Fellows of Math

MATHEMATICS NEWSLETTER

Contents

Letter from the Chair 2 New Faculty & KAPs 2-3 AMS Society Fellows 4-5 A Career in Math: Schwarz 8 Focus: Temple on Shock Waves 7 Focus: Walcott on Myocin 9 Fellows of Math Undergraduate News 6 Graduate News 10-11 AMS Recognizing Achievement Emeriti Spotlight: Sallee 6, 15 Department Awards 12-14 Life After Davis 10-11, 14 Staff News 15 Letter from the Chair by Joel Hass

Good news continues for the UC Davis Department of Mathematics. Our faculty extended its record of extraordinary pro- ductivity, bringing in numerous research grants and awards. The growing reputa- tion of the campus and the Department has led to increasing enrollments, at both the graduate and undergraduate levels. We welcome an outstanding new faculty member this year, Kevin Luli, who joins us from Yale University. The Department starts the new academic year with 516 majors, up over 100 from last year. Our challenge will be to continue providing high quality classes, inspired advising, career guidance, research opportunities, and a welcoming environment. We have created a new meeting Picnic Day outside the Math Sciences Building room for our undergraduate majors, which sees constant activity during the week. We are also sponsoring an active Math Club that hosts New well attended weekly meetings. Large numbers of undergraduates are participating in research projects with a variety of faculty. I want to mention the long overdue recognition given Krener Asst. Professor to Prof. Jesús de Loera this year. His tireless work supporting the undergraduate research programs of the Department over many years were recognized with the 2013 Chancellor’s Anastasiia Award for Excellence in Mentoring Undergraduate Research. Tsvietkova We have set up additional drop-in consultation rooms for our calculus students, staffed for six or more hours each day. A major source of new students has been from overseas, due Anastasiia Tsvietkova was born in Lithu- to the UC Davis 2020 Initiative, which is leading to a substantial expansion in student num- ania and received her undergraduate degree bers. While we have always had international graduate students, the campus is now attract- from Kyiv National University in Ukraine. ing international undergraduate students in significant numbers. Mathematics is proving to She was a doctoral student at the University be a big draw for these students, ranking behind only Economics as a target major. This year of Tennessee, working with Morwen Thistle- 49 international students begin as Math majors at Davis, most of them from China. They are thwaite. After receiving her Ph.D. degree in excellent students and we look forward to their presence in the Department this year. 2012, she spent a year as a VIGRE Postdoctor- This year we will host several national and international research conferences at Davis, al Fellow at Louisiana State and then a semes- including one over the coming Spring break in honor of faculty member Albert Schwarz. ter as a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Program on Professor Schwarz has a long and distinguished career that began in Moscow in mathematics, Topology, Geometry and Dynamics at ICERM, then took a diversion into physics. For the last twenty years he has played a key role in the Brown University. Department. His early career is featured in this newsletter. Anastasiia’s research interests lie in the area Our faculty is continuing to produce outstanding new results in a wide range of math- of knot theory and low-dimensional topology, ematical areas. I know this not just from my own knowledge of their work, but also from with a particular emphasis on intrinsic geo- the offers that they have been getting from the world’s leading universities. We have been metric properties of hyperbolic 3-manifolds. fortunate that our faculty are committed to excellence at Davis. The campus is planning a Currently she explores relationships between significant expansion, roughly 20% enrollment growth over the next seven years, and this the geometry of finite-volume hyperbolic offers us a chance to hire a new generation of mathematicians. 3-manifolds and quantum or arithmetic in- I am continuously impressed by the extensive and deep mathematical activity that I see variants, and—for links—to the combinatorial happening around me. Whether it is faculty working in their offices, graduate students talk- picture given by the link diagram. Addition- ing to each other or to their advisers, undergraduates in office hours or talking in the halls, or ally, Anastasiia has a side interest in geometric visitors giving seminars, there is a buzz of mathematical activity. In the Departmental offices I group theory. see the staff providing friendly and efficient services. The faculty teaching evaluations, which Anastasiia is looking forward to joining the I read each quarter, are a pleasure to review. Mathematics is a key to a better world, and at UC Davis geometry and topology group and Davis the future is bright. the Department in January 2014. 2 Incoming Academic Staff

New Faculty Kevin Luli

The Department is pleased to welcome Kevin Luli into our faculty. Kevin received his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 2010. His thesis adviser was Charles Fefferman. After serv- New New ing as a Gibbs Assistant Professor in Mathe- matics at Yale University for three years (2010- Krener Asst. Professor Krener Asst. Professor 2013), he joins the Department as an Assistant Professor. Rafa Granero Michael Bishop Kevin’s research focuses primarily on har- Belinchón monic analysis and the partial differential Michael Bishop is returning to Davis after equations that arise in fluid mechanics. In par- Originally from Villaverde y Pasaconsol, a an eight-year hiatus. In 2005 he graduated ticular, he has been working on several aspects small village in Cuenca, Spain, Rafa Granero from UC Davis with a B.S. degree in Math- of the Whitney extension problems, develop- Belinchón completed his M.Sc. at the Autono- ematics. In 2013 he received his Ph.D. in ing related algorithms and pursuing applica- mous University of Madrid and Paris-Dau- Mathematics from the University of Arizona. tions of these problems to other fields. Exam- phine University, and his Ph.D. at the Insti- His thesis adviser was Professor Jan Wehr. ples include the organization of large data sets tute of Mathematical Sciences in Madrid. His In his dissertation Michael studied the and computational commutative algebra. thesis advisers were Professor Diego Córdoba low energy states of both non-interacting and Kevin is very happy to return to northern and Professor Rafael Orive. In his dissertation interacting quantum systems in random Ber- California where he has strong roots. He ob- research he investigated the effects of inhomo- noulli-distributed environments. These states tained his secondary school education at Drew geneities in porous media on the dynamics of model the behavior of Bose-Einstein conden- College Preparatory School in San Francisco internal waves. In his last year as a Ph.D. stu- sates, an aggregated state of matter that re- and his undergraduate training at Stanford dent he spent several months at the University quires very cold temperatures and can show University. When not working on mathematics, of Pisa in Italy, working with Professor Luigi quantum effects on a macroscopic scale. His he enjoys hanging out with friends, reading Berselli. current research studies the existence and na- novels and listening to classical music (some- At UC Davis, he will continue his study of ture of Bose-Einstein condensation in random times even while working!). He likes hiking the partial differential equations that arise in environments. At Davis he will work with Pro- and swimming, and plays basketball and ten- fluid mechanics, biology, astrophysics and oth- fessor Bruno Nachtergaele. nis. Kevin has been trying to learn to play the er disciplines. His focus will be on free bound- When not doing mathematics, Michael piano by watching YouTube videos, so far with ary problems and one dimensional models. enjoys reading history, economics, current mixed success. It seems that playing the piano In addition to his research, Rafa enjoys events and literature. He plays ultimate Fris- is harder than proving a theorem. hiking with his wife, Elena, playing sports and bee and follows professional sports. reading. 3 Fellows of Math: Recognition from the American Mathematical Society

In 2012 the American Mathematical Society elected its inaugural class of Society Fellows. The Department is proud that five of our faculty members received this signal honor. The mathematical interests and achievements of each new Fellow are described here.

