Fall 2014 Newsletter
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CRAIG CHANDLER/UNIVERSITY COMMUNICATIONS Celebrating 2 th Math5 Day Department gears up for event on Nov. 20 | Story, Page 4 { Fall 2014 {MMathath NNewsews A publication of the Department of Mathematics at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln VIEW FROM THE Lewis receives MAA CHAIR Gung and Hu Award im Lewis, Aaron Douglas the Gung and Hu Judy Walker JProfessor of Mathematics and Award. Having t is a gorgeous director of the Center for Science, the opportunity Ifall day here in Mathematics and Computer to contribute Lincoln: the leaves Education, is the 2015 recipient to mathematics are in brilliant yel- of the Gung and Hu Award by both at UNL and lows, oranges and the Mathematical Association of nationally has reds, and the sun is America (MAA), a professional greatly enriched shining. Shadows society that focuses on mathematics my career,” Lewis Jim Lewis are growing long, at the undergraduate level. Lewis said. and mornings are will receive the award at the 2015 Th e citation that accompanies quite brisk, but I Joint Math Meetings in San Antonio, the award recognizes Lewis for his am sitting outside in 77 degree weath- Texas, in January. outstanding contributions to the er as I write this. Th ose of you who Th e Yueh-Gin Gung mathematics education of teachers, haven’t been in downtown Lincoln for and Dr. Charles Y. Hu Award for his leadership in the mathematics a while would see some real changes. for Distinguished Service to profession and in academia at all Th e Historic Haymarket District Mathematics is the most prestigious levels, for his work increasing the visibility and participation of women has been expanded to the west – the award for service off ered by the in mathematics, for his exemplary railroad tracks have been moved to al- MAA. First presented in 1990, it work serving the state of Nebraska, low this – and the new Pinnacle Bank consists of a cash prize of $5,000, a and especially for his vision and Arena is bringing a steady stream of citation, and the recognition of the ability to bring together diverse See CHAIR on Page 14 American mathematical community. “It is a great honor to receive See LEWIS on Page 13 { { INSIDE: RESEARCH NEWS: Meakin recaps DEPARTMENT NEWS: Degree for FACULTY NEWS: Sylvia Wiegand time in India on Fulbright Page 2 teachers off ers fl exibility Page 5 journals from Korea Page 10 www.math.unl.edu/friends Fall 2014 1 {RResearchesearch NewsNews PARTIAL DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS PDE group morphs as interests branch out he nature of Partial Diff erential TEquations (PDEs) makes them not only interesting mathematical objects in their own right, but also causes COURTESY PHOTOS them to play important roles in many ABOVE: John Meakin (seated in the second row from the bottom, fl anked by K.S.S. branches of applied mathematics, sci- Nambooripad and A.R. Rajan) with faculty and graduate students at the University ence and engineering, such as con- of Kerala, January 2, 2014. (Inset on cover: Meakin presents a gift to His Highness tinuum mechanics, electromagnetism, Raman Rajamannan, the Tribal King of Kovilmala, at an International Conference quantum mechanics, relativity theory, on Algebra and Discrete Mathematics at Kattappana College, Kerala on March 5.) mathematical biology, control theory, fi nance and economics. When Steve Dunbar, Mohammad A Fulbright passage to India Rammaha and Richard Rebarber were hired in the 1980s and joined senior arly in his career as a mathemati- booripad, founded an internationally applied mathematics faculty members Ecian, John Meakin submitted a acclaimed school devoted to the theory David Logan and Tom Shores, it could paper on the structure of a class of of von Neumann regular semigroups be said the “modern era” of PDEs at algebraic objects known as inverse and their connections with other UNL had begun. In 1989, the group semigroups, hoping to have his re- areas of mathematics. Von Neumann expanded again with the additions of search published. Th e journal editor regular semigroups arise very naturally Steve Cohn and Glenn Ledder. Th eir was impressed, but ultimately, Meakin in mathematics, for example, when interests refl ect the eclectic character had been “blown out of the water,” as studying algebraic properties of matrix of the fi eld. Dunbar, Logan and Ledder he put it, by a brilliant mathematician multiplication, or more generally in the were primarily applied mathemati- in the southern state of Kerala in India. modern theory of operator algebras. cians, Shores a numerical analyst, Instead of starting over, Meakin Th e Kerala School of semigroup Rammaha and Cohn analysts, and reached out to this mathematician who theory that Nambooripad established Rebarber a control theorist. shared his research interests half a world is one of the acclaimed contemporary In 1994, Cohn gave the plenary away, and they embarked on a decades- research