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RECKONINGS Newsletter of the Department of Mathematical Sciences at the University of Delaware Chair’s Message In Memoriam John A. Pelesko Professor Wenbo V. Li, of the Department tute of Mathematical Statistics. The citation Dear Students, Alumni, Colleagues, and of Mathematical Sciences, died of a heart at- stated he was honored “for his distinguished Friends, tack on Saturday, January 26, near his home research in the theory of Gaussian processes This past year in Newark, Delaware, at the age of 49. Profes- and in using this theory to solve many impor- has been both an sor Li joined the University of Delaware di- tant problems in diverse areas of probability.’’ exciting year and rectly upon completing his Ph.D. at the Uni- Professor Li a sad year for versity of Wisconsin-Madison in 1992. He advised numerous the Department was promoted to Associate Professor in 1996 graduate students of Mathemati- and the rank of Professor in 2002. He held during his career cal Sciences. In an adjunct position with the Department of and was an active January, we very Electrical and Computer Engineering at UD, mentor for many unexpectedly an adjunct position with the Department of undergraduate lost Professor Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics research students. Wenbo V. Li to a heart attack. Professor at Delaware State University, and an adjunct Since joining the Li was an integral part of our department, position in the Department of Mathematics university, Profes- a tremendous friend and mentor to our at the Harbin Institute of Technology in Har- sor Li spearheaded students, and a world-renowned researcher bin, China. the development of probability as a research in probability. His passing leaves a void During his distinguished career, Professor focus of the Department of Mathematical in our department that will not soon be Li also held visiting positions at the Univer- Sciences and was a central figure in the grow- filled. In the article in memoriam of Pro- sity of Pennsylvania, Peking University, the ing research prominence of the department. fessor Li you will find more information Hong Kong University of Science and Tech- He was very active in organizing confer- about his career as well as place to share nology, and was a Distinguished Visiting Pro- ences both in the United States and China; remembrances and condolences. I urge all fessor at the Institute of Applied Mathematics he supervised graduate students in both of you who knew Professor Li to visit this of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. In 2006, countries as well. The Proceedings of High his numerous and deep contributions to the Dimensional Probability VI, Banff, 2011, will continued on page 2 fields of probability and statistics were rec- ognized with his election as a fellow of Insti- continued on page 2 Inside Reckonings Chair’s Message ...................................................1 Students Earn Awards In Memoriam ........................................................1 Students Earn Awards in 2012–13 ...............1 in 2012–13 A Mathematical Perspective on Louis F. Rossi, Director of Undergraduate Studies Vulnerable Plaques .........................................3 The Department of Mathematical From the Editor....................................................3 Sciences is pleased to announce New Teaching Seminar ....................................3 the winners of its undergraduate Support for Graduate Students: and graduate student awards for Graduate Assistance in Areas of the 2012–2013 year. Awardees are National Need (GAANN .................................4 nominated by their peers and faculty, New Hires ...............................................................5 and final decisions are made by Featured Graduate Students .........................6 faculty committees based on student achievement. New Programs .....................................................8 The recipient of the 2013 S QBio Qorner ..........................................................8 J Wolfe Scholarship this year is Conference Corner .............................................9 Michelle Markiewietz (right, with Brief News Items .............................................. 10 Undergraduate Director Rossi and Department Chair Pelesko). The Donor Support ................................................. 12 continued on page 4 Chair’s Message, continued from cover lowship support to students seeking graduate Activities such as these and the many study in mathematics. We look forward to others you’ll read about in this newsletter, A Mathematical Perspective on From the Editor online guest book and share your memories. these new students joining our program and along with our faculty’s deep commitment to Vulnerable Plaques Dear Department Alumni, Students, Last year at this time, we were planning participating in the many targeted graduate mathematical research and education is what Pak-Wing Fok Colleagues and Friends, for a re-imagining of one of the department’s activities that take place each year. I would leads to our continued high ranking among three computer classrooms. I’m happy to also like to congratulate all of our students mathematics departments, year after year. For One of the most challenging things about I hope you enjoy seeing the fruits of the report that renovations of Ewing 205 were who have completed their Ph.D. degree this the third straight year, the Department of working in the life sciences as a Mathemati- effort of our students, faculty and staff. We cian is that the systems of interest are seldom completed last summer and our new active year. This is a tremendous accomplishment Mathematical Sciences was ranked in the top hope to add the accomplishments of alum- simple to describe. As Applied Mathemati- learning classroom was brought online for and you’ll get to meet several of these stu- 100 mathematics departments worldwide by ni in future editions. Please keep us posted! cians, we are trained to simplify, simplify, the fall semester. I want to thank our alumni dents in the pages that follow. the Academic Ranking of World Universities. simply. We must neglect unimportant physi- Richard Braun, and the College of Arts and Sciences for This year, the department will be host- Of course, this high ranking is largely due cal effects by non-dimensionalizing before Development Committee Chair their support of this redesign. The new room ing three conferences. In May, we’ll host the to the faculty who have been among us the solving anything. We are scolded by our grad contains interactive work stations designed to second annual “DelMar Day” workshop on longest. This year, sadly, we’ll see two of these school Professors for thinking about inertial facilitate teamwork, smart board technology, computational mathematics. This joint effort long-time faculty members retire. I would like effects when the Reynolds number is small. cally < 65 um) that can easily rupture due to and plenty of whiteboard space for sharing with the University of Maryland launched to personally congratulate Professor David But it seems that in many biological systems, stresses from the flowing blood or internal mathematics. In the fall, we used this room last year and has already grown into an excit- Olagunju and Geraldine Prange on their out- everything is important and whether we can stresses in the plaque itself. To predict the vul- for courses for our mathematics education ing event. In July, the department will host standing careers. You will be missed but we neglect 90% of the effects and strip the prob- nerability of plaque from the various imaging majors, our mathematics majors, and even an international conference on “Novel Direc- look forward to seeing you on campus and at lem down to a few nice equations is more intended!). They ask themselves “what will methods used by doctors is a very important our graduate students. This spring, two of tions in Inverse Scattering.” This meeting, future department events. At the same time, I questionable. happen to this pathway if I knock out that problem in contemporary medicine. our faculty, Ms. Patty Schwarzkopf and Ms. co-organized by Professor Fiora Cakoni, wish to extend a warm welcome to three new One thing that distinguishes us as Math- gene”? “How does this gene sequence affect The development of VP is extremely com- Tammy Rossi, have been piloting an innova- Professor Peter Monk, and collaborators from faculty members, Professor Nayantara Bhat- ematicians is that we strive to work on beau- the transcription of that protein”? The code plicated and, naturally, as a well-brought up tive “flipped classroom” approach to our Rice University and the Ecole Polytechnique, nagar, Professor Jungeun Park, and Professor tiful problems. We are both artists AND on DNA is represented by four base pairs. applied mathematician, I find the simplest introductory mathematics courses in this has the dual purpose of providing a forum for Christopher Raymond. In this newsletter scientists! Not only should the equations be This endless string of As, Cs, Gs and Ts is in- model that can describe some of its char- space. In the coming year, we’ll be working mathematicians around the world to present you’ll get to meet each of these outstanding applicable to real situations, but the problem trinsically discrete and it is not surprising that acteristics. For example, one can describe to redesign our other two computer class- their latest results in this important area and additions to our faculty. I also wish to extend should also be “cute” and

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