Southern California-Nevada Section to to Meet at Pomona College
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Volume XLVIII, Number 2 February 2007 Dates to Southern California-Nevada Section to Remember: to Meet at Pomona College Saturday, March 3 Rebecca Head, Section Chair Spring Meeting at Pomona College Fall 2006 Meeting. California State Spring 2007 Meeting. The spring meeting will take place at University, Long Beach was the perfect Pomona College on Saturday, March 3. Pomona College was Pre-registration location for the activities of the day. established in 1887, and is the founding member of The Clare- deadlines: Philip Straffin, of Beloit College, gave mont Colleges. Claremont is a charming town just 35 miles Mail-in: Monday, the first Invited Address titled, “Sona, east of Los Angeles. Bring your colleagues and students to this Feb. 26, 2007 Kolam and Celtic Knots: The Geome- meeting at one of the premier liberal arts colleges in America! Online: Tuesday, try of Mirror Curves.” Phil demon- Several captivating speak- Feb. 27, 5 p.m. strated the art of story-telling and simul- ers are scheduled for the Inside this issue: taneous curve drawing, then went on to spring meeting. Ami Student Poster The Students’ Column 2 Session deadline: explain the mathematical structure of Radunskaya will open the the Tshokwe sona designs and the de- meeting with her talk on News from New Orleans 3 Tuesday, Feb. 20 Spring Meeting signs of Celtic knots. It is apparent that “Noisy, Self limiting Section NExT Professor Straffin’s students have Growth.” Next on the Program 4-5 deadline: learned from him. He shared some schedule is the ever-popular Map and Directions 5 Friday, Feb. 23 beautiful student-created designs. The Student Poster Session. Spring Meeting Registration Contributed Paper Session had twenty- The afternoon speakers in- Information 7 Aug. 3-5, 2007 three participants and fifteen papers pre- clude Stan Wagon, who Section Officers Ballot 8 MathFest in sented during three concurrent sessions. will present some surprises San Jose, CA I had the pleasure of moderating Ses- from the 100-digit challenge, and Michael Starbird, who will Jan. 6-9, 2008 sion III, which included such topics as show how to make math fascinating for everyone. Finally, we Joint Mathematics the drama of Pythagoras Day, using will have a Math Digital Library presentation in which Robert Meetings in digital images as linear algebra exam- Baker and Gizem Karaali will show us how to find classroom San Diego, CA ples, probability in finite groups, and lessons, activities, projects, and mathlets online. statistical methods on aggregated data. The sessions were polished and gener- Becky Head, Donna Starr, ated interesting discussion. The gourmet luncheon and brief Rick business meeting were followed by another Invited Address. Brantley, and Stanley Benkoski, of West Valley College, gave his talk ti- Thomas Mieh tled, “Stranger in a Strange Land: Twenty-Five Years of Ap- from Bakers- plied Mathematics.” I was espe- field College cially fascinated by his descrip- enjoy the tion of the process used to find 2006 Fall the naval submarine, Scorpion. Meeting at Asuman Aksoy brought the Cal State meeting to a close with her ener- Long Beach. getic description of how “Metric Trees are Everywhere.” Thank Thank You. I am in the last stretch of my term as Section you to our Program Chair and Chair for 2006-07. The time went by quickly. I enjoyed work- Program Vice Chairs: George ing with all of the past and present board members, made many Jennings, Florence Newberger, new acquaintances, and learned a lot! The newsletter contains a and Perla Myers, for an impres- ballot so that you can cast your vote for new section officers. sive fall meeting. As you are casting your vote, consider that you may be nomi- nated in the future. Your experience as a board member will be Mario Martelli of Claremont-McKenna College introduces rewarding and fulfilling. When you see the board members at his colleague, Asuman Aksoy, winner of the Section’s 2006 the meetings, thank them for their energy and time. Distinguished Teaching Award, at the 2006 Fall Meeting. Page 2 So. Cal.-Nev. MAA Newsletter The Students’ Column Cynthia Wyels, Student Chapters Coordinator Wyels, Mathematics, CSU Channel Islands, One University Drive, Camarillo, CA 93012. Plan to attend the Spring 2007 Meeting March 3 at Pomona College! Southern California – Nevada Students Present Posters in New Orleans Get a group of students and faculty together from your school and attend the Spring 2007 Meeting – where else can you hear A record-breaking 25 students attending undergraduate institu- outstanding speakers, interact with enthusiastic poster present- tions in Southern California and Nevada traveled to New Or- ers, and have fun with mathematics all day? Better yet: pre- leans for the 2007 Joint Mathematics Meetings and presented sent a poster yourself! See the details below. Student regis- posters in the national MAA Undergraduate Poster Session tration for the Spring Meeting Saturday, April 8, 2006, at CSU