representative). At- Hickman, Jenny Young, Ethel Nesbitt, tendance at the three day conference was in - Curtis E. Huntington (BA 1964), FSA; Director, Financial & Marjorie Rosenberg, Marjorie Van Eenam excess of 100 individuals from 8 countries. Butcher. All of the events, including the elegant Con- Actuarial Mathematics Program ference Dinner, were held in the home of the Michigan Actuarial Program - East Hall. In September 2003, UM hosted the semi-annual meeting of the Midwestern Ac- tuarial Forum (casualty actuaries working in the Midwest). About 100 people attended this all day conference that was held in an academic site for the first time. In the spring of 2003, the Michigan Actuarial Soci- ety was hosted by the department for the first time. Despite bad weather, the turnout to hear Society of Actuaries’ President 13 PhD Recipients December 2002 - August 2004

Jason Aubrey completed his disserta- Daniel Jupiter completed his disserta- Mihran Papikian completed his disser- tion “Pseudo-Dominating Families of tion “Envelopes of Holomorphic and Ap- tation “Optimal Elliptic Curves, Discrimi- Functions” under the direction of Andreas proximation Theorems” under the direction nants, and the Degree Conjecture Over Blass. He is an assistant professor at of Berit Stensones. He is a postdoc at Texas Function Fields” under the direction of Northern Iowa University. A&M University. Brian Conrad. Mihran received the 2003 Sylvia-Pek Chiang completed her dis- Benjamin Keen completed his disserta- Cornwell Prize. He is a Szego Assistant Pro- sertation “Vacuum State Problems of Dif- tion “A Kinetic Scheme for Gas Dynamics fessor at Stanford University. ferent Systems of Conservation Laws” on Arbitrary Grids” under the direction of Joel Pitkin completed his dissertation under the direction of Joel Smoller. She will Smadar Karni. He is a researcher for the In- “A Twisted Kazhdan Density Theorem: An be a research scientist at the National Uni- stitute for Defense Analysis/Center for Application of the Stabilized Twisted versity of Singapore. Computing Sciences. Trace Formula” under the direction of Tom Seung-Il Choi completed his disserta- Christopher Kennedy completed his Hales. He is a risk management profes- tion “Degenerate Principal Series for Ex- dissertation “An Exploration of Deep Ma- sional with Bear Stearns Investment Bank. ceptional p-adic Groups” under the trix Algebras” under the direction of David Marko Slapar completed his disserta- direction of Allen Moy. He is employed at Winter. He has a tenure-track position at tion “Real Surfaces in Complex Surfaces” the Samsung Corporation. Edinboro University of Pennsylvania. under the direction of John Erik Fornæss. Dean Chung completed his dissertation Elizabeth Klodginski completed her dis- He is a postdoc at the University of “Computation of Cache Misses in Matrix sertation “Essential Surfaces in Fibered 3- Ljubljana (Slovenia). Multiplication” under the direction of Phil Manifolds” under the direction of Peter Peter Storm completed his dissertation Hanlon. He has accepted a position at the Scott. She is a VIGRE Postdoctoral Fellow/ “The Barycenter Method on Singular Quadstone company. Visiting Research Assistant Professor at the Spaces” under the direction of Dick Ca- Georgios Dalakouras completed his University of California-Davis. nary. He is an NSF postdoc and Dickson dissertation “A New Fast and Robust Tech- Scott Kravitz completed his dissertation Instructor at the University of Chicago. nique for Pricing and Hedging Asian Op- “The Homology of a Filtered Boolean Al- Ronald Walker completed his disserta- tions” under the direction of Kristen gebra” under the direction of Phil Hanlon tion “Concerning the Characterization of Moore. He has a position at Susquehanna Jonathan Korman completed his disser- Boundaries of Holomorphic 1-Chains International Group in Philadelphia. tation “A Character Formula for Compact Within Complex Surfaces” under the direc- Haggai Elitzur completed his disserta- Elements Using the Building” under the tion of David Barrett. He is a VIGRE Assis- tion “Tight Closure in Artinian Modules” direction of Tom Hales. He is a postdoc at tant Professor at Ohio State University. under the direction of Mel Hochster. the University of Toronto. Craig Christopher Westerland com- Erik Ferragut completed his disserta- Alex Kuronya completed his disserta- pleted his dissertation “Stable Splittings of tions “Detection of Epistatic Effects in Ge- tion “Asymptotic Cohomological Func- Configuration Spaces of Surfaces and Re- netic Data” under the direction of Phil tions on Projective Varieties” under the lated Mapping Spaces” under the direc- Hanlon. direction of Robert Lazarsfeld. He is a tion of Igor Kriz. He has a one-year position at the Institute for Advanced Julia Gordon completed her disserta- postdoc at Universität Duisburg-Essen in Study at Princeton, and then will join the tion “Some Applications of Motivic Inte- Germany. University of Wisconsin. gration to the Representation Theory of Elliott Lawes completed his dissertation P-Adic Groups” under the direction of “The Regular Shalika Germ and Motivic Kevin Woods completed his dissertation Robert Greiss and Tom Hales. Julia will Integration” under the direction of Tom “Rational Generating Functions and Lat- spend a year at the Institute for Advanced Hales. He held a one-year lecturship at UM, tice Point Sets” under the direction of Studies and then has a postdoc position at and now has a position at the University of Alexander Barvinok. Kevin received the the University of Toronto. Toronto. 2004 Cornwell Prize. He is a NSF postdoc at the University of California, Berkeley. Theron J. Hitchman completed his dis- Krastio Lilov completed his dissertation sertation “Rigidity Theorems for Large Dy- “Skew Products” under the direction of Alexander Yong completed his disserta- namical Systems with Hyperbolic John Erik Fornæss. He has a visiting posi- tion “On Combinatorics of Degeneracy Behavior” under the direction of Ralf tion at State University of New York, Stony Loci” under the direction of Sergey Fomin. Spatzier. He is a postdoc at Case Western Brook. He is a postdoc at the University of Califor- nia-Berkeley. Reserve University. Boris Mitavskiy completed his disserta- Amanda Johnson completed her disser- tion “A Mathematical Model of Evolution- tation “Multiplier Ideals of Determinantal ary Computation and Some Conse- Ideals” under the direction of Karen Smith. quences” under the direction of Andreas She has a position with the National Secu- Blass. He is a researcher at the University rity Agency. of Birmingham, U.K.