Joel Hass Greg Kuperberg

Joel’s research focuses on problems in Over the course of his career Greg has three-dimensional geometry and topology. His made contributions in many areas of math- initial contributions were in minimal surfaces ematics, including quantum algebra, quan- and 3-dimensional manifolds. In a paper co- tum computation, combinatorics, geometric authored with Michael Freedman and Peter topology, convex geometry and differential Scott, he showed that surfaces of smallest area geometry. A recurring focus of his research have the fewest possible self-intersections. is quantum mathematics, where the word This result has found many applications in the “quantum” means non-commutative general- study of 3-manifolds. izations of mathematical objects that are usu- He also has worked on problems relating ally described by commutative algebras. Thus, to the computational complexity of algorithms quantum probability is the study of non-com- in topology and geometry. Specifically, with mutative algebras and random variables, while Lagarias and Pippenger, he has shown that quantum groups are like Lie groups, but with the problem of determining whether a curve non-commuting coordinates. is not knotted is in NP. With Agol and Thur- Greg is best known for short proofs and ston, he showed that determining the genus of elegant constructions in his various areas of a surface in a 3-manifold also is NP complete. research. These include a short proof of the Recent work with Greg Kuperberg has shown alternating-sign matrix conjecture using quan- that determining whether a manifold is the tum algebra, a skein theory for the quantum 3-sphere lies in the complexity class NP inter- link invariant associated to the exceptional Lie sect coNP, assuming the Generalized Riemann group G2, a quantum algorithm for the di- Hypothesis.. hedral hidden subgroup problem and a new More recent work explores the use of hy- proof of the Bourgain-Milman theorem in con- perbolic geometry and, in particular, hyper- vex geometry using Gauss linking integrals. bolic orbifolds, to study a variety of complex biological surfaces, such as the cortical folds of the brain, and the shapes of bones and protein molecules. 4 Bruno Nachtergaele Abigail Thompson Craig Tracy

Bruno’s research focus is on mathemati- Abby works in the area of low-dimensional Craig’s research is in mathematical physics cal physics. Perhaps his best known work is (2,3 and 4 dimensions) topology and knot and probability theory with an emphasis on in quantum spin systems. A series of joint pa- theory. A 3-dimensional manifold is an ob- stochastic integrable models. His work has pers with Mark Fannes (Leuven) and Reinhard ject that looks, to a local observer, like regu- earned many accolades. He was awarded the Werner (Hannover) introduced and developed lar 3-dimensional Euclidean space. That is, it 2002 George Polya Prize from the Society of the theory of Finitely Correlated States for looks like the room in which you are likely Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM), quantum spin chains. These have been used in to be sitting. Tremendous progress has been and the 2007 Norbert Wiener Prize from the a wide variety of applications. Working jointly made in recent years in understanding 3-man- American Mathematical Society. Both prizes with Horng-Tzer Yau (Harvard), he derived ifolds. There is hope that the full range of pos- were awarded jointly to Craig and to his long- the compressible Euler equations from quan- sibilities soon will be known. Abby works to time collaborator Harold Widom (UC Santa tum many-body dynamics. This achievement resolve some of the longstanding structural Cruz). In addition to being named a Fellow earned him an invitation to speak at the 2002 questions in this field. Her ultimate aim is to of the American Mathematical Society, Craig is International Congress of Mathematicians in contribute to uncovering the elegant frame- a member of the American Academy of Arts Beijing. work which underlies the structure of these and Sciences and a Fellow of the Society for Bruno’s recent interests focus on under- low dimensional manifolds. Industrial and Applied Mathematics. standing the dynamics, ground states and el- In 2003 Abby received the American Math- ementary excitations of quantum many-body ematical Society’s Satter Prize for her research. systems. The Lieb-Robinson bounds, an es- She won the 2010 UC Davis distinguished sential tool that lies at the basis of most of the teaching award for graduate teaching. Since recent advances in this area, were developed 2002 she has directed the UC Davis Cosmos by Nachtergaele and Sims (Arizona) over the program, a residential summer program for past seven years. talented high school students in math and Bruno has been the vice president of the science. Currently she chairs the American International Association of Mathematical Mathematical Society’s Committee on the Pro- Physics (2009-2011), the editor of the Journal fession. of Mathematical Physics (2005-present), and Department Chair (2007-2009). He currently serves as chair of the UC Davis Division of the Academic Senate. 5 Updates from The Undergraduate Program During the academic year 2012-2013, the Mathematics Depart- Excellence in Mentoring Undergraduate Research. ment awarded 72 undergraduate degrees. Of these, 58 were in Math- Two mathematics interest groups are focused on nurturing under- ematics, 10 were in Applied Mathematics and 4 were in Mathematical graduates. The Math Club meets weekly (Wednesdays 5-7pm in 1147 and Scientific Computation. MSB). It provides a place where people with common interests in math- In the 2013-2014 academic year that has just started, we have expe- ematics can meet, socialize and learn about a variety of topics in current rienced another large increase in undergraduate admissions, enrolling mathematics research. Also, all mathematics students are welcome at 150 freshmen majors. The Department now has a total of 516 under- the Math Cafe. Faculty and graduate student volunteers are available graduate majors in our three degree programs, the largest number ever. there to tutor any student in any course. Professor Monica Vazirani has The Department has a long-running and vigorous Research Ex- worked hard to make this opportunity available to students. We are perience for Undergraduates (REU) Program. This year 27 students happy to report that it has been extremely successly. participated in the Summer 2013 REU experience. They will present You can join the friends of the UC Davis Math Department on Face- their research at the Undergraduate Research Conference later in the book at academic year. https://www.facebook.com/DepartmentOfMathematicsUcDavis No description of the Undergraduate Program would be complete We invite all math majors and other interested parties to joint our without acknowledging the enthusiastic and highly effective work of email list. This can be done at the Department website. This will pro- our Vice-Chair for Undergraduate Affairs, Jesús De Loera. It is largely vide announcements of forthcoming events and activities. All our ma- through his efforts that the numbers of majors and degree recipients jors also have the opportunity to have an email account in the Depart- have shown such robust growth; both numbers increased by 25% this ment. year alone. This year Dr. De Loera’s mentoring efforts and achievements http://www.math.ucdavis.edu/ were acknowledged by his receiving the 2013 Chancellor’s Award for

