Math Times Department of Mathematics, Fall 2007 Sullivans fund mathematics chair in appreciation for education by Robin Fossum, Senior Regional Director, University of Illinois Foundation new chair in the Department of While at Tennessee, she met her future Mathematics will be established husband, Bruce. dueA to the generosity of University of Nancy and Bruce spent most Illinois alum Nancy Koerner Sullivan of their careers in Houston, Texas, and her husband John ‘Bruce’ Sullivan where Bruce was a pharmaceutical of Las Vegas, Nevada. This prestigious representative and Nancy used named chair will be filled by attracting her academic skills first with Dow a mathematician of the highest caliber Chemical and later retired as a test to the University of Illinois, bringing specialist with Accenture. Following honor to the department and university, their retirement, Nancy and Bruce and providing a huge boost to our moved to Las Vegas, Nevada, where research program and the training of they purchased a home on a golf our students. The Sullivan Chair is course. Bruce enjoys golfing several the first such endowed chair for the days a week and Nancy is fully department. enjoying her retirement with Bruce Nancy is originally from Illinois and their little four-legged friend, Tex. where she grew up in Park Ridge. Her The Sullivans made a careful father was a local butcher who, with Nancy and Bruce Sullivan establish the decision while deciding their estate their mother, encouraged all three Sullivan Chair in mathematics. plans. Both felt that their respective of their daughters to continue their educations added much to their future education at a university. As it turned careers, and it was decided to divide out, all three of the Koerner daughters were accepted and their estate between both Illinois and Tennessee. The attended Illinois at the Urbana-Champaign campus. Nancy department and the university are grateful to the Sullivans graduated from Illinois in 1970 with a Bachelor of Science for this tremendous deferred commitment and look forward in LAS/Teaching of Mathematics. Following graduation to having them visit Altgeld Hall many times in the future. she went to the University of Tennessee–Knoxville where Thank you Nancy and Bruce! she received her Master of Science in Computer Science. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Miles named new director of undergraduate studies oseph Miles is the department’s new Director of Undergraduate Studies, taking over from Randy McCarthy in August 2007. Miles received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Illinois inJ 1963, majoring in mathematics and chemistry, and a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin in 1968. He joined the U of I Department of Mathematics in 1969. Miles says, “A lot has changed in undergraduate mathematics education here since my days as a student. Then most freshmen began with a five-hour course in analytic geometry, which we have now boiled down to about two lectures in second semester calculus, and in-state students were paying tuition of seventy-five dollars a semester. On the other hand, I took Math 346, my first course in complex variables, out of Churchill’s book in 1961, and today we use the seventh edition of the same book in the same course, which we now call Math 446.” This is an exciting time in undergraduate education in our department, with significant recent changes in our calculus sequence and our honors program, with The Math Times is published major changes in our linear algebra offerings to be implemented this year, and twice a year by the Department of with increasingly active student organizations such as MATRIX. Miles invites old Mathematics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The friends and new friends to stop by the Undergraduate Office in 313 Altgeld Hall Math Times is available via the web for a visit and to share thoughts about further improvement of our undergraduate in pdf and html format at program. www.math.uiuc.edu/mathtimes/. Tori Corkery is the editor of The Math Times, assisted by Sara Nelson. Wetzel and Jerrard receive Pólya Award Address corrections and changes John E. Wetzel and Richard Jerrard (professors emeriti of the U of I Department should be sent to: of Mathematics), the late Joel Schneider, and Ralph Smallberg received a 2007 George Pólya Award given for articles of expository excellence published in the The Math Times c/o Tori Corkery College Mathematics Journal. Department of Mathematics Their winning article was “Straw in a Box,” College Math. J. 37, no. 2 (2006) University of Illinois 263 Altgeld Hall 93-102. According to the citation from the Mathematical Association of America 1409 W. Green Street (MAA), “The authors lead us through the many geometric, algebraic, numerical and Urbana, IL 61801 computational twists and turns seeking a more accurate solution to an ambiguously worded multiple choice question on the New York Board of Regents exam that asks for the longest straw that could fit into a 3 inch by 4 inch by 8 inch box.” Sheldon Katz, Chair The Pólya Award, established in 1976 by the MAA, is named after the renowned Department of Mathematics teacher and writer George Pólya. 