14 NSF Fellows Graduate Program News Samuel Payne Ellen Veomett Graduate Awards 2002-2003 Carroll V. Newsom Scholars Ronald Walker Milena Hering Kevin Woods The Sumner Myers Prize, given for the Oichi Yuen Rackham One-Term Dissertation Fellows best Ph.D. thesis in mathematics for the Computational Science Graduate Fellow Sylvia Chiang year 2002 was presented to two recent Benjamin Keen Marko Slapar graduates. Eduard Kirr was selected for Darrow Mathematics Graduate Student Alexander Yong his thesis “Resonances in Hamiltonian Scholars Partial Differential Equations.” Edward Rackham Predoctoral Fellows Elizabeth Chen was a student of Anthony Bloch and Mihran Papikian Robert Houck Michael Weinstein, and is currently at the Peter Storm Paul Jeray University of Chicago. Daniel Rogalski Regents Fellows received the award for his thesis “Ex- Departmental Alumni Scholars Trevor Fast amples of Generic Noncommutative Sur- Alina Andrei Hannah Robbins faces” under the direction of Toby Stafford. Luciana-Maria Bobitan Zachariah Teitler Sara Heusel Daniel is a Moore Instructor at NSF VIGRE Fellows Massachusettes Institute of Technology. Sukmoon Huh Harsh Jain Trevor Arnold Mihran Papikian received the Wirt and Rizwanur Khan Amy Bauer Mary Cornwell Prize, recognizing a stu- Boris Mitavskiy Erik Bird dent who has demonstrated the greatest in- Alvaro Pelayo Grigoriy Blekherman tellectual curiosity, given the most promise Jody Radowicz Jim Brown of original study and creative work in math. Khachik Sargsyan Bryden Cais Mihran’s dissertation “Optimal Elliptic Matthew Smith Elizabeth Dewitt Curves, Discriminants, and the Degree Michael Vath Geoffrey Dietz Conjecture Over Function Fields” was Kevin Wildrick Philip Dutoit written under the direction of Brian Conrad. Bo Yang Haggai Elitzur Thomas Fiore Edwin Wilkinson Miller Prize Allen Shields Memorial Fellow Jonathan Forde Peng Gao Abigail Ochberg Hester Graves E. S. & A. C. Everett Memorial Scholar Elizabeth Klodginski Arthur Herbert Copeland, Sr. Memorial Joe Stubbs Scott Kravitz Scholars Jason Kutch Hualong Feng Gabrielle & Sophie Rainich Fellow Robert Lonigro Bart Kastermans Leonardo Mihalcea William Lorenz Lu Lu Luther Claborn Mathematics Fellows Jessica Metcalf-Burton Calouste Gulbenkian Fellow Mahesh Agarwal Ivan Middleton Oscar Felgueiras Calin Chindris Charles Mueller Jungmin Choi Benjamin Schmidt Sreekar Shastry Janis Stipins III Lauren Toney James Tung Craig Westerland Alexander Wolfe Eric Zupunski

Paul Jeray, pictured with graduate coordinator Jennifer Wagner, was named a Darrow Mathematics Scholar. This award was established by Dale Darrow, a 1992 Mathematics Ph.D. recipient, to provide financial support for U.S. graduate students.

15 Fulbright Scholar Graduate Awards 2003-2004 Rackham Predoctoral Fellow Giancarlo Urzua Alex Kuronya The Sumner Myers Prize, given for the Gabrielle & Sophie Rainich Fellow Regents Fellow best Ph.D. thesis in mathematics for the Eji Aoki Samuel Payne year 2003 was presented to Peter Storm, Lucent Fellow Samsung Fellow who was selected for his thesis “The Ellen Eischen Barycenter Method on Singular Spaces” Yungkwon Kim Luther Claborn Mathematics Fellows Peter was a student of Dick Canary, and is NSF VIGRE Fellows Kyle Hofmann currently a NSF Postdoc and Dickson In- David Anderson Michael Lieberman structor at the University of Chicago. Trevor Arnold (Fall) Michael Vath Amy Bauer Kevin Woods received the Wirt and Diane Vavrichek Mary Cornwell Prize, recognizing a stu- Eric Bird (Winter) dent who has demonstrated the greatest in- Mathematics Alumni/Alumnae Scholars Grigoriy Blekherman (Winter) tellectual curiosity, given the most promise Jungmin Choi Bryden Cais (Winter) of original study and creative work in math. Jiarui Fei Elizabeth Dewitt (Winter) Kevin’s dissertation “Rational Generating Mathematics Department Fellow Geoffrey Dietz (Winter) Functions and Lattice Point Sets” was Han Peters Philip Dutoit (Winter) Thomas Fiore (Winter) written under the direction of Alexander Mathematics Department One-Term Dis- Jonathan Forde (Winter) Barvinok. sertation Fellow Jasun Gong Allen Shields Memorial Fellow Leon Kaganovskiy Hester Graves (Winter) Alina Andrei National Physical Science Consortium Jason Kutch Arthur Herbert Copeland, Sr. Memorial Fellow Robert Lonigro Scholars Marie Snipes William Lorenz Tobias Berger National Defense Science and Engineering Jessica Metcalf-Burton (Winter) Elizabeth Chen Graduate Fellow Ivan Middleton (Winter) Brian Jacobson Matthew Ong Yogesh More Kevin Wildrick National Science Foundation Fellows Charles Mueller (Winter) Calouste Gulbenkian Fellow Dennis Clark Hannah Robbins (Winter) Oscar Felgueiras Ryan Kinser Benjamin Schmidt Carroll V. Newsom Scholars Kevin Woods Sreekar Shastry Sarah Crown Craig Spencer Rackham Dean’s Discretionary Fellow Andrew Stein Afsaneh Mehran David Tello Alison Northup Zachariah Teitler (Winter) Rackham Merit Fellows Svetlana Simakhina Lauren Toney (Winter) Adeboye Ilesanmi James Tung (Winter) Computational Science Graduate Fellow Naomi Martinez Ellen Veomett (Winter) Benjamin Keen Rackham One-Term Dissertation Fellows Alexander Wolfe (Fall) Darrow Mathematics Graduate Student Scott Kravitz Eric Zupunski (Winter) Scholar Constantin Leonardo Mihalcea David Allen Craig Westerland Departmental Scholars Sebastien Chivoret Rizwanur Khan Jared Maruskin Hualong Feng Kyung Yong Lee Hyekyung Min Some 2003 Ph.D. Sukmoon Huh recipients Theron J. Nam-Hoon Lee Hitchman, Elizabeth Alvaro Pelayo Klodginski and Daniel Thiradet Jiarasuksakun Jupiter. Bart Kastermans Kenneth Keppen Tong Liu John Mackay Feng Rong Sourya Shrestha