Emeritus Focus Tom Sallee received his Ph.D. in 1966 He still enjoys creating problems at all lev- Thomas from the University of Washington and joined els, especially those with surprising answers. Sallee the faculty of the UC Davis Mathematics De- Two of his current favorites are presented here: partment immediately thereafter, primarily to work with Don Chakerian. He spent his entire 1. How big is the number 4^(4^(4^4)))? If career at UC Davis, retiring in 2009. you write out its digits in numerals one cen- His mathematical research interests focus on timeter in width, how far will they stretch? convex geometry, an area in which he made Across Davis? Across the U.S.? Across the solar numerous contributions over his career. He system? Across the galaxy? has solved a number of problems with el- ementary statements involving common geo- 2. On a rainy day, 64 people hand their metric objects and constructions, such as umbrellas to a clerk who puts each of them Reuleaux triangles, Euler characteristic and in an 8x8 square umbrella stand with spaces convex bodies. numbered from A1 to H8, and each person is Professor Sallee has devoted considerable given the appropriate ticket. Late in the morn- effort over the years to improving mathemat- ing, when the clerk is not present, a man rush- ics education, first working with the -North es out to catch a plane and grabs an umbrella ern California Mathematics Project and, in at random out of the stand. Later, when each 1989, founding the College Prep Math Project departing person hands in their ticket, the (CPM) with Elaine Kasimatis (now at CSUS) clerk gives them their correct umbrella when and Judy Kysh (now at CSUSF). This pro- possible; otherwise, he takes an umbrella at gram writes and publishes the CPM books for random and hands it to the person. What is grades 6 through calculus that now are used the probability that the last person gets their by approximately 650,000 students across the correct umbrella? U.S. and in various foreign countries. In recognition of these efforts, Tom was made a Fel- For the solutions, see page 15. low of the International Society for Design and Development in Education in 2011. 6 Relativistic Shock Waves by Blake Temple The starting assumption of General Rela- tives of the background spacetime metric. tivity is that spacetime is locally flat in the These first order terms would vanish in any sense that at each event (i.e. point in spa- locally inertial coordinate frame if one exist- Above: Image Copyright Angus Lau, Y Van, SS Tong (Jade Scope Observatory). Reproduced with permission. cetime) there are locally inertial coordinate ed. These terms give rise to effects analogous systems in which the gravitational metric is to Coriolis forces, fictitious forces that could Minkowskian, and its first derivatives vanish be removed by transformation to locally in- at the center. The failure of the second deriva- ertial coordinates, if this can be done. But at tives to vanish at the center is described by the the regularity singularities caused by collid- Riemann curvature tensor, which represents ing shock waves there are no locally inertial the gravitational field. frames. So these Coriolis-type terms cannot Recent work of Blake Temple and former be made to vanish in any coordinate system UC Davis student Moritz Reintjes has demon- in their neighborhood. In fact, they are the strated that, in a perfect fluid, the gravitational dominant terms in the high frequency scatter- metric is in fact not locally flat at points of ing of gravity waves, and therefore their effects shock wave collision. Instead, a new kind of in principle will be measureable by every local singularity forms, which they have named a observer. This would be a new physical effect regularity singularity. At these points the first of the gravitational field that is not due to its Above: Blake Temple (left) with Moritz Reintjes (right). derivatives of the metric cannot be made to curvature alone, but rather due to the essential Below: Planetary Nebula NGC 2392. Copyright NASA. vanish at the center in any coordinate sys- lack of regularity in the underlying spacetime tem. But Temple and Reintjes have shown geometry. that, even though the second derivatives of the Since shock wave collision in a perfect flu- metric contain delta function source terms in id can evolve generically from smooth initial every coordinate system, these delta functions data describing a sufficiently strong expansion, cancel out in the Riemann curvature tensor. (like an explosion), inside a sufficiently strong Since it is generally assumed that all physical contraction, (like a collapsing star), authors effects of the gravitational field arise from the suggest that regularity singularities are worth curvature of spacetime, one may ask whether exploring as a possibly significant physical ef- there are observable physical effects resulting fect for gravitational wave detection, perhaps from the failure of locally inertial frames at by the LIGO gravity wave sensors currently Regularity Singularities. under development. In any event, as far as we In recent work, Temple and Reintjes ex- know, this is the first demonstration that the press the linearized Einstein equations de- scattering of gravity waves can be localized by scribing gravity waves in an arbitrary coordi- the dynamics of a perfect fluid to create first nate system as a second order wave equation order effects. together with first order terms whose coeffi- cients arise from nonzero first order deriva- 7 A Mathematician’s Road to Davis: A Personal Reminiscence by Albert Schwarz

