Page 1 Mathematics News

University of Spring 2004

December Graduation An Interview with Willy Brandal

Some of our December graduates: Kari Anderson (M.A.T.), Travis Bemrose (B.S.), Sarah Waller (B.S.), Lynne Tower (B.S.), Ruth Patching (B.S.), and Sean Haler (B.S.), with Monte Boisen.

Congratulations to all of our When did you first become interested in Mathemat- ics? December graduates! My recollection is that I’ve always been interested in math and science. From junior high on up, I don’t remember ever not being interested.

What led you to decide to major in Mathematics?

I went to the of Washington for two years, majoring in Chemistry. After my sophomore year I had an internship working as a Lab Technician at a pharmaceutical company doing chemical lab work. While working there I realized that I was not good at Kari Anderson and her husband Josh with Monte Boisen. lab work and I didn’t like working in a lab. Mathe- matics had all of the good things from Chemistry but it didn’t have the lab work, so that was a deciding UI at National Math Meeting factor for why Mathematics was better than Chemis- try.

Seven UI graduates attended the Joint Meeting of Were your parents or siblings mathematical? the Mathematical Association of America and the American Mathematical Society in Phoenix in Janu- None of them are mathematical; I’m the only one in ary. They were: the whole family. There’s no math background any- • TOM MCMILLAN, University of Arkansas at Little where. My dad was a medical doctor and even he Rock didn’t like mathematics! • MARK LOTSPEICH, Albertson of Idaho ROBIN CRUZ, Albertson College of Idaho Where did you go to college?

• KIM VINCENT, Washington State University After graduating from West Seattle High School I be- • DAN SCHAAL, South Dakota State University gan college at the University of Washington in Seat- SCOTT DAUGHERTY, Tusculum College tle where I earned my Bachelor’s degree in Mathe- • ALLEN BAILEY, University of Maine at Farming- matics and my Master’s degree in Mathematics. Af- ton ter I received my Master’s degree I decided to go to Most were able to attend a lunch for Idaho alumni at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. the meeting. Interview with Willy Brandal, continued on Page 2 Actuarial News Page 2

Spring Actuarial Exam Dates

BECOMING AN ACTUARY The exam for Course 1 will be given:

Wednesday, May 19, 2004, 8:30 am—12:30 pm To become an actuary you need to pass a series of exams. The first two exams are on calculus, prob- The exam for Course 2 will be given: ability, economics, finance, and the theory of inter- Thursday, May 20, 2004, 8:30 am—12:30 pm est. At UI the course requirements for the Applied

Mathematics major, Actuarial Science option cover Both exams can be taken at UI. The deadline for ap- this material. However, the problems are challeng- plications to reach the Society of Actuaries for the ing and many questions have a risk setting. To help May exams is: April 1, 2004. prepare you for these exams the department has re- view seminars. Ralph Neuhaus, in Brink 302, can Application forms can be obtained from Ralph Neu- provide you with information on the actuarial profes- haus, Room 302, Brink Hall. sion, the review seminars, and on the exams.

Review for Exam 1 can be arranged by contacting Ralph Neuhaus or Frank Gao.

Internet Math Challenge Interview with Willy Brandal, continued from Page 1

How did you decide to specialize in Algebra? Looking for a mathematical challenge to stimulate the interest of a pre-college student? Try out the While I was working toward my master’s degree at Internet Math Challenge. The IMC is a web-based the University of Washington I really liked one class, problem-solving contest featuring prizes for solving a graduate course in Logic and Set Theory, taught weekly math puzzles. Students can email their solu- by Professor Ritchie. I really enjoyed the class and tions and receive feedback from the IMC staff. The the professor and so, when I went to Northwestern I puzzles are designed to be fun, and to require few made up my mind I was going to study Logic and Set prerequisites beyond cleverness, so students of all Theory. When I got to Northwestern I discovered ages can participate. Prizes include two specially that nobody studied Logic and Set Theory at North- designed IMC T-shirts given each week, plus western so I had to find something else to focus on. monthly prizes of a graphing calculator. The first year I was there I had a graduate sequence in Commutative and Homological Algebra from the The UI Math Dept. has sponsored the Internet Math professor that ended up being my thesis advisor, Challenge each school year since 1996, with super- Professor Eben Matlis. I liked him. I liked the way he vision by Professor Mark Nielsen. You can find IMC handled a class. I liked the way he lectured. I basi- at cally liked almost everything about him, so I http:/www.uidaho.edu/imc changed my focus to Algebra.