16 2003 Undergraduate Award Recipients

The Department’s team for the William The following students Lowell Putnam Mathematics Competition received Evelyn O. placed 40th out of 376 teams in the event. Bychinsky Awards, which The 2003 team was comprised of Thomas recognize underclass stu- Dunlap, Anna Maltseva and Vivek Shende. dents who show exceptional The individual competition included 3349 promise in mathematics: students from across North America. Vivek Nitsan Ben-Gal Shende received an honorable mention, Jacob Bernstein placing the highest of UM students at 48. Haywai Chan Joel Louwsma finished at 157. Sarah Iveson The winner of the 20th Annual Univer- Gregory Malivuk sity of Michigan Undergraduate Mathemat- ics Competition was Vivek Shende. Sarah Haeusler re- Shailesh Agarwal and Christopher ceived the Leon P. Cunningham tied for second place. Zukowski Prize for out- The following students received M.S. standing service in the Math Lab. Graduating seniors Julia Arciero, Lynn Gromek and Keeler Scholarships for the 2002-03 aca- Elise Zipkin at the Awards Ceremony Reception. demic year The William LeVeque Award Alexandra Achen in Number Theory was presented to Jeffrey Allotta James McCann. The award recognizes The Otto Richter Memorial Prize in Julia Arciero a student who is at most a junior and ex- Actuarial Science was presented to Jason Jacob Bernstein cels in the study of number theory. Gratson and Thomas Walker. Haywai Chan Outstanding Achievement in Math- The CIGNA Award in Actuarial Sci- Kevin Cody ematics Awards went to the following se- ence was presented to Alexander Geml and Jeremy Cook niors: Russell Polcyn. Spencer Dowdall Julia Arciero The Irving Wolfson Award in Actuarial Walter Dulany Gordon Berman Science was presented to Stacy Bittner. Matthew Elsey Daniel Coffield The Lois Zook Levy Memorial Award Ann Huang Brian Drake was presented to John Baker. The award Jesse Kass Thomas Dunlap recognizes an outstanding mathematics Elliot Lee Lynn Gromek student who plans to pursue a career in K- Justin Malestein Colleen Murphy 12 mathematics education. Anna Maltseva Joseph Tanniru Joseph McClain Jesse Kass was named the Outstanding John Wang Graduating Senior. Jason Miller Elise Zipkin Kalman Nanes Randolph Pistor The inaugural presentation of the Lois Zook Levy Memorial Award. Pictured Kathryn Roeder (l-r): William Baker, Hiram Levy, award recipient John Y. Baker, his fiance, Vivek Shende and his mother, Susan Baker Ronit Slyper Karl Weintraub Christopher Zborzek

The following students received Margaret S. Huntington Awards in Actuarial Outreach: Elizabeth Barrett Lindsey Boegehold John Chih Chang Huang Thangaver Rathina Santosh Kumar Andre Lobo Lindsay Nelson King-Leung Gary Ngan Khoi Nguyen Mikhail Somov Laura Tedesco 17 2004 Undergraduate Award Recipients

The Department’s team for the William Lowell Putnam Mathematics Competition placed 54th out of 401 teams in the event. The 2004 team was comprised of Vivek Shende, Joel Louwsma and Chris Cunningham. The individual competition included 3615 students from across North America. Vivek Shende placed the highest of UM students at 137.5. Freshman Fernando Delgado Salas finished at 212. The winner of the 21st Annual University of Michigan Undergraduate Mathematics Competition was Vivek Shende. Fernando Delgado Salas placed second and Christo- pher Cunningham came in third. The following students received Professors Curtis Huntington and Harm Derksen present an award to Fernando Delgado Margaret S. Huntington Awards in Salas (right). Fernando also received a Mathematics Alumni/Alumnae scholarship. Actuarial Outreach: Juline Chen Outstanding Achievement in Mathemat- The CIGNA Award in Actuarial Science Huey Fang Lim ics Awards went to the following seniors: was presented to Julie Sachs. Ninad Naik Timothy Blass The Irving Wolfson Award in Actuarial Esther Ni Randall Coughlan Science was presented to Heather Costello. Mui Keng Oh Sean Gerrish The Lois Zook Levy Memorial Award Kathy Ray Shaili Jain was presented to Kristen Barbosa. The Jason Rose Yu Hang Kan award recognizes an outstanding mathemat- Ethan Street Joel Louwsma ics student who plans to pursue a career in Donald Sullivan Gregory Malivuk K-12 mathematics education. Alice Zheng Joseph Mc Clain Vivek Natarajan Brendon Rhoades received the Wirt and Sarah Iveson received the Leon P. Mary Cornwell Prize, recognizing a stu- Zukowski Prize for outstanding service in Marina Polishchuk David Wicklund dent who has demonstrated the greatest in- the Math Lab. tellectual curiosity, given the most promise The Otto Richter Memorial Prize in The following students received Evelyn of original study and creative work in math, Actuarial Science was presented to O. Bychinsky Awards, which recognize and also shows an interest in music. Alexander Geml. underclass students who show exceptional Justin Malestein was named the Out- promise in mathematics: standing Graduating Senior. Christopher Cunningham Fernando Delgado Salas Spencer Dowdall Melinda Kleczynski The William LeVeque Award in Number Theory was presented to Haywai Hayward Chan. The award recog- nizes a student who is at most a junior and excels in the study of number theory. The Sumner Myers Award in Analysis was presented to Jason Miller.