When I graduated from high school in The discrimination of Stalin’s time was abol- tee their stability, brought topology into this 1951, I already knew some mathematics— ished, and the new period of discrimination discipline. I worked to investigate topological calculus, and Lobachevsky geometry. So in started later. My adviser, P. S. Alexandrov, gave integrals of motions and topologically non- my freshman year at the Ivanovo Pedagogical me complete freedom to work independently, trivial solutions. Gauge instantons (topologi- Institute, I was able to study topology. During so my years in graduate school were quite pro- cally non-trivial solutions of the equations of my undergraduate years I wrote seven papers ductive. I published eight more papers, mostly motion of Euclidean gauge theory) were dem- in this field. I proved that the volume invari- in topology. In 1958 I defended my Candidate onstrated and first investigated in a joint paper ant (a concept introduced by my adviser, V.A. of Sciences (= Ph.D.) dissertation. with Belavin, Polyapkov and Tyupkin. These Efremovitch) of a universal covering can be After graduation I accepted a position at became very useful in quantum field theory. expressed in terms of the fundamental group Voronezh University. There I worked on the My research was interesting both to physicists, genus of fiber spaces, which as it provided powerful new analytic tools, would become the subject of and to mathematicians, who discovered a rich my Doctoral dissertation. I source of exciting mathematical problems. also determined the topolo- I was even happier in 1978 when I found gies of several classes of op- a way to use ideas from physics in topology. I erators and worked on other realized action functionals that do not depend topological questions arising explicitly on a metric should give rise to topo- in functional analysis. Later, logical invariants. This idea led to the concept some of these results were of topological quantum field theory, which replicated by Atiyah and by became important in both physics and math- Smale. I also worked in cat- ematics. It opened the way for applications of egory theory. the methods of theoretical physics to topology, I received my Doctor of algebraic geometry, symplectic geometry and Sciences (> Ph.D.) degree other branches of mathematics. from Moscow University in Over the years I had received many invi- 1960. During the week I spent tations from the West; previously I was not in Moscow after my disserta- able to accept any of them. But Gorbachev’s of the original manifold. I also gave estimates tion defense, I met my future wife, Lucy Kis- perestroika brought new freedoms and excit- for volume invariants of manifolds with non- sina, whom I married several months later. My ing possibilities. In 1989 I was able to spend positive and with negative curvature, results wife was born in Moscow and did not want six weeks at the International Center for Theo- that were rediscovered by John Milnor thir- to leave her city, so I started to look for a job retical Physics in Trieste and to participate in teen years later. This work eventually gave rise there. In 1964, at the age of 30, I was offered their Supermembrane Conference. On July to the new field of geometric group theory. a position as Professor of Theoretical Physics 17, 1989 my wife and I left the Soviet Union In 1955 I entered graduate school at Mos- at the Moscow Engineering Physics Institute. forever. cow University in the best Mathematics De- I had been interested in physics for a long I spent the 1989-90 academic year visiting partment in Russia. I was very lucky; that was time, so the chance to work with physicists the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, the best year for a Jew to enter the University. was very exciting to me. At the time the in- Harvard and MIT. In 1990 I accepted a faculty tensive and fruitful interac- position in the Department of Mathematics at tion between mathematics UC Davis. and theoretical physics had only just begun. A handful This article was adapted from Dr. Schwarz’s of Russian mathematicians, autobiography, which is available at myself among them, started http://www.math.ucdavis.edu/~schwarz/bion.pdf to study theoretical physics seriously, and to identify and work on related mathematical problems. My initial focus was on quantum field theory. The discovery in the 1970s that soliton solutions of classical equations of motion are related to quantum particles, and that topological consider- ations can be used to guaran- 8 Research Highlight Sam Walcott

Sam Walcott joined the Department in While these ex- 2011 after earning a Ph.D. in theoretical and periments define applied mechanics from Cornell University the actions of single and doing postdocs in experimental and theo- molecules, groups retical biophysics at the University of Vermont of molecules work- and Johns Hopkins. His research develops ing together behave models that predict large-scale biological phe- differently. Sam’s nomena from single molecule mechanics. One research addresses important focus of his work is muscle me- this problem. He uses mathematics to relate binding event facilitates the binding of other chanics. the behavior of single proteins to their func- nearby myosin molecules. If two nearby myo- The muscle contractions that underlie the tions in groups. In collaboration with experi- sins bind to actin, they accelerate the binding heartbeat and other physiological processes mentalists, he develops and tests models that of additional myosins more than they would involve ratchet-like interactions between my- make predictions at successively larger size if they were far apart. Recently, Sam has de- osin molecules and actin molecules. When scales. rived the first differential equation model of myosin binds to the actin filament, it under- In a recent paper, for example, he incor- myosin binding that includes cooperative goes a conformational change that moves the porated measurements of single myosin mol- myosin groups and shown it to accurately and filament. As it unbinds, this conformational ecules into computer simulations to predict efficiently reproduce experimental measure- change is reversed, making the myosin ready their collective, group behavior. Interestingly, ments. to rebind and ratchet again. When this cyclic these simulations and the corresponding ex- Sam’s long term goal is to develop a series process occurs at many molecules within a periments both find that myosin molecules of mathematical models describing muscle muscle cell, it causes that cell to contract. working together move actin faster than one contraction that extend from single molecules Single myosin molecules can be isolated myosin working alone. The mathematical to the complete organ. This work has the and their interactions with single actin fila- analysis shows why: Myosin molecules work- potential to transform our understanding of ments observed. In this way the rates of their ing together apply forces on each other. These muscle contraction. His present work is laying reactions, the size of myosin’s conformational increase their detachment rates from actin, the groundwork for a full, quantitative under- change, and the mechanical properties of my- which in turn increases the muscle contrac- standing of heart muscle contractions in par- osin and actin have all been measured. Recent tion speed. This work shows how problems ticular. His research will illuminate both nor- experiments have shown that myosin’s me- affecting myosin molecule interactions can mal heart function and the molecular bases of chanics and chemistry are coupled through lead to disease, insight single molecule mea- several cardiac diseases and has the potential a chemical reaction whose rate depends on surements cannot provide. to lead to new medical treatments. force. If myosin experiences a force resisting This picture becomes more complex when its conformation change, the reaction occurs one considers the other proteins that regu- more slowly than if myosin experiences an as- late myosin binding. These proteins make the sistive force. binding of myosin to actin cooperative; one