Can you describe the research that you do?

I do research in Ring Theory and Commutative Rings. I especially enjoy theorems that relate to de- composition results, where you break up algebraic structures into smaller bits, and prime ideals of com- Correction mutative rings. There is a great deal of inter- relationship between those two problems and I maintain that they are the same. Oops! Math Puzzler #2 in the Fall 2003 issue of the Mathematics News was misstated. It should have When did Chinese Remainder Theorem first become said “Choose a 3 digit integer, N, with distinct digits. interesting to you? Let S1 be the sum of all 2 digit numbers formed from the digits of N and let S2 be the sum of the digits of N. Shortly after I graduated with my Ph.D. and got in Find S1/S2. Your answer should always be 22. We the real world I wrote a small paper that was basi- are sorry for the confusion this caused you. cally on the Chinese Remainder Theorem. The pa- Interview with Willy Brandal, continued from Page 2 Page 3 per was pretty trivial, it proved some converses. As of, I’ve written some papers, I’ve worked with col- I wrote the paper I realized it was something of inter- leagues…Erol Barbut and I wrote a series of papers est. Of course, the Chinese Remainder Theorem was and a book together. Those are the things that make already well known so my paper never got pub- me happy. lished. You were not born in the US. What was your first ex- Has there been a particular teacher or professor perience in the US like? who has motivated you or that you have especially enjoyed? I was born in Denmark and in 1950, at the age of 8, we immigrated to the . Our first experi- The main person that motivated me was Eben Matlis, ences, obviously, were on a boat, sailing into New my thesis advisor. I liked the way he taught. He was York City harbor. Seeing the Statue of Liberty and very logical and organized. I was impressed by the the big sky scrapers, that was a real eye opener, entire structure of how he behaved and worked. For there’s nothing like that where I came from. We many years I tried to emulate just about everything lived outside New York City for a couple of years; I about him, but of course, eventually I realized I went to public school and didn’t know a word of Eng- couldn’t do it anymore and I gave up. Since then I’ve lish. I had the usual foreign “what’s going on here?” developed my own traits, but he was a good role feelings, but I think I adapted pretty well, pretty fast. model. I had several other faculty members, from Eventually we moved to Seattle and I consider that various mathematical areas, at the University of as the place where I mostly grew up. Washington and Northwestern that impressed me. You play chess at times. When did you get started? What made you decide to come to the ? During my sophomore year of high school I met a guy who ran a chess club. He became a real good I needed a job, badly. The job market was incredibly friend and he encouraged me to play. We had a city tight. I’d been at the University of Tennessee and chess league and I ended up starting to play tourna- was not given tenure so I had to find another job. I ment chess and it was a lot of fun. I enjoyed the received a phone call from Professor Bobisud and competitiveness and I won a few things. I was he offered me a job over the phone. Even though I Washington State Junior Champion for two years. grew up in Seattle I had no idea where the University Playing tournament chess was a way of getting out, of Idaho was located, but the job offer sounded good experiencing things, and learning about what life to me and I said yes. I like the University of Idaho was like. After about my sophomore year in college I and am happy that I came here. realized that to be much better at chess I would have to devote a huge amount of time. I also realized that What courses do you enjoy teaching? going to college and studying chess couldn’t both be done, so I gave up chess during that year. I like to teach a variety of courses. I like to teach a little bit of everything, some graduate courses, some Did you play a tournament that was in a prison? freshmen level courses, some upper division courses. I have taught a large variety of courses. Yes, I did play there once. We had a league in the You name it and I’ve probably taught it, and I enjoy greater Seattle area and there was a prison just out- teaching just about everything. I don’t want to be side of Tacoma, McNeil Island Federal Penitentiary. bogged down with teaching the same thing every se- That prison had a team in our chess league and be- mester. cause they couldn’t leave to come play us in our town, we had to go there. That penitentiary held What achievements at the University are you most some pretty famous people. It was kind of exciting proud of? going there.