Professor Carolyn Dean (left) presents the Zukowski Prize to student Sarah Iveson. Sarah also received a Mathematics Alumni/ Alumnae Scholarship.

18 Undergraduate Degree Recipients 2002-03

Julia Arciero Peter Huff Colleen Murphy Jason Wilson Benjamin Everson Ryan McClarren John Baker Andrew Hutchinson Nicholas Murphy Tin Yu Megan Flynn J. Brandon Gordon Berman Leslie Johnson Kalman Nanes Elise Zipkin Meghan Garstang McClimon Stacy Bittner Jesse Kass Nina Palmo Christopher Grewe Megan Medea Ann Byman Debra Kearney Angelo Perez Julie Hengehold Sandeep Murti Dominique Caballero Megan Kern Russell Polcyn Minors William Herrington Sangwook Oh Luyuan Chai Cook-Hwan Kim Suzanne Schlegel Kenji Aoki Matthew Horning Wichai Pawgasame Daniel Coffield, Jr. Amy Kimball Sauravendra Sen Kartik Arekapudi Tina Hsieh Vishal Rao Antonio Cushman Matthew Klein Xiao Shu Adam Beernaert Elizabeth Huebner Josh Rovey Stephanie Dow Horyan Kong Noriyuki Sugiyama Christopher Bishop Henry Hyatt Shabeta Sahore Brian Drake Priya Kothary Karyn Sutton Karl Brakora Audrey Johnson John Schafer Thomas Dunlap Mark Lazzo LiLeng Tan Alexander Sergey Klibanov Marc Shmerling Elizabeth Fedorowicz Paul Lee Joseph Tanniru Butterwick Himanshu Kumar Lukas Skoog Robert Feeney Jacob Lessem Michael Topper Jun Chan Peter Kwan Shun Chi Tam Christopher Gardner Li Lin Rachel Victor Brian Cheung Michael La Marca Landry Tientcheu Sara Goldberg Benjamin Low James Vosotas Bryant Choe Adrien Lazzaro Michael Yates Jason Gratson Diena Lukawski Thomas Walker Michael Ciulis Robert Lee JonathanYee Lynn Gromek Olga Malykh John Wang Bradley Covell Molly Lynn David Yogiaman Rahul Gupta Dara Marshall Alexis Wesaw Jennifer Denbow Eric Lyster Alex Yue Sarah Haeusler Tanya Morey Nikia Williams Jason Dillaman Nicole Martin Vladimir Zlatkin