Jan. 7. Congratulations to all the So Cal–Nevada students and San Bernardino is only $8, and lunch for students is only $12. their advisors: we hope to see your work at Pomona College See the registration form on page 7 of this newsletter. Pre- on March 3! (Prize winners are indicated with an asterisk.) senting a poster earns you free registration and lunch at the Taijiro I Bernstein, CSU San Bernardino meeting, as well as a free one-year MAA membership and Victor H. Camacho, Harvey Mudd College journal subscription. Jay Daigle, Pomona College Student Poster Session at Spring 2007 Meeting Veselka Danova, Cal Poly Pomona Christopher Duran, CSU San Bernardino Begin preparing a poster NOW for the Spring Meeting at Christina M. Fernandez, CSU Channel Islands Pomona College – abstracts are due February 20. The Student America Flores, CSU Channel Islands Poster Session has become a highlight of the Spring Meetings. M. Heald, Harvey Mudd College Posters may feature the results of any individual or group *Marie Jameson, Harvey Mudd College mathematics project, including: *Masanori Koyama, Harvey Mudd College - Results of honors, senior, or other projects; Michael Martinez, Wabash College and CSU Fullerton - Results of classroom projects or modeling contests; *Lisa Morales, Cal Poly Pomona/ GVSU REU - Results of REUs or other summer research programs; Esteban Adam Navas, UC Riverside - Historical investigations in pure or applied mathematics; Juan Pablo Ortiz, California Lutheran University - Solutions of problems from the Putnam Exam or from the Hernan Oscco, Cal Poly Pomona American Mathematical Monthly or other journals. Mary Therese Z. Padberg, Loyola Marymount University Sean Saint Michael Plott, Harvey Mudd College Past poster topics have included epidemological modeling, *Jacquelyn Rische, Whittier College scheduling issues, engineering problems, mathematical per- *Julie Siloti, Pomona College spectives on art, and investigations in combinatorics, number *Ruffin Swain, CSU Dominguez Hills theory, algebra, topology, and mathematics education. If you Johanna Waiyee Tam, Cal Poly Pomona don't already have a project in mind, ask one of your profes- George Tucker, Harvey Mudd College sors for a project to present. Besides the challenge of working Lynne Westfahl, Claremont McKenna College on the project, benefits to you include: Kamuela E. Yong, Loyola Marymount University - the opportunity to share your work with other students and Laura K. Zirbel, Loyola Marymount University with mathematicians from both academia and industry in a friendly environment; For the complete list of prize winners together with the titles - free meeting registration and free lunch; of their projects, their co-authors, and their advisors, see - free 1-year MAA membership, including a subscription to an http://www.maa.org/students/undergrad/07winners.html MAA journal (or a free MAA book if you are already an MAA member); And yet more mathematics… - the chance to win awards; PCUMC, the Pacific Coast Undergraduate Mathematics Con- - a great resume entry. st ference, will be held at Pepperdine University on March 31 , To submit a poster, send: 1) the name(s) of the poster crea- 2007. All levels of students interested in mathematics are in- tor(s), 2) the title, 3) a brief abstract, 4) the name of your insti- vited to give talks; invited speakers and two panels round out tution, 5) your class year (frosh, soph, junior, senior, masters the program. For more information, visit: student), 6) the name of your advisor(s), and 7) the e-mail ad- http://www.lclark.edu/~ncameron/PCUMC2/PCUMC.htm dress of the presenter who will receive and pass on communi- cations. Submission deadline: Tuesday, February 20, 2007. Finally, there are likely to be seminars, colloquia, and student Electronic submission preferred. Put “student poster” some- presentations occurring right on your own campus: find out where in the subject header of your e-mail. Send to Prof. where notices are posted, listen to those in-class announce- Cindy Wyels via [email protected] or (via mail) to Dr. ments, and ask your faculty what’s going on. So. Cal.-Nev. MAA Newsletter Page 3 News of the Southern California-Nevada Section Governor’s Report Southern California-Nevada Mathematicians Are Big Presence in Big Easy Art Benjamin, Section Governor Janet Beery, Newsletter Editor This is my last report to you as Governor of this section. Soon you will be electing a new governor, Magnhild Lien or Ken MAA Southern California-Nevada Section members won Millett, either of whom will do an excellent job representing awards, conducted minicourses, organized sessions, and gave our section. talks at the Joint Mathematics Meetings held January 5-8, 2007, in New Orleans. Jennifer Quinn (pictured at left with Art Much has happened over the last Benjamin), formerly of Occidental College and now executive three years. We held our first sec- director of the Association for Women in Mathematics, was one tion meeting in Las Vegas, which of three winners of this year’s MAA Deborah and Franklin was a joyous two-day affair.