Mathematics for the Future

The Department of Mathematics wishes support, and/or Departmental priorities. Your A list of donors can be found on the back to thank all alumni, parents, students, faculty, gifts ensure our future success. cover of this newsletter. Thank you for your staff and friends who support the Department continuing support. each year. For a list of our endowed funds, We appreciate the many donors who dou- Give Online please see our web site: ble or triple the impact of their gifts through their employers’ matching gift program. For http://www.math.ucdavis.edu/about/donation/ If you would like to give, please go to the more information about matching gifts, you UC Davis secured giving site at: Your gift to the Department is tax deduct- can go to: ible, and you can choose to have your name http://giving.ucdavis.edu/DeptMath/General http://matchinggifts.com/ucdavis/ published or remain anonymous. Please choose “Mathematics General Sup- Your gift can be used towards undergradu- For additional questions please contact the port” for the gift designation and follow the ate and graduate support, faculty and research prompts. Development Office at (530) 752-3429. 9 Alumni Update Carol Adjemian M.A., 1967 Updates from After receiving her degree in Mathematics The Graduate Programs from UC Davis, Carol worked as an applied by Thomas Strohmer, Graduate Program Chair mathematician at Cornell Aeronautical Labo- and Albert Fannjiang, Acting GGAM Chair ratory in Buffalo, NY, and at Xonics in Van Nuys, CA. She completed her Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics at UCLA in 1981. She became a This year the Graduate Program in Math- from 22 Departments and 56 graduate stu- professor at Seaver College of Pepperdine Uni- ematics welcomes 18 new graduate students. dents. currently enrolled in GGAM. This year versity beginning in 1980 and retired in 2012. They were selected from about 200 applicants, we graduated nine students with Ph.D.’s, and In that time she has served two terms as the which is one of the largest applicant pools the eight with Master’s degrees. president of the Seaver faculty. She also was Program has ever had. The eighth GGAM Mini-conference was honored as a Luckman Distinguished Teach- Our graduate students were again quite held on January 26, 2013. This annual event ing Fellow of Pepperdine University. She has successful in earning awards and fellowships. brings the faculty and students of GGAM to- served terms as vice president, president and Wenjing Liao was awarded the 2013 Out- gether in an informal forum to share research governor of the Southern California section of standing Graduate Student Teaching Award. interests. This year’s program was coordinated the MAA. This award, which is co-sponsored by the by Raisa D’Souza and Albert Fannjiang. Talks Graduate Council and the Office of Gradu- presented research on many topics, from opti- Robert E. Mrak ate Studies, recognizes excellence in teach- mization of power grids to cancer cells model- B.S., 1970 ing by graduate students on the UC Davis ing, geo- and fluid- dynamics, ecology, coding campus. Charlie Brummitt received the Alice and information theory. The Mini-conference After receiving his B.S. in Mathematics, Leung Scholarship in Mathematics. Tim Wertz provides students with a sense of the breadth Robert switched to medicine. He received his was the recipient of the William K. Schwarze of research opportunities available to them. As M.D. at UC Davis in 1976. Scholarship. Joohee Hong received the Henry always, there were extensive informal discus- Moving to Tennessee, Robert completed Alder Prize for excellence in teaching. Joseph sions among the participants, which in the his residency and a postdoc at Vanderbilt Grimm won the University’s Dissertation Year past have fostered productive collaborations.. University, ultimately joining their faculty in Fellowship. More than 70 participants attended the dinner 1980, specializing in Pathology. In 1984, he The fourth installment of the Annual Da- that followed the Mini-conference. joined the University of Arkansas for Medical vis Math Conference took place on October GGAM started a Distinguished Lecture Se- Services. Since 2007, he has been faculty at the 10, 2013. The conference aims to present the ries last year. The inaugural speaker, Professor University of Toledo, College of Medicine, in current research conducted in the Department Tai-Ping Liu of Stanford, gave a series of three Ohio. He’s presently Chairman of Pathology. to graduate students and faculty. Organized lectures on gas dynamics and kinetic theory. Robert’s research has focused on the cel- by the graduate students under the auspices Professor George Papanicolaou of Stanford has lular and molecular pathophysiology of Al- of the Galois Group, it showcased research by accepted our invitation to give the second set zheimer disease. He believes that the analyti- faculty and students from both the GPM and of lectures in this series, on financial math- cal skills honed in mathematics at UC Davis the GGAM graduate programs. The presenta- ematics. have served well throughout his academic ca- tions covered a diverse range of topics includ- GGAM also started the GGAM Colloqui- reer. In 2009 his son, Eric, graduated from UC ing topology, random matrix theory and par- um as a forum for GGAM members to pres- Davis with a B.S. in Computer Science. tial differential equations. ent their research. The Colloquium normally The quarterly Department Colloquia at- is held monthly on a Friday, with a reception Linda W. Hildreth tracted large audiences. A highlight was the to follow. B.S., 1970 and M.A., 1971 colloquium by Fields Medalist Shing-Tung Congratulations to GGAM faculty member After graduating with her Masters from Yau, which drew a standing-room-only audi- Alan Hastings of Environmental Science and UC Davis, Linda because a part-time teacher ence. Dr. Yau’s talk, entitled “String Theory Policy for becoming a SIAM Fellow and to at Brigham Young University for a short time and Geometry of the Universe’s Hidden