Undergraduate Degree Recipients 2003-04

Norazura Abdrahim Nora Fitzgerald Peter Morden David Wicklund Joseph Gatt Maya Mandel Megan Albertson Nicholas Flees Sheela Nair Robert Wyatt Jeffrey Germond Edward Mansour Jeffrey Allotta Nicholas Foley Vivek Natarajan Young-Yun Yang Anthony Girolamo Jason Mattiacci Ryan Anderson Alexander Geml Nicole Naum Joel Zammit Clara Gonzalez Nicholas Maxwell Megan Baker Sean Gerrish Ronni Neeman Vladimir Zlatkin Rachel Gunnett Karen Mesko Chetan Balwe Michael Geske Kristin Newton John-Paul Zammit Amanda Halash Dilber Mutlu Kristen Barbosa William Gitterman Julia Nisbet Lei He Kenneth Narra Bradley Barker Rajendra Gorrepati Elisa Pagan Minors Ryan Hesselink Heather Nast Matthew Battin Matthew Graham Seongweon Park Mark Hodges Jennifer Olson Ignacio Benedetti Rita Han Zhachary Pavlov Yasemin Akdas Peter Janowski Orkan Ozturk Nitsan Ben-Gal Rorujorona Harris Thien-An Pham Joshua Bartlett Wei Jiang Nathan Pacer Kathryn Bircheff Kyle Herrity Connel Pinto Edward Baskerville Michael Katelman Stephanie Pakula Timothy Blass Tuyet Ho John Policicchio Christopher Battey Aaron Keys Rohini Pandhi Jason Breck Yoshiyuki Ikeda Marina Polishchuk Paul Belden Minjoo Kim Heather Petres Anne Brenner Shaili Jain David Putterman Albert Bertram Masako Kishida Stephanie Pickard Melissa Bylsma Kurt Kan Raehan Qureshi Justin Bertschi Yevgeniya Kleyman Kristina Poulos Michael Callahan Yu Hang Kan Joseph Raisanen Kevin Borders Jay Kopfer Ranjana Ram Mihir Chandra Martin Kandes Walter Ray-Dulany Cameron Cary Oscar Lahoud Joshua Ray Lu Lu Chang Kara Knauf Michael Roberson Melissa Chase Sangeetha Adam Sailor Tin-Yan Cheung Geoff Kobayashi Matthew Ross Benjamin Chess Lakshminarayanan Peter Song Stephanie Chin Guha Krishnamurthi Jonathan Roth Albert Tzu-Cheng Robin Landfair Kristen Scheibach William Christopher Ron Lai Aditi Saxena Chuang Erwin Lau Stephen Stamatis Kevin Cody Joel Louwsma Evan Schulz Edward Courtney III David Leibrandt John Sterzick Jamie Coleman Nicholas Lui Douglas Spolyar Vikas Dayal Heen Choong Leong Sveta Lana Stolbov Louise Conlon Gregory Maczka Kristina Stefanou Nicholas Degrazia Man Wai Leung Jonathan Stone Randall Coughlan Justin Malestein Paul Suberlak Brendan Dillon Sinman Leung Albert Tong Kathleen Crone Robert Dean Jerrilyn Thompson Stanko Dimitrov Jeffrey Lev William Uhl Jennifer DeVree Malmgren Tu-Anh Tran Artem Dmytrenko Aimee Leyton Aaron Wolf Brandon Dobbins Adam Malovance Ka Kit Tsui Douglas Douma Arianne Liepa Emily Wolters Andre’ Echols Diana May Fusaka Tsujioka Zachary Drennen Thomas Liu Diana Wong Eugene Eng Joseph McClain Andrew Wagner Mira Fleisher Christopher Lyman Brian Young Kristin Essary Insun Mo Helen Wang Ping Fu Kevin Makowski 19 Stephens accepted a position at Morgan Alumni Profile State. To his surprise and initial dismay, he was offered the position of chair of the de- Dr. Clarence Stephens partment, which would put him in charge of a department of mathematicians, all older “More than fifty years ago I came than him, at the tender academic age to the conclusion that every college of 30. He was dismayed at the level of student who desired to learn math- mathematics that was being offered to ematics could do so. I spent my entire students at Morgan State. Stephens professional life believing that this believed that one of the best ways to was the case.” It is for his outstanding prepare students for graduate study in success in converting that belief into mathematics was, first, to get them reality that UM alumnus Clarence into calculus courses as early as pos- Francis Stephens (MS ’39, PHD ’43) sible, providing an atmosphere in the was presented the 2003 Yueh-Gin department and in such courses that Gung and Dr. Charles Y. Hu Award for was nurturing and offered role models Distinguished Service to Mathematics to show them that success was pos- from the Mathematics Association of sible. Second, he wanted the students America. to be exposed to graduate mathemat- As chair of the Mathematics De- ics, despite Morgan State’s not having partment at the State University of New Clarence Stephens with Bob Megginson at a graduate program. He instituted an Under- York at Potsdam from 1969 through 1987, the MAA Awards Ceremony, January 2003. graduate Honors Mathematics Program that Stephens was the primary architect of the exposed undergraduates to first-year gradu- “Potsdam Miracle” that resulted in this ate mathematics and drew a large percent- small upstate SUNY campus, with a total en- Stephens was born on July 24, 1917 in age of Morgan State’s best students to rollment of less than 4000 in the middle Macon, Georgia. He and his brothers at- major in mathematics. One consequence 1980s, graduating the third largest number tended the Harbison Institute, a boarding was that, although Morgan State had no of mathematics majors among all U.S. insti- school in Irmo, SC. Stephens and all five of student go on to obtain a Ph.D. in math- tutions of higher education in each of the his siblings went on to college, and all ematics during the ninety years of its his- years 1985 through 1987. About a quarter graduated, with all brothers and one sister tory before Stephens’s arrival, at least nine of all the bachelor’s degrees given at receiving baccalaureate degrees from students who passed through its mathemat- Potsdam each of those three years went to Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, ics program during Stephens’s time there mathematics majors. This was not accom- NC and the other sister a degree from a two- eventually obtained that degree. plished by lowering standards in any sense; year college. Each of the brothers majored After fifteen years at Morgan State, in the mathematics majors were among the in mathematics. 1962 Stephens moved on to a position as strongest students at the institution, domi- Stephens had planned to become a high Professor of Mathematics at SUNY nating the President’s List of high-achiev- school mathematics teacher after graduat- Geneseo, where he would remain until 1969. ing students and producing seven of the ing, but during his senior year he was per- In the spring of that year, he visited the eight valedictorians for the period 1980–87. suaded by JCSU’s Dean of the College of Potsdam campus as a lecturer sponsored by Nor was it done at an institution with a long Liberal Studies, T.E. McKinney, to enter the the Seaway Section of the MAA, and so mathematics tradition. No student who master’s program at the University of Michi- greatly impressed the Potsdam mathematics graduated from SUNY Potsdam between its gan. He did so in the fall of 1938. Along the faculty with his ideas on the teaching of founding in 1816 and the arrival of Stephens way one of his mathematics professors, mathematics that they immediately began a in 1969 is known to have gone on to earn a George Yuri Rainich, persuaded Stephens campaign to have him move to their depart- Ph.D. in mathematics, although twelve stu- of his potential and encouraged him to con- ment as its chair. He did so in the fall of that dents who graduated during Stephens’s tinue on to the Ph.D. In 1943 he became year, and the rest is history. time have done so, half of them women. only the tenth African American to obtain a Professor Stephens lives with his wife, Stephens was also responsible for a Ph.D. in mathematics. From the guidance Harriete, whom he met at UM where Mrs. similar but earlier “miracle” at Morgan State and encouragement he received from Stephens was beginning her studies for the College in Baltimore (now Morgan State McKinney and Rainich, Stephens saw in a Master’s degree in mathematics. She is cur- University). Both “miracles” were accom- direct, personal way the impact that rently Professor Emerita of Mathematics at plished by a combination of Stephens’s mentoring by faculty can have on the deci- SUNY College of Technology, Canton. The strong faith in students’ ability to master sions students make about continuing a ca- couple’s daughter has a Ph.D. in Mathemat- high-level mathematics when it is taught in reer in mathematics. This lesson was put to ics Education from the University of Iowa, a supportive and nurturing environment, good use in the programs he later designed and their son has a Master’s degree in and his equally strong encouragement of at Morgan State and Potsdam. Mathematics. excellence in instruction through a program After service in the Navy and teaching - Contributed by Robert Megginson designed to draw out the best in each at Prairie View State College in Texas, teacher.

