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MAA FOCUS Staff Editor: Ivars Peterson, Ipeterson@Maa.Org Managing Editor: Lois M 0$$)2&86 NEWSMAGAZINE OF THE MATHEMATICAL ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA, VOL. 34, NO. 5, OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2014 Honoring Martin Gardner Make the MOOC Work for You Come to JMM 0$$)2&86is published by the Mathematical Association of America in February/March, April/May, June/July, August/September, October/November, and December/January. Advertising inquiries: [email protected] MAA FOCUS Staff Editor: Ivars Peterson, [email protected] Managing Editor: Lois M. Baron, [email protected] Art Director: Lois M. Baron, [email protected] Writer: Katharine Merow, [email protected] MAA Officers President: Robert L. Devaney President-Elect: Francis Edward Su First Vice President: Jenna Carpenter Second Vice President: Karen Saxe Secretary: Barbara T. Faires Treasurer: Jim Daniel Executive Director Michael Pearson MAA FOCUS Editorial Board Donald J. Albers, Janet L. Beery, David M. Bressoud, Susan J. Colley, Brie Finegold, Joseph A. Gallian, Jacqueline B. Giles, Fernando Q. Gouvêa, Jacqueline A. Jensen, Colm Mulcahy, Adriana J. Salerno, Amy Shell-Gellasch, Francis E. Su, Laura Taalman, Gerard A. Venema Letters to the editor should be addressed to Ivars Peterson, Mathematical Association of America, 1529 18th Street, NW, Washington, DC 20036, or by email to [email protected]. Subscription and membership questions should be directed to the MAA Customer Service Center, 800-331-1622; email: [email protected]; 301-617-7800 (outside U.S. and Canada); fax: 301-206-9789. MAA Headquarters: 202-387- 5200. Copyright © 2014 by the Mathematical As- sociation of America (Incorporated). Educational institutions may reproduce articles for their own use, but not for sale, provided the follow- ing citation is used: “Reprinted with permission of MAA FOCUS, the newsmagazine of the Mathemati- cal Association of America.” When you order on maa-store.hostedbywebstore.com, Periodicals postage paid at Washington, D.C., and use the discount code BMEMB4R4 additional mailing offices. Postmaster: Send address to receive your changes to MAA FOCUS, Mathematical Association MAA member discount. of America, P.O. Box 90973, Washington, DC 20090- 0973. ISSN: 0731-2040 (print). ISSN 2161-704X (online). Printed in the United States of America. 0$$)2&86 NEWSMAGAZINE OF THE MATHEMATICAL ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA v VOL. 34, NO. 5 v OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2014 Features MAA MathFest 2014 Portland Comes Up Roses . 4 Rare Double Win for Writer . 6 Teaching Award Winners . 8 Report of the MAA Secretary . 10 Honoring a Century of Martin Gardner . 12 Ivars Peterson Make the MOOC Work for You . 14 Katharine Merow Aparna Higgins: An Appreciation . 16 Joe Gallian Project NExT Terms End for Covington and Schlicker . 17 Aparna Higgins and Gavin LaRose How You Can Make a Difference . 19 29 Joint Mathematics Meetings . 32 San Antonio, Texas January 10–13, 2015 About the CoverDepartments News 21 MAA Section Meetings 20 November Monthly Showcases 25 MAA Books Beat | Steve Kennedy Mathematical Biology Stories at the Heart of Teaching 20 Call for Suggestions for Mary P. 26 Archives Spotlight | Carol Mead Dolciani Award Mysteries: Answers, Corrections, 22 Team USA Takes Second in and New Questions Cape Town 27 Dear MAA | 29 Online Journal Convergence Willing to Volunteer Celebrates 10 Years 31 Puzzle Page | Laura Taalman, Editor Martin Gardner, JPBM video, 1994. Dice Letter Puzzles On this page: Geometric definitions from by Phillip Poplin the first printed edition of Euclid’sElements in 1485 (Convergence, August 2012) (Source: Beinecke Library, Yale University). 4 MAA MathFest 2014: Portland Comes Up Roses By Ivars Peterson ortland, awash in summer sunshine, welcomed more presented throughout the meeting, on topics ranging Pthan 1,650 mathematicians to the Oregon city’s from mathematical models of the retina to undergradu- bridges, fountains, coffee shops, bookstores, and more. It ate research, gave attendees much to ponder and pass on was the largest attendance ever at MAA MathFest, shat- to others. tering the record set in 2010 in Pittsburgh. One highlight of the MAA prize session was the pre- For many attendees, the meeting started on Wednes- sentation of two writing awards to Susan H. Marshall day evening with the gala opening reception in the (Monmouth University) as coauthor of a winning paper exhibit hall. For others, it began on the following day in Mathematics Magazine (“Feedback, Control, and with a bracing early-morning walk or group run along Distribution of Prime Numbers”) and another in the Portland’s scenic riverfront, part of the three-day well- American Mathematical Monthly (“Heronian Tetrahe- ness strand sponsored by Pearson. Some, however, dra Are Lattice Tetrahedra”) (see p. 6). A well-attended had arrived even earlier in the week, to participate in panel session later in the meeting gave all the editors of meetings of the MAA Executive Committee and Board MAA journals and magazines a chance to describe what of Governors or special sessions for the 82 new Project it takes to get published in their periodicals. NExT fellows. This