Di- Brandon Dutra for winning an NSF graduate before moving on to Prudential Insurance for mension,” was both very entertaining and research fellowship. two years. In 1977, she began a programming highly informative. career at Hughes Aircraft for twelve years. In The Graduate Group in Applied Math- 1990, she moved to Kaiser Permanente as a ematics welcomes nine new students into its medical records clerk. program this year. This is one of the most se- Linda is now married and retired. After lective cohorts of GGAM students in recent enjoying math and science in her youth, she’s years. now studying sociology, from marriage and In 2012 Steve Shkoller became the Chair family to gender in society. of GGAM. Currently Albert Fannjiang is the Looking back at her time in Mathematics, Acting Chair while Steve is on leave at Oxford she remembers her classes with Professor Milton. University. The group presently has 89 faculty 10 Alumni Update 2012 - 2013 Ezra Alicia Antonio Gonzales Graduate Degree Recipients B.A., 1996 After earning her degree at UC Davis, Ezra Jeffrey Anderson, Ph.D., Math : Lecturer, Foothill College, “The Structure Exploiting Arnoldi was awarded a Rackham Merit Fellowship to Algorithm for Model Order Reduction of General Higher-Order Linear Dynamical Systems,” attend the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Prof. Freund She earned her Masters in Education in 1997 and got a teaching credential in math and gen- Emi Arima, Ph.D., Math : Adjunct Professor, Prof. Thompson eral science. Carlos Barrera-Rodriguez, Ph.D., Math : “A Collection of Multicurve Complexes,” Prof. Hass Ezra has been teaching high school mathematics for over 17 years in Michigan, Califor- Adam Dobrin, Ph.D., Applied : “Exploring the Effects of Enforced Proximity in Enzyme Reac- nia, and now in Florida. Throughout that time tion Kinetics,” Prof. Benham she’s been writing and consulting for the Test Robert Hildebrand, Ph.D., Applied : Postdoctoral Researcher, Eidgenssische Technishe Hoch- Development Department at ACT, Inc. schule (ETH) Zurich, “Algorithms and Cutting Planes for Mixed Integer Programs,” Prof. Koeppe Ezra credits her time at UC Davis for Jason Hole, Ph.D., Math : “Well-posedness of the free-boundary Compressible 3-D Euler equa- preparing her for the demands of graduate tions with surface tension and the zero surface tension,” Prof. Shkoller school, as well as her work with students in her own classroom. Joohee Hong, Ph.D., Applied : Lecturer, University of California, Davis, “Minimal Realization She especially appreciates the late Profes- for Descriptor Systems: Applications to RCL Circuits,” Prof. Freund sors Henry Alder and Evelyn Silva for the love Yvonne Kemper, Ph.D., Math : Postdoctoral Researcher, National Institute of Standards and of their craft and mathematics, which was Technology, “Problems of Enumeration and Realizability on Matroids, Simplical Complexes, evident in the classes they taught. Her experi- and Graphs,” Prof. De Loera ences with them as a student helped her with interactions with her own students. She will Wenjing Liao, Ph.D., Applied : Postdoctoral Researcher, Statistical and Applied Mathematical forever be grateful for their inspiration. Sciences Institute (SAMSI), jointly with Duke University, “Grid-Independent Compressive Imaging and Fourier Phase Retrieval,” Prof. Fannjiang Karen J. Thomason Haoyang Liu, Ph.D., Applied : Continuing Ph.D. in Real Estate & Urban Economics, Univer- B.S., 1981 sity of California, Berkeley, “Spectral Analysis of High Dimensional Time Series,” Prof. Aue Karen received her B.S. in 1981 and con- Paul Mach, Ph.D., Applied : Software Engineer, Strava Inc., “Protein Sequence Design for Fold tinued on her Masters in Math until 1982. She Recognition Using a New Quantification of Protein Geometry,” Prof. Koehl still has friends from her time in Math that she Nicholas Travers, Ph.D., Applied : Postdoctoral Researcher, Technion-Israel Institute of Tech- regularly contacts. Life as a mathematics ma- nology, “Bounds on Convergence of Entropy Rate Approximations in Hidden Markov Pro- jor was great! cesses,” Prof. Crutchfield In 1982, she was admitted to the School of Ernest Woei, Ph.D., Applied : “Characterization and Clustering of Dendritic Trees Using Mor- Veterinary Medicine here at UC Davis, a fact phological Features Extracted by Graph Spectra,” Prof. Saito she attributes largely to her degree in Math- ematics singling her out. Jing Xia, Ph.D., Applied : Research Analyst, Ebay, “Finding Disease Associated Genes from Mi- She now owns Blue Ridge Veterinary Hos- croarray Data,” Prof. Rocke pital, a small animal hospital in rural Virginia. Jiawei (Calvin) Zhang, Ph.D., Applied : Assistant Professor/Courant Instructor, NYU: Courant She had the pleasure of learning from Drs. Institute, “Limb Coordination in Crustacean Swimming: The Underlying Neural Mecha- Alder, Mead, Chakerian and Sallee among nisms and Fluid Dynamics,” Prof. Lewis others, and she’ll never forget the outstanding education she got being a Mathematics major! Robert Beck, M.A., Math : Prof. Koeppe Jeff Bronson, M.S., Applied : Prof. Saito Thomas Brounstein, M.A., Math : Prof. De Loera : Research Analyst, Sandia National Labs Are You a Graduate? Brandon Crain, M.S., Applied : Prof. Koeppe : Teaching Credential, UC Davis Alicia Fiebig, M.S., Applied : Prof. Kellogg We want to hear from you! Please send us Katrina Glaeser, M.A., Math : Prof. Morris information about yourself so that we can stay Omar Hafez, M.S., Applied : Prof. Saito in touch and share in your experiences out- Ryan Halabi, M.S., Applied : Prof. Hunter side of UC Davis. Jizhou Huang, M.S., Applied : Prof. Saito Please complete our Alumni Questionnaire: Mark Junod, M.A., Math : Prof. De Loera http://www.math.ucdavis.edu/news/alumni_quest Bailey Meeker, M.S., Applied : Prof. Schreiber or send e-mail to: Nathaniel Merrill, M.S., Applied [email protected] Benoit Richard, M.A., Math : Prof. Strohmer We will do our best to include it in the next Douglas Unger, M.A., Math : Prof. Xia newsletter. 11 2012-2013 Department Awards Recipients