20 In recognition of her outstanding contri- Alumna Receives Honorary Degree butions to mathematics, Uhlenbeck has been the recipient of numerous prestigious At the April 2004 Com- going to the University of honors and awards. In 1982 she received a mencement exercises, Profes- Texas, she taught at the MacArthur Fellowship, and in 1985 she was sor Karen Uhlenbeck (BS Massachusetts Institute of elected to the American Academy of Arts 1964) was granted an honor- Technology; the Univer- and Sciences. In 1986, she became one of ary doctorate from the Univer- sity of California, Berkeley; the first women mathematicians to be sity of Michigan. Uhlenbeck the University of Illinois, elected to the National Academy of Sci- is one of the world’s foremost Urbana-Champaign; the ences, and in 1990 she became the second researchers on non-linear dif- University of Illinois, Chi- woman to give a Plenary Lecture at the In- ferential equations and their cago; and the University of ternational Congress of Mathematics. In geometric properties. She is Chicago. 1995 she received the CommonWealth professor of mathematics at During her career, Award for Science and Technology, and in the University of Texas at Austin and since Uhlenbeck has made pioneering contribu- 2000 she received a National Medal of Sci- 1988 has held the Sid W. Richardson Foun- tions to global analysis and gauge theory ence for “special recognition by reason of dation Regents’ Chair in Mathematics. She that resulted in advances in mathematical [her] outstanding contributions to knowl- is widely acclaimed as a talented and cre- physics and the theory of partial differential edge” in mathematics. She was previously ative mathematician, as well as someone equations. She has been called variously a honored by UM in 1984 when she received who has made a serious commitment to differential geometer and differential topolo- the Alumna of the Year Athena Award. young women mathematicians. gist and a non-linear analyst; her work has For her contributions to mathematical After graduating from the University of made contact with modern high energy analysis and gauge theory leading to major Michigan in 1964 with a Bachelor of Science physics, in particular with string theory. advances in mathematical physics and the degree in mathematics, Uhlenbeck contin- She is also interested in the ways complex theory of partial differential equations, and ued her studies at the Courant Institute in mathematical concepts find uses in research for her commitment to the education and en- New York. She then entered Brandeis Uni- in other areas of science, such as ecology, couragement of women mathematicians, the versity and was awarded an M.A. and a molecular biology and the structure of mate- UM presented Uhlenbeck with the honorary Ph.D. in 1966 and 1968, respectively. Before rials. degree Doctor of Science.

Singer Wins Abel Prize and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society and the National Academy of Sci- The Abel Prize, established sult changed the land- ences (NAS). He served on the Council of by the Norwegian government in scape of mathematics. NAS, the Governing Board of the National 2001 as an annual “Nobel Prize Singer, speaking to Research Council, and the White House for Mathematics,” was awarded BBC News (March 26), Science Council. this year to Sir Michael Francis said: “I am delighted to In 1992 Singer received the American Atiyah of the University of win this prize with Sir Mathematical Society’s Award for Distin- Edinburgh and UM Mathematics Michael. The work we guished Public Service, recognizing his alumnus Isadore M. Singer of the did broke barriers be- “outstanding contribution to his profes- Massachusetts Institute of Tech- tween different branches sion, to science more broadly and to the nology. of mathematics and public good.” Among the other awards he The prize is being given for the work that’s probably its most important aspect. ... has received are the Bôcher Prize and the that led to the names Atiyah and Singer be- It has also had serious applications in theo- Steele Prize for Lifetime Achievement, both ing forever linked in the field of mathemat- retical physics.” Referring to the creation of from the American Mathematical Society, ics: the “Atiyah-Singer Index Theorem”, the Abel Prize, he added “I appreciate the the Eugene Wigner Medal (1988), and the which they formulated and proved in a se- attention mathematics will be getting. It’s National Medal of Science (1983). ries of papers they published in the early well-deserved because mathematics is so 1960s. The Index Theorem provides a bridge basic to science and engineering.” When Singer was awarded the Steele Prize his response, published in Notices of between pure mathematics (differential ge- Singer received his undergraduate de- the American Mathematical Society, was: ometry, topology, and analysis) and theo- gree from the University of Michigan in “For me the classroom is an important coun- retical physics (quantum field theory) that 1944. After obtaining his Ph.D. from the Uni- terpart to research. I enjoy teaching under- has led to advances in both fields. versity of Chicago in 1950, he joined the graduates at all levels, and I have a host of The Norwegian Academy of Science, faculty at the Massachusetts Institute of graduate students, many of whom have which oversees and manages the new prize, Technology (MIT). Singer has spent most ended up teaching me more than I have referred to the Index Theorem as “one of the of his professional life at MIT, where he is taught them.” Singer has also written influ- great landmarks of 20th century mathemat- currently an Institute Professor. Singer is a ential textbooks that have inspired genera- ics”. It is no exaggeration to say that the re- member of the American Academy of Arts tions of mathematicians. 21 2004 Alumni/Alumnae Scholarship Recipient Profiles