273 Altgeld Hall (MC-382) 1409 W. Green Street Urbana, IL 61801 Telephone: 217-333-3350 Fax: 217-333-9576 Email: [email protected] Website: www.math.uiuc.edu From the department chair Greetings to alumni and friends of the Department of Mathematics! We’ve received an enthusiastic response to the new format of Math Times. Please keep in touch and continue to tell us what you’ve been doing. We’ll keep you connected with current news about the Department of Mathematics at the University of Illinois and provide articles of interest. The current issue contains a focus on private support and its importance to the department. Thanks to the generosity of our benefactors, we have recently added several new endowments which will be used to support named chairs, professorships, scholarships, and fellowships, supplementing our existing complement of valued endowments. Some of these are described in this issue, along with other news about exciting departmental activities. I am very proud of our faculty, students, staff, and alumni, who together make the math department a vital place! Sheldon Katz Department of Mathematics 2 Fall 2007 First recipients chosen for Lackner Fellowship, Scholarship The Department of Mathematics is excited to in mathematics. Now in her fifth semester at Illinois, announce the Dr. Lois M. Lackner Mathematics Fellowship Melissa has a GPA in math courses of 3.79 and an all- and the Dr. Lois M. Lackner Mathematics Scholarship. campus GPA of 3.88. Support for the fellowship and scholarship are provided The scholarship and fellowship were made possible by by the Lois M. Lackner Fund for Female Students in a generous gift from Dr. Lois Lackner-Strong. The Office Mathematics, which gives preference to female students of of the Provost of the University of Illinois has provided Czechoslovakian descent. matching support for the Dr. Lois M. Lackner Mathematics The graduate fellowship of more than $12,500 will Fellowship and the Department of Mathematics is be used to support deserving students whose studies and providing additional support for the Dr. Lois M. Lackner research will benefit from this appointment. The first Mathematics Scholarship. Lackner Fellow has recently been selected: Ida Svejdarova. Dr. Lackner-Strong holds three degrees from the The fellowship will allow her to spend more time on University of Illinois: a 1957 B.S. and 1958 M.S. in the research in the area of combinatorics, finish her Ph.D. teaching of mathematics and a 1968 Ph.D. in education. program sooner, and give her more freedom to attend Dr. Lackner-Strong lives with her husband, Donald Strong, conferences. Since she will be relieved of her duties as a in Sun City, Arizona. The couple is very active and enjoy teaching assistant, the department will be able to provide pistol target shooting. Mr. Strong is an expert marksman assistantships to additional students who would not and teaches firearm safety. Dr. Lackner-Strong has been a otherwise have received them. member of the renowned Sun City Poms since 2000 and The first undergraduate scholarship recipient has currently serves as director of the group. The Poms are also been selected: Melissa Schwerha. She will receive a an acrobatic dance group of senior ladies that do splits, $1,000 scholarship. Melissa is a junior math major and an headstands, pyramids, leg lifts and angels. outstanding member of the secondary education program Collaboration tying elliptic cohomology and string theory by Matthew Ando, Associate Professor he Department of Mathematics at Illinois has a long interaction between elliptic cohomology and the physics of tradition at the forefront of research in topology. For string theory. In the intervening twenty years, there have example,T the department has recently received a three-year, been huge advances in both elliptic cohomology and string $440,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to theory. Ando and Sharpe will use their respective expertise support a research project on “elliptic cohomology,” led by in mathematics and physics to come to a better understanding topologist Professor Matthew Ando and physicist Professor of the relationship between elliptic cohomology and string Eric Sharpe at Virginia Tech. theory. The guiding idea of algebraic topology is to connect Ando and Sharpe met when Sharpe was a postdoc in the problems in topology to problems in other areas of Mathematics and Physics Departments at Illinois, working mathematics. Exploring such relationships typically sheds with Professor Sheldon Katz. The wealth of activity which light both on topology and on the mathematics to which it is makes such encounters possible is an important feature of the connected.