I take pleasure in the whole job as a professor of What are your goals for the next few years? Mathematics. I like doing research, teaching, pro- viding service, everything involved in helping to Currently I am expecting to retire in June of 2007, keep the department running, and pretty much eve- but that could change. If I do retire then that gives rything else. I enjoy working with PhD students. A me about three and a half years to go. I would like to few years ago I worked with Allen Bailey and I am see Tim Sprano finish his thesis and receive his doc- currently working with Tim Sprano. Being a major torate before I retire. Overall, I like the students professor for a PhD student is an exciting experi- here, I enjoy teaching, I would like to do more re- ence. Being a Mathematics professor is just an all- search, I want to try to get the book that I’m working around great job. There is a lot of variety. Over the on right now published. Basically, I want to do more years I’ve written a few books that I’m pretty proud of what I’ve been doing. Scholarship Information Page 4

Several scholarships are available to mathematics majors; all are based on merit. The Taylor, Botsford, Wang and Hower scholarships are awarded to mathematics majors entering their junior or senior year. Total awards for these scholarships are $500, $1500, and $2500. The Mathematics Department Scholarship has no class restrictions. All mathematics majors are automatically considered for a scholarship. Non-mathematics majors are eligible if they change their major to Mathematics or add mathematics as a second major. The se- lection is made by the faculty of the department in March.

Mathematics Ya Yen Wang J. Lawrence Botsford Linn Hower Honor Department Memorial Scholarship Scholarship Scholarship Scholarship This scholarship was es- This scholarship was es- This scholarship is sup- A long-time member of tablished by the family tablished in 1991 by Mil- ported by annual contri- the Mathematics faculty, of J. Lawrence Botsford dred and Loyal L. butions of friends of the Ya Yen Wang died in who was a member of Hower, parents of Linn department and is January of 1995. Acting the department from Hower, who graduated awarded primarily to on her wishes, her fam- 1949 until his retirement from the University of freshman and sopho- ily established the Ya in 1970. He also served Idaho in 1979 with a B.S. more mathematics ma- Yen Wang Memorial as head of the depart- In Mathematics. This jors. Scholarship. This schol- ment from 1950 to 1954. scholarship is awarded arship is intended for a This scholarship is to junior and senior ap- Melissa Curd, Tyler junior or senior in based on merit and is plied mathematics ma- Messervy, Terren Mus- Mathematics, preferably awarded to mathematics jors, preferably from ru- selwhite, Jakob Renz, to be awarded to a majors entering their ral Idaho, with a high po- and Angela Windley are woman. junior or senior year. tential for success in a this year’s recipients. mathematics or scien- Angela Windley is this Matthew Petersen is this tific field. year’s recipient. year’s recipient. Toney Jacobson is this year’s recipient.

Eugene and Osa Taylor Mathematics Graduate Student Mathematics Scholarship Assistance Scholarship

This scholarship was established in 1979 by the fam- This scholarship is based on merit and need and is ily and friends of the first head of the department, awarded to graduate students. It is dedicated to Eugene Taylor and his wife Osa. He directed the de- achieve our goal of placing our graduate program in partment from the time he came to the department the top 4 of Pacific Northwest schools. in 1920 until he retired in 1950. In 1981, his family donated many of his personal mathematics books to Elizabeth Cunningham is this year’s recipient. the University of Idaho library. This scholarship is based on merit and is awarded to mathematics ma- jors entering their junior or senior year. The recipi- ents of the Taylor Scholarship this year were:

Justin Boggs Jason Canaday Arash Deghan Brian Dorgan Michael Fernald Sean Haler Jesse Huso Toney Jacobson A wealth of information is just a click away... Tyrel Johnson Curtis King Peter Marcy Erik Mentze www.uidaho.edu/math David Nadler Matthew Petersen John Rush Fauna Samuel The website for the Mathematics Depart- Adam Suk Lynne Tower ment at the University of Idaho. Stacey Wilkins Senior News Page 5

MAY GRADUATION EMPLOYMENT GRADUATE SCHOOLS

A reception will be held for One of the bulletin boards out- Another bulletin board outside mathematics graduates and side the department office (300 the department office is de- their guests following the Col- Brink Hall) is devoted to job op- voted to graduate school post- lege of Science commencement portunities. Career Services’ ers. Your advisor also has more ceremony on Saturday, May 15, monthly list of campus inter- information that can help you. 2004. Last year, parents and views will be posted there along Your instructors can write let- guests of graduates enjoyed with other job information the ters of recommendation for you visiting with the faculty and department receives. You can that can be sent to each univer- other graduates. During this sign up at Career Services to sity to which you apply. Several semester we will request the schedule interviews with com- copies of a pamphlet listing as- addresses of your guests so panies interested in mathemat- sistantships and fellowships in that we may send them an invi- ics majors. Your instructors mathematics, statistics, and tation. We hope to see all can write letters of recommen- computer science in the U.S. graduates and their guests at dation for the Career Services are available. See Ralph Neu- the reception. files, and they can also write let- haus in Brink 302 for a copy. ters of recommendation to spe- cific employers.