Sarah Iveson is a senior who originally enrolled in the College of Engineering. After a year she switched her major to math, and with every math class that she took, her love of the subject grew. While Sarah enjoys all areas of math, algebra is her favorite. She worked in the Math Lab, and this year received the Leon P. Zukowski award for outstanding tutor. In previous years she received a Bychinsky award, and a Keeler scholarship. Sarah has made great efforts to support herself through school. Receiving this funding has relieved some of her financial concerns. Sarah will continue studying math in graduate school after her graduation in December. Fernando Delgado Salas just completed his freshman year. He has proven to be one of the brightest undergraduate students in the department. Fernando was a member of this year’s Putnam Competition team, and received Outstanding Achievement recogni- tion for his individual performance in the competition (second of the UM student participants). He also placed second in the UM Undergraduate Mathematics Competition. Jiarui Fei is a first year graduate student. After studying applied math at the undergraduate level, his graduate studies have been in pure mathematics. He shows exceptional promise as a mathematician and has already passed his qualifying exams in algebra and analysis. Jiarui says that he “loves math, the art of discovering the ultimate secrets of nature. The funding will help me stay in Ann Arbor this summer to continue studying math.” Jungmin Choi is a fourth year graduate student. Her undergraduate studies in math education led to her desire to teach stu- dents the beauty of math. Jungmin is in the Applied and Interdisciplinary Mathematics (AIM) program here, studying financial mathematics with Mattias Jonsson. The scholarship has allowed her to continue her research this summer and prepare for the birth of her child.

Development and Fundraising Update

New initiatives and funding of current cation. The funds will be used for scholar- trust. Cameron Courtney passed away in programs highlight the efforts to raise ships or other purposes that help young 2004, and the trust has been transferred to funds for the department. mathematicians (graduate students or the Department of Mathematics. The fel- A new award was established by the young faculty less than 2 years past Ph.D.) lowship will be awarded next year to a de- family of alumna Lois Zook Levy (BS 1959, seeking academic careers to achieve excel- serving graduate student. MS 1962). The inaugural award was given lence in collegiate mathematics education. In 2003 the department initiated the to John Baker, who plans a career in teach- In December 2002, Chair Trevor Wooley Mathematics Alumni/Alumnae Scholarship ing, and the 2004 award was given to set the goal of funding the Sumner B. fund. In a mailing to all alumni/alumnae, Kristen Barbosa (see undergraduate award Myers Memorial Prize endowment to the Wooley asked them to support an expend- pages). Hiram Levy, Lois’ husband, per- level of $45,000 within five years. The able fund to support undergraduate and sonally presented the awards. The endow- Sumner Myers prize, given to a Ph.D. recipi- graduate students. This is the first such ment fund is now at a level that produces a ent whose thesis is judged to be the most fundraising effort by the department since significant prize each year. The department outstanding for that calendar year, was es- 1996. The department received donations appreciates the generosity of the Levy fam- tablished as a memorial upon the death of from more than 100 donors in 2003, includ- ily and friends who supported this award faculty member Sumner Myers in 1955 at ing some funds from matching corporate and created the endowment. the age of 45. The original funding for the gifts. The money was used to support de- After several years of investigation, the prize has been depleted. Wooley chal- serving students during the 2003-04 aca- department was able to secure funds from a lenged the faculty to give to the fund and demic year (see story above). The chair bequest from alumni G. Cleaves Byers (B.A. agreed to match any faculty gifts by 50% again asked for alumni/alumnae support in 1941, Ph.D. 1953 Duke University). Byers, a from departmental funds. Emeritus faculty, June 2004. As more money is received, native of Hancock, Michigan, was a faculty friends of the department, and former more students will benefit from your gener- member at Michigan Technological Univer- Sumner Myers Prize recipients were also osity. sity from 1953 until his retirement in 1981. asked to help with the funding of the prize. To protect the privacy of our donors, He served as head of the Mathematics De- The total raised to date, including matching their names will not be listed in this newslet- partment there from 1963 to 1968. Byers funds and outstanding pledges, is $24,275. ter. The administration, faculty and stu- conceived and developed the Digital Com- In 2001 Professor and Mrs. Cameron dents of the mathematics department truly puter Laboratory at Michigan Tech, one of Courtney established the Cameron and appreciate the thoughtfulness and generos- the first digital computer labs at the univer- Jack Courtney Graduate Fellowship in ity of the donors to all of the initiatives. sity. Michigan Tech later honored him by Mathematics. The fellowship is named after Your support is paramount to our mission. establishing the Byers Center for Computa- Cameron Courtney (M.S. 1957, Ed.D. in If you are interested in giving to any of the tional Mathematics. The bequest to the Math 1965) and his son John (Jack) above initiatives, or for general departmen- UM established the G. Cleaves Byers En- Courtney (Ph.D. 1993). The fellowship was tal support, please call 734-647-4462, or dowment for Collegiate Mathematics Edu- established through a charitable remainder email [email protected]. 22 Alumni/ae Obituary Updates The Department lost a good friend and Keeler’s philanthropic interests ex- strong supporter in 2003. Miner (Mike) S. tended to other causes as well. He and his Bob Nusbaum (BA 1970, MBA 1978 Keeler passed away in May 2003. He was wife, Mary Ann helped bring the Alexander Harvard) is a senior product marketing man- 78. Keeler received a bachelor’s degree in Calder stabile “La Grande Vitesse” to Grand ager at Brocade Communications Systems. mathematics from UM in 1947. Upon gradu- Rapids in 1969. The sculpture has since be- Regarding Tom Storer’s retirement he says ation he joined the family business, Keeler come the city’s symbol, gracing street signs “My greatest lesson from Professor Storer’s Brass Company of Grand Rapids, and and stationery letterheads. Keeler’s fund- topology course - besides topology - was served in a variety of positions, including raising efforts helped establish Grand Valley that effective teaching, or communication of President/CEO, and Chairman of the Board. State University in 1960. He was an accom- any sort, emanates from the ability to con- Under his management, the company grew plished sailor and was the first finisher of vey complex ideas in simple language. That from 800 to 3000 employees. He also served the Chicago to Mackinac race in 1980. has made a huge difference in this student’s as Director of Old Kent Bank from 1965 to “Mike’s passion was mathematics,” career and life.” 1990. says former Math Department Chair Don Alan Wilde (BS 1970, MA 1973) will be Throughout his career, he continued his Lewis. “As an undergraduate he took many included in the 2003 edition of Who’s Who interest in mathematics by posing math- graduate level courses. On graduation, he in the World. He is listed on the National ematical challenges for himself—and con- had to choose between becoming a full time Aviation and Space Wall of Honor at the sulting with UM faculty members. As a mathematician, or entering the family busi- Smithsonian Institute. long-time friend of the department, Keeler ness. Family loyalty led to his decision to Richard Fleissner (MA 1976) is a cor- contributed generously to the mathematics enter business, but he never lost his inter- porate budget and planning manager at the department for many years. He endowed a est in mathematics. In retirement he de- Amerisure Companies. scholarship fund from which many under- voted himself to studying mathematics. His graduates have benefited (see page 13), and love for the University of Michigan and of Michael Frank (BS 1987) joined funded the Keeler Lecture Series, which mathematics led him to take a great interest Aquarius Capital as president in 2002. proved stimulating for faculty and students. in the department, and he took great plea- James Mercurio (BS 1989) screened his Most recently he contributed $1.5 million sure in seeing the advances the department film “March” at the Michigan Theater in for the establishment of the M.S. Keeler II had made. The department, and I personally, Ann Arbor in 2002. Mercurio is director/co- Professorship in Mathematics and an addi- will miss him.” producer of the film, and helped fellow UM tional $600,000 for Miner S. Keeler II Fellow- alum Dean Morini (1990) write the screen- ships in Mathematics. play. Carol Fan (MS 1992, PhD 1997) is a mathematician at RAND, a “think tank” in Santa Monica, California. Husaini Hussin (BS 1992) is an ERP Want to get involved with the UM Department of Mathematics? manager at Shell Information Technology Here are some areas where alumni participation is vital. Let us know International in Malaysia. if you are interested in working with us on these initiatives. Anna Callahan (BS 1993) released her de- but CD as a jazz singer-trumpter in August of n Recommend the UM mathematics program to students interested 2002. Since graduating from UM, she has in undergraduate or graduate studies written a book on music arranging, performed in various groups and taught music at Califor- n Participate in our annual Career Day, November 12, 2004 nia State University at Long Beach. She now n Visit the department for afternoon tea (3:45 sharp) if you are in town performs with her own groups around the Los Angeles area and is planning a national for the weekend, including Homecoming, Parent’s weekend, or the tour. Information about her music can be Presidential Society weekend found at www.annacallahan.com. n Be a mentor (in person or via email) to a current student Anthony Vazanna (PhD 1998) is an as- n Set up a recruiting program with your company for graduating sistant professor at Truman State Univer- sity. He was named 2002 Missouri Pro- students fessor of the Year by the Carnegie Founda- n Offer internships in your company to mathematics students tion for the Advancement of Teaching and n the Council for Advancement and Support Allow groups of mathematics students to visit your company of Education. Vazzana was selected from 422 faculty members nominated by colleges Email [email protected] or call 734-647-4462 and universities throughout the country.