Eric C. Ruliffson Scholarship Robert Lewis Wasser in Mathematics Memorial Scholarship Eric Canady Ruliffson attended UC Da- Robert Lewis Wasser was born in 1973 in vis from 1964-1968, loved the study of math Sacramento. He excelled in many areas—he and excelled in it. He was first and foremost a was selected as a National Merit Scholar in Chun Yu Hong problem solver, which helped him to achieve 1991 and participated in the Academic De- life-long personal and professional success. cathlon. Robert began at UC Davis in 1991. While attending UC Davis, Eric worked as a His academic achievements were numerous summer intern in the actuarial department and impressive. He was one of the few stu- of Pacific Mutual Insurance in Los Angeles dents in our Department who had already and was hired by them upon graduation. Af- taken as a sophomore some of our most chal- ter serving in the Navy, Eric attended gradu- lenging courses, such as Math 127. His in- ate school in demography at UC Berkeley. In structor in that course, Professor Don Chake- 1973 he resumed his actuarial career at Pacific rian, said how much he was inspired by their Mutual Insurance. He became a partner at the discussions and that Robert’s presence made San Francisco office of Coopers & Lybrand the whole class much more lively and spir- and named a Fellow in the Society of Actuar- ited. After his tragic death in an automobile Tim Wertz ies. He was subsequently elected to the Board accident in 1993, prior to his Junior year, of Partners for Coopers and Lybrand, the first his grandmother, Vera May Wasser, initiated actuary to be so honored, and later served on the Robert Lewis Wasser Endowment in his the Board of Partners for PricewaterhouseCoo- memory, with contributions from family and pers, the world’s largest consulting firm. The friends. Its goal is to benefit promising math- Eric C. Ruliffson Scholarship in Mathematics ematics students at UC Davis. is awarded annually to students of junior or Recipient – Ruian Chen senior standing majoring in mathematics. Recipient – Chun Yu Hong Alice Leung Scholarship in Mathematics Alice Siu-Fun Leung received a Master’s William K. Schwarze Scholarship degree in Mathematics in 1975 from UC in Mathematics Davis. She later worked as a global property Ruian Chen William Karl Schwarze was born in 1942 management accountant in Hong Kong. She in San Francisco. He excelled in mathemat- remembered with fondness her days at UC ics in high school and at UC Davis, where he Davis. She enjoyed gardening and working as received a bachelor’s degree. He went on to a volunteer helping animals. graduate school at Berkeley and a career as a In her will, Ms. Leung generously provid- mathematics teacher in San Francisco. Per- ed funding to award scholarships annually to haps due to his mathematical insights, Bill graduate students in Mathematics. This award also became a successful investor in real es- is given to students who have shown excep- tate. After his death in 1988, a trust he es- tional promise in all aspects of mathematics, tablished with the SF Foundation has donated including research, scholarship and teaching. to a variety of humanitarian purposes, in par- Recipient – Charlie Brummitt ticular to the Schwarze Scholarship to be pre- Virgil Chan sented today. This award is given to graduate G. Thomas Sallee Mathematics students in Mathematics who have demon- Teaching Award strated outstanding mathematical scholarship The G. Thomas Sallee Mathematics Teach- and exceptional promise of making a strong ing Award honors Professor Emeritus Tom professional contribution as a mathematics Sallee’s 40-year career with the Department, teacher and educator at the pre-college or col- his dedication to being an excellent teacher, lege level. and his life goal of developing and supporting Recipient – Tim Wertz talented mathematics educators. An endowment was established in his name that allows the Department to recognize the best teaching of lower-division mathematics courses on an annual basis. Amitabh Basu with Prof. Emeritus Sallee Recipient – Amitabh Basu 12 G. Thomas Sallee Mathematics Prize Yueh-Jing Lin Scholarship in Mathematics This award is also given in recognition of Yueh-Jing (Jean) Lin and Chau-Hsiung Professor Emeritus Tom Sallee, and reaffirms (Mike) Chuang created the Yueh-Jing Lin his life goal of developing and supporting tal- Fund in 2009. This endowment provides ented individuals in mathematics. This prize scholarship support to one or more math- recognizes exceptional undergraduate stu- ematics students each year. The scholarships dents of junior or senior standing who com- are available to high-achieving mathematics peted in this year’s Spring Mathematics Com- students, either undergraduate or graduate. petition. Mr. and Mrs. Chuang are alumni of UC Davis Recipient – Kyumin Kim who met while they were graduate students on campus. Jean received her Master’s degree in Kyumin Kim Henry L. Alder Award mathematics in 1971, and Mike received his Professor Henry L. Alder received his Ph.D. master’s degree in agricultural education in from UC Berkeley in 1947. After spending a 1969. year on the faculty in the Department of Math- Recipient – Melody Molander ematics at Berkeley, he joined the Davis faculty as an Instructor of Mathematics. He advanced Galois Group Service Award to the rank of Professor in 1965, and officially The Galois Group is “the official voice of retired in 1992. He then served as Department the graduate students in Mathematics.” All Chair from 1992 to 1994. After his retirement, graduate students in the Department of Math- Professor Alder continued to teach in the De- ematics are members of Galois; this is how partment for many years. graduate students in mathematics collectively Lea Riedel Professor Alder was also active in other communicate with Department faculty and campus programs and was always a strong staff. The group also coordinates and facili- advocate for quality teaching. In 1999, Profes- tates various activities, such as Monthly Game sor Alder gave a gift to the UC Davis Founda- Nights and New Student Welcomes. tion to establish an endowment. This provides Every year, the Galois Group presents an support to mathematics graduate students at award to recognize outstanding service and/or UC Davis through the Henry L. Alder Prize for sustained commitment to the graduate group. Excellence in Teaching, an award given each Recipient – Perry Gee year to the graduate student who is deemed to be the top teacher among all graduate students Departmental Citation Awards in mathematics. These citations recognize undergraduate Recipient – Joohee Hong students of exceptional ability who have taken a very strong selection of mathematics courses Melody Molander Evelyn M. Silvia Scholarship for and distinguished themselves with exception- Future Mathematics Teachers ally high grade point averages. In addition, The Evelyn M. Silvia Scholarship for Fu- they have all received strong recommenda- ture Mathematics Teachers was established by tions from the faculty. generous donations from family and friends Recipients – Mincheng Zhou, Aaron Higgens, of the late Professor Evelyn Silvia. Evelyn was Brian Busemeyer, Kaitlyn Kortright, Devin hired by the Department in 1973 after receiv- Platt, Natalie Telis, Ran Xie ing her Ph.D. from Clark University. The focus of Evelyn’s passion and unwavering commit- Departmental Honors Awards ment was to develop talented mathematics Every year, undergraduate students have teachers at the K-12 grade level. She was ex- the opportunity to participate in mathematical Joohee Hong tremely generous with her time, whether it research, culminating in a senior thesis. Stu- was as a campus committee member or as an dents typically work under the guidance of a adviser assisting students. faculty mentor to complete original research. This scholarship honors Professor Silvia’s The results are reviewed, and pending on the memory by encouraging students who aspire quality and substance, the student can receive to be future mathematics teachers. It recognizes Departmental high or highest honors. a junior or senior with a major in mathemat- Recipients of Highest Honors – ics, applied mathematics or statistics who has Mincheng Zhou, Virgil Chan shown an interest in teaching mathematics. Recipient – Lea Riedel