MathFest featured the debut of a new sort of A large crowd greeted Keith Devlin (Stanford Univer- competition, the Estimathon, orchestrated by Andy sity), who led off the invited addresses with an impas- Niedermaier (Jane Street Capital). Attendees organized sioned argument for designing video games to enable themselves into teams, then attempted to come up with mathematical learning. The three Earle Raymond answers to a series of estimation questions, giving a Hedrick lectures on undecidability, presented by Bjorn number and range for each one. Example: Estimate the Poonen (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), also at- number of coffee shops in Portland, Oregon. Target an- tracted considerable attention and much corridor chat- swer: 1,426. Despite a complicated scoring scheme (and ter afterward. Indeed, the entire suite of invited lectures a ban on the use of any technological aids), participants Above: The closing banquet. Middle, top: Two of the record attendees chat in the exhibit hall. Middle, bottom: James Tanton and Bud Brown. Right: Informal discussions. PHOTOS: L. McHUGH. 0$$)2&86v2FWREHU1RYHPEHUvPDDRUJSXEVIRFXVKWPO 5 enjoyed the contest, quickly becoming engrossed in the challenges of making estimates in unfamiliar settings, mathematical or otherwise. Anniversaries played a prominent part in Math- Fest proceedings. Pi Mu Epsilon, the national honor society for undergraduate students, celebrated its 100th anniversary starting with a student reception featuring temporary PME tattoos and Portland’s famous Voodoo doughnuts. In the Jean Bee Chan and Peter Stanek lecture for students, Jack Graver (Syracuse University) spoke about the founding of Pi Mu Epsilon. Keith Devlin presented the J. Sutherland Frame lecture after the PME ban- quet, which included singing the PME centennial anthem. An exhibit hall booth called attention to the 100th anniversary of the birth of math popularizer Martin Gardner. Visitors to the booth could try some fiendish puzzles or collect a listing of the top 10 things to know about Martin Gardner—fashioned into a Möbius strip. In a special public lecture, Persi Diaconis (Stanford University) reminisced about his longstanding relationship and correspondence with Gardner. Fittingly, the closing banquet was also about anniversaries. Walter Stromquist, editor of Math- ematics Magazine, and Dan Kemp (South Dakota State University) were recognized for reaching the 50-year mark as MAA members, as were the many others present who had been members for 25 years or more. This sets the stage for 2015, the centennial of the MAA itself, highlighted by a special edition of MathFest in Washington, D.C., with a full extra day of sessions and events. I hope you’ll be there for the festivities. Ivars Peterson is MAA publications director. PDDRUJSXEVIRFXVKWPOv2FWREHU1RYHPEHUv0$$)2&86 6 Rare Double Win for Writer t’s impressive to win an MAA prize for writing an ar- also gives readers a lively introduction to the theory of Iticle. To win two in the same year makes people blink. feedback and control. MAA President Bob Devaney acknowledged the ac- “In this engrossing article,” reads the award citation, complishment by saying, “And yes, this is Susan’s second “descriptions and arguments are interspersed with his- award of the day” when he called Susan Marshall up for tory, which serves to round out a satisfying tour through the second time at the MAA MathFest prize session. both prime density and mathematical modeling.” Marshall won the Carl B. Allendoerfer Award and the Marshall’s other prize-winning paper also has an inter- Paul R. Halmos–Lester R. Ford Award. She had different esting backstory. Marshall went to graduate school with coauthors for each winning article. both her husband, David, and Louisiana State mathema- Marshall won the Allendoerfer Award, bestowed upon tician Alexander Perlis. At a 2010 get-together the three authors of articles of expository excellence published talked about a 2001 result, written up in the Monthly, in Mathematics Magazine, for a paper she coauthored about Heronian triangles. Heronian triangles are those with Monmouth University colleague Donald Smith. In whose side lengths and area are integers. Marshall and “Feedback, Control, and Distribution of Prime Num- Perlis thought they could generalize the 2001 result to bers” (Mathematics Magazine. 86, no. 3 [June 2013]: three dimensions, and they set to work. 189–203; KWWSELWO\=J.7*Q), the pair applies the The resulting paper, “Heronian Tetrahedra Are Lattice mathematical modeling technique of feedback and con- Tetrahedra” (American Mathematical Monthly 120, no. trol to the number-theoretic mystery of how the primes 2 [February 2013]: 140–149; KWWSELWO\U*%2J0) are distributed. won the Paul R. Halmos–Lester R. Ford Award, which The authors’ collaboration began when they served recognizes articles of expository excellence published in on a search committee together and Smith, a professor the Monthly. of business whose training is in operations research, “Thank you again to the MAA,” said Marshall upon mentioned to Marshall, a number theorist, a differential accepting the award. “And I just want to say this is espe- equation that seemed to model the density of primes.
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