schools in this fi eld, world- address at the First International long, albeit sporadic, collaborative wide. It continues a rich tradition of Conference on Inverse and Improp- working relationship. In the fall semester outstanding contributions to mathe- erly-Posed Problems in Izmit, Turkey. of 2014, with support from a Fulbright- matics in Kerala, dating back at least to In 1997, Jennifer Mueller, a student Nehru teaching/research fellowship to the 14th century with original contri- of Shores, became the fi rst UNL India, Meakin was able to renew that butions of Mahavan and his followers, mathematics student to win an NSF collaborative working relationship. who developed infi nite series expan- postdoctoral fellowship. Also in 1997, “I’ve had a long-standing connec- sions for trigonometric functions for the second edition of David Logan’s tion with people in that region,” Mea- example, predating some of the work Applied Mathematics was issued; this kin said. “I spent one year there early of Gregory, Newton and Leibnitz some book, now in its fourth edition, is one in my career engaged in collaborative three centuries later. of eight that Logan has authored or research, so professionally, it made a Meakin was based in Trivandrum, co-authored during his career. To this lot of sense to go there. It is a place of the capital of Kerala, during his fi ve- particular research interest to me.” See PDE on Page 3 His Indian colleague, K.S.S. Nam- See INDIA on Page 3 2 Fall 2014 www.math.unl.edu/friends RResearchesearch NewsNews { INDIA From Page 2 Hartke spends three months in Hungary on Fulbright month visit to India. He conducted Stephen Hartke was a Fulbright Scholar at the Alfréd Rényi joint research with Nambooripad and Institute of Mathematics, in Budapest, Hungary, for three others in the Kerala School, taught a months last year. The Rényi Institute is the mathematics institute graduate course in semigroup theory, of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and is one of the pre- organized workshops and mini-cours- eminent places in the world for research in discrete mathematics. es for students in Kochi and Kol- While there, Hartke collaborated with several groups of people kata, co-organized two international on ongoing research projects. His graduate student James research conferences, and gave invited Carraher also visited the Rényi Institute for about a week. lectures at several other conferences, research centers and universities all parts of India. India is a riot for Meakin is preparing an article around India during his visit. the senses in all ways, with a rich and about the Kerala School of semigroups “It was an intense, fascinating and ancient culture, a diverse and dynamic and is in the early stages of writing a enriching experience,” Meakin said. “I society. It is hard to assess what impact research level book about regular and had the opportunity to interact with a visit like this can have, but I felt that many established mathematicians my interactions with students and fac- inverse semigroups, informed in part and a large number of students from ulty members were incredibly positive.” by his experiences in Kerala. numerical analysis. He is particularly A few years aft er the arrival of PDE From Page 2 interested in coupled systems – those Radu and Foss, Daniel Toundykov day, his monograph Applied Partial comprised of two or more disparate repeated Radu’s feat: he came as a post- Diff erential Equations is successfully dynamics, such as thermo-elastic doc and stayed as an assistant profes- used as the text for the introductory phenomena, or interaction of thin sor. Daniel’s specialty is in the control undergraduate PDE course at UNL. chamber walls with acoustic pressure of PDEs with emphasis on nonlinear By the late ’90s, the diversity or fl uid fl ow within. Avalos has since models describing mechanical vibra- of their interests tended to pull the supervised three Ph.D. theses, and his tions and acoustics. His recent work group apart and the label “PDE group” work has been supported by seven also provides analytic results concern- had become a misnomer. Dunbar, NSF grants since 1997. ing electromagnetic fi elds and certain Cohn, Logan, Shores and Ledder Th e arrival of Avalos more clearly models of hydrodynamics. Daniel’s pursued their interest in mathematical defi ned a group who were interested research has been supported by two modeling. Rebarber continued primarily in PDEs and analysis. In grants from the NSF (one of them joint working in control theory for PDEs 2004, Petronela Radu came to UNL as a with Avalos) and was recognized by the and subsequently branched out into postdoc, and then became an assistant UNL Edgerton Junior Faculty Award. mathematical biology, though he still professor in fall of 2005. In her work, With Shores’ retirement in 2010, occasionally produces papers on control Radu resolved some open problems the department lost its sole full-time of distributed-parameter systems.