Past Graduates

GREG SANFORD is working for the U.S. Navy’s rafting, , and snow shoeing. This year Board of Inspections and Survey. Their primary task he is President-Elect of the Wyoming Mathematical is to assess the material condition of the Navy’s Association of Two Year . He graduated ships and submarines. He earned a B.S. in Mathe- from UI in 1990 with a M.S. in Mathematics. matics from UI in 1972, an M.S. in Mechanical Engi- neering from the Naval Postgraduate School in Mon- PAUL SMITH has returned to teaching terey, California in 1983 and retired from the U.S. Mathematics at South Puget Sound Com- Navy as a Captain in 2002. munity College. For many years he had been teaching Computer Science there. BRAD DIRKS is now the Director of Actuarial Ser- He graduated from UI in 1976 with an M. vices at Schaller, Anderson, a consulting actuarial S. in Mathematics. firm in Phoenix, Arizona. He graduated from UI with a B.S. in Mathematics in 1992 and became an Asso- KEVIN HARRINGTON is managing a hedge fund in ciate of the Society of Actuaries in 1994. San Francisco, California. He graduated from UI in 1994 with a B.S. in Mathematics and Physics. NICK HAYES is in graduate school at Western Washington University in Bel- JOHN HARRINGTON received his M.D. degree from lingham, Washington as an MAT stu- Loma Linda University and is doing a residency in dent. He is student teaching at Belling- Surgery at Good Samaritan Hospital in Phoenix, Ari- ham High School. He graduated from zona. He graduated from UI in 1996 with a B.S. in UI with a B.S. in Mathematics in 2001. Mathematics and Chemistry.

BRANDY WIEGERS is in graduate school in Applied DIANA CORDWELL JOHNS recently became a mem- Mathematics at the University of California at Davis. ber of the UI Foundation. She graduated from UI She is working in a fluids research group modeling with a B.S. in Mathematics in 1977 and received her plant root growth. She graduated form UI in 2002 M.D. degree from the University of Nevada at Reno with a B.S. in Mathematics. in 1994. She resides in Idaho Falls.

CHARLES NEWBERG is chair of the Science and KIM VINCENT is now an Assistant Pro- Mathematics Department at Western Wyoming Com- fessor of Mathematics at Washington munity College in Rock Springs, Wyoming. In addi- State University. She received her M. tion to his duties in the Math Department, he teaches S. in Mathematics from UI in 1990. Page 6 Idaho Treasure Award Generations

On October 9th former Mathemat- ics professor Elna Grahn re- ceived the Idaho Treasure Award in recognition of her service to the University of Idaho. Created in 1995, the Idaho Treasure Award is given to retired faculty and staff to who have made sig- nificant achievements in service and leadership to the University of Idaho during their retirement years.

In her career, Elna taught mathematics at the high During this summer retired professor Gail Adele school, junior college, and university levels. She learned that during her teaching career at the Uni- was a founding member of the UI Retirees Associa- versity of Idaho she had taught 3 generations of stu- tion, is active in the League of Women Voters, and is dents within one family. an honorary life member of the American Associa- tion of University Women. Elna retired from UI in In 1976 Gail taught Dorothy Todd. A few years later 1969. Gail taught Dorothy’s son, Jerry Todd. And this past Congratulations Elna! Spring semester Aubrey Comstock, Dorothy’s granddaughter and Jerry’s daughter, was in Gail’s Math 302 course.