Department Awards Recipients 13 Notable Awards Life After Abigail Thompson was featured on the California State Library website honoring Davis “California women trailblazers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.”

Sam Walcott has been awarded a 2013-14 UC Davis Hellman Fellowship. This Fellows Program was created by the Hellman Family Stephen E. Erfle Foundation to promote the scholarly growth B.S., 1977 of faculty members at the Assistant Professor rank who exhibit the potential for great aca- Stephen E. Erfle began his career as a demic distinction. managerial economist during a 1994-1995 sabbatical at Seagram Classics Wine Compa- The 2013 Chancellor’s Award for Excel- ny. During those 14 months, he maintained lence in Mentoring Undergraduate Research offices at Sterling Vineyards and at Mumm has been awarded to Professor Jesús de Cuvée Napa where the finance and marketing Loera. He shares the prize with Mani Tripathi departments of SCWC resided. Trained as a of Physics. microeconomic theorist, he began to use his economist’s toolkit to analyze concrete busi- Wenjing Liao has been selected to receive ness questions such as, Should Mumm raise a 2013 Outstanding Graduate Student Teach- the price of Brut Prestige a dollar a bottle? Or, ing Award. This award, which is co-sponsored when does it make sense to have another tast- by the Graduate Council and the Office of ing room associate on the floor in Sterling’s Graduate Studies, recognizes excellence in tasting room? teaching by graduate students on the UC Da- Allison O’Hair Upon returning to Dickinson College, he B.S., 2009 vis campus. decided to refocus his teaching in a more ap- After graduating from UC Davis in 2009 plied direction. He helped found the Interna- Brandon Dutra, a graduate student in the with a degree in Mathematics, I moved to tional Business and Management department Graduate Group in Applied Mathematics, has Cambridge, Massachusetts, to start a Ph.D. at and major during the late 1990s. One of the been awarded a highly competitive National MIT. I’m currently a 4th year Ph.D. candidate core courses in that major is his course, Mana- Science Foundation Graduate Research Fel- in the Operations Research Center, working gerial Economics. This course, which uses lowship. Brandon’s award, in the area of Alge- with Professor Dimitris Bertsimas. Excel as a teaching platform, is modeled af- bra, Number Theory and Combinatorics, was My research is focused on applications of ter what he did during his SCWC sabbatical. one of five awarded in mathematics at a UC optimization and analytics. My thesis work is In the past fifteen years he has taught more campus. in health care, using optimization to improve than a thousand undergraduates how to build personalized health management for diabetes. economic models in order to do comparative Former Krener Assistant Professor Ian Agol I also have done work on learning preferences, statics analysis and how to do regression mod- has been awarded the Oswald Veblen Prize in predictive policing and optimizing clinical trials eling in Excel. Geometry. The American Mathematical Soci- for cancer. He received a B.S. in mathematics and B.A. ety awards the Veblen Prize every three years As a graduate student, I assist in teach- in economics from the University of Califor- in recognition of a notable research memoir ing, and work with an amazing group of col- nia, Davis, and a master’s and Ph.D. in eco- in geometry or topology that was published leagues. I have traveled to several interesting nomics from Harvard University. He has also in the preceding six years. The 2013 Veblen conferences in my research area. I am plan- taught in the Economics Department at Dick- Prize was awarded to Ian Agol for his many ning to defend my thesis this summer and will inson College and in the School of Social Sci- fundamental contributions to hyperbolic ge- then pursue my work in healthcare analytics. ences at the University of California, Irvine. ometry, 3-manifold topology and geometric I am grateful for all of the experiences and He is also involved in wine education and has group theory. Now a professor at UC Berkeley, opportunities I had at UC Davis, and espe- taught wine tasting classes and conducted Ian came to UC Davis following his Ph.D. at cially to my undergraduate research mentor, wine tastings since his graduate school days UCSD in 1998 to work with UC Davis profes- Jesús De Loera, who encouraged me to pursue as the resident economics and wine tutor for sors Joel Hass and Bill Thurston. graduate studies in Operations Research. Harvard’s Leverett House.

From front-piece of Keat, Young, and Erfle, Managerial Economics, 7th edition, Prentice Hall, 2013. Photos by Carl Socolow ‘77. 14 Solutions to Sallee’s Puzzlers Continued from page 6.

1. If z = positive integer, the number of

digits needed to write z in base a is loga(z). So the number of digits needed to write

4^(4^(4^(4))) in base 10 is (4^{256}) log10(4) = 8 x 10153. The number of subatomic particles (protons and neutrons) in the universe is es- timated to be 1080. So if you wrote one digit of this number on each subatomic particle in the universe, it would require all the particles in 8x1073 universes to do the job. It turns out Staff News that 4^(4^(4^(4))) is an extremely large num- Welcoming Opportunities for Growth ber. by Gladis Lopez 2. There is 1/64 chance that the first man I am very pleased to share the news that Carol Crabill used to handle. Carol retired to leave got the right umbrella, in which case our administrative office is now fully staffed. last December to spend more time with her everyone else also will get their right umbrel- Thank you for your patience during the time daughter. We wish Carol and Perry the best! las. There is a 1/64 chance that the first man we had limited staff and were trying to wear We have experienced growth in our stu- took the last man’s umbrella, in which case multiple hats. We strive to provide excellent dent enrollments, and our administrative staff the last man is certain not to get his right um- customer service to all our Department mem- welcomes the opportunity to embrace this brella. Otherwise, without loss of generality, bers and affiliates. growth. assume the first man’s umbrella was in F3, This year, we hired two new Student Ad- I am happy to share with you that Mari- that he took A1, and that the very last person vising Officers: Sarah Driver (Graduate) and anne Waage is pregnant, and her due date is in to come will want H8. There is one orphaned Letia Groening (Undergraduate). January 2014. We are very excited for her and umbrella (F3) whose owner is no longer in Our previous student adviser, Perry Gee, wish her well. the museum, and one person in the museum transferred to Chemistry. Tina Denena is now We look forward to another productive whose umbrella is not in the rack. This situa- our Analyst-Supervisor and, among other du- year! tion does not change until that person departs, ties, she has taken on some of the duties that when they will be given an umbrella at random. If she is given F3, then all subsequent people will get their right umbrellas. If she is given H8, then the last person to exit will not get their right umbrella. These two events are Join us on Facebook! Get News by Email equally likely. If the umbrella they are given is neither F3 nor H8, then the situation contin- Would you like to help the environment ues, iterating the same condition as before. So and save the Department of Mathematics at each stage it is equally likely that the chain money by receiving future newsletters by of wrong umbrellas will end either way. email? If so, just indicate your preference on the newsletter subscription page on our web site: http://www.math.ucdavis.edu/news/

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The Department of Mathematics wishes to gratefully acknowledge the generosity of the following donors, who have contributed to its support over the past three years.

American Institute of Mathematics American Society of Engineering Education Yueh-Jing and Chau-Hsiung Chuang Robert Guy Jack Latimer Scholarship Foundation of Santa Barbara W. Karl Schwarze Estate, San Francisco Foundation American Mathematical Society Mary Elizabeth and Rex Allen Cheryl and Scott Beaver Christopher Broski Jennifer Lee and Youn-Sha Chan ExxonMobile Corporation Doyle O. Cutler Joy and Daniel Faletti Glaxo Wellcome, Inc. Gary Gruenhage Carol and Fields Gunsett Lauren and David Hall Abigail Thompson and Joel Hass Robert E. Jaffa Charles N. Morris, III Sayuri and Motohico Mulase Sandra Ruliffson Joan and G. Thomas Sallee Erica and Bryan Schultz Sai Shao Jennifer Sharples The Rangers Scholarship Fund The Simons Foundation Featuring the 2012-13 Academic Year Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Ngangiang and John Thoo Newsletter Committee: Curtis C. Travis, Jr. Craig Benham, Editor Carolyn Weist Gladis Lopez, Management Services Officer Earl Q. Wong Marianne Waage, Designer Marion E. McCurdy and Sidney R. Wong