23 Considering a What Are You Doing? Donation to UM? We’d like to hear from you! Please complete and return this form for our alumni/ae files. You may mail it to the address below, fax it to 734-763-0937, or email the information to [email protected]. If you are contacted by the University of Michigan for a donation, you can ear- Name______mark your gift to the Department of Math- ematics. Simply tell the caller to designate University/Degree/Year______your gift to mathematics or write Mathemat- University/Degree/Year______ics Department on the pledge card you are University/Degree/Year______sent. We greatly appreciate all of your sup- Home Address______port, and we hope we can count on you to support future fund-raising projects. City, State Zip______Home Phone______Business Phone______Firm/Institution______Estate Gifts Position______Email Address______You may include the Department of This is a new address Mathematics in your estate plan. Please call us at 734-647-4462 for information on chari- Information about yourself or comments on the newsletter: table trusts and bequests to the department, or contact: University of Michigan Development/Planned Giving 734-647-6000

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ContinuUM Editorial Board: Department of Mathematics NONPROFIT Suzanne Jackson-Rogers, Editor University of Michigan ORGANIZATION Doreen Fussman 525 E. University, 2074 East Hall U.S. POSTAGE PAID Curtis E. Huntington Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1109 Ann Arbor, Mich Donald J. Lewis 734-764-0335 • www.math.lsa.umich.edu Permit No. 144 B. Alan Taylor Trevor Wooley Photos by UM Photo Services and the Math Department

The Regents of the University of Michigan: David A. Brandon, Laurence B. Deitch, Olivia P. Maynard, Rebecca McGowan, Andrea Fischer Newman, Andrew C. Richner, S. Martin Taylor, Katherine E. White; Ex officio: Mary Sue Coleman

The University of Michigan, as an equal opportunity/af- firmative action employer, complies with all applicable federal and state laws regarding nondiscrimination and af- firmative action, including Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 and Section 504 of the Rehabilita- tion Act of 1973. The University of Michigan is commit- ted to a policy of nondiscrimination and equal opportu- nity for all persons regardless of race, sex, color, religion, creed, national origin or ancestry, age, marital status, sexual orientation, disability, or Vietnam-era veteran sta- tus in employment, educational programs and activities, and admissions. Inquiries or complaints may be addressed to the Senior Director for Institutional Equity and Title IX/Section 504 Coordinator, Office for Institutional Eq- uity, 2072 Administrative Services, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1432, 734-763-0235, TTY 734-647-1388. For other UM information call 734-764-1817.