Math Web Sites

For all kinds of information about mathematics, mathe- matical careers, and graduate school opportunities, Request for Alumni News check out these websites:

1. www.maa.org/ (this is the website of the Mathe- We would like to hear from you! matical Association of America). Click on:

If you have some news or information about yourself • columns for interesting articles on mathematics. that you would like printed in the next math news, please e-mail your information to Jaclyn Gotch at • Read This for reviews of popular books on [email protected] or send it to: Department of mathematics Mathematics, University of Idaho, PO Box 441103, Moscow, ID 83844-1103. • Students for links to undergraduate and gradu- ate career opportunities Please include as much of the following as possible: • Name • Year you graduated from UI 2. www.ams.org (this is the website of the American • Degree and Major at UI Mathematical Society). • Current Occupation • News about yourself • Click on Careers and Education then on Under- • Comments, corrections, additions for newsletter graduate Student for information on Graduate schools and Research Experiences for Under- graduates. • There are also links for careers in Mathematics, Statistics, Actuarial Science, and Business.

Faculty and Staff News Page 7

STEVE KRONE attended the Ameri- DAVE THOMAS presented a paper can Society for Microbiology’s Con- on teaching geometry on the web at ference on Biofilms at Victoria, Brit- the 16th International Conference on ish Columbia in November. Technology in Collegiate Mathemat- ics at Rosemont, Illinois in November.

Local 4th through 8th grade students in the Palouse ZAID ABDO attended a meeting on Sta- will be introduced to robotics through activities at tistical Genetics at the University of their school and at the Palouse Discovery Science Washington in December. Center in Pullman. The activities will be exploratory; integrating the science, engineering, and mathemat- ics of robotics. The project is directed by DAVE DARREN KEARNEY resigned as Of- THOMAS with the assistance of faculty and students fice Specialist for the Math Depart- at UI and WSU and is funded by a grant from the Toy- ment and is now working as a Com- ota USA Foundation. puter Support Technician in the Col- lege of Law. FRANK GAO gave a talk on spherical volumes at the Small Deviation Prob- At the Project Kaleidoscope meeting lems Workshop at the Oberwolfach in Boulder, Colorado in November, Mathematical Institute in Germany in MONTE BOISEN, along with faculty October. from the University of Alabama, gave a talk about the Polya method of in- ROLAND FLEISSNER is the depart- struction. ment’s first Postdotoral Fellow. Ro- land is doing research on stochastic TONY SHASKA gave talks on alge- models for evolutionary biology with braic curves at the American Mathe- sequence alignment with Jack Sulli- matical Society Sectional Meeting at van in Biology and Paul Joyce. He is Chapel Hill, North Carolina in Octo- supported by a grant from the National Institutes of ber and at the Research Institution Health as part of the Initiative for Bioinformatics and for Symbolic Computation at Linz, Evolutionary Studies (IBEST). Roland received his Austria in December. M.S. from the University of Munich in 1997 and his Ph.D. this December from the Bioinformatics Insti- RALPH NEUHAUS attended the Annual Meeting of tute in Düsseldorf, Germany. the American Mathematical Society at Phoenix, Ari- zona in January.

Fall Picnic 2003

This year’s Math Department Fall Picnic was a huge success! It was held on campus in the Shattuck Amphi- theater and luckily we had wonderful weather for the evening.

Page 8

Department of Mathematics 300 Brink Hall PO Box 441103 Moscow, ID 83844-1103

Spring 2004

Prize Problems

Solve one of the four Prize Problems and 1. A nine digit number a1a2a3b1b2b3a1a2a3 is the you win a book!!! You can choose a book product of the squares of four distinct primes. about mathematics, the history of mathe- It is also known that the three digit number b1b2b3 is twice the three digit number a1a2a3 and matics, a collection of famous theorems, a that a1 ≠ 0. Find this nine digit number. collection of problems, specials topics, and so forth. Some problems may appear 2. Find all solutions to x3 + 2y3 = 4z3 that are in the hard or impossible. But all have a brief so- integers. lution if you approach them in the right way. Prizes will be awarded while supplies 3. Let n be a positive integer greater than 2. Some last. Show or send your written solution to of the terms of the sequence

Ralph Neuhaus. , , , . . . , Rules for participating:

1. You must be an undergraduate, an are fractions in lowest terms. Show that there alumnus, or an alumna. are always an even number of these fractions.

2. You must solve one of the problems. 4. Using the 9 positive digits one can form 9! 3x3 3. One prize per person. matrices. Find the sum of the determinants of all these matrices.