University of Michigan Department of Mathematics ContinuUM NEWSLETTER • 2014 Department Awarded for View from the Chair’s Offi ce Undergraduate Program Mel Hochster The Department of Mathematics has received the 2014 As I stated last year, this continues to be a time of many Departmental Award for Outstanding Contributions to Under- transitions at the University. The Department experienced a graduate Education from the College of LSA. The selection devastating loss when Curtis Huntington passed away last Oc- committee was impressed with the educational excellence, tober after more than three years of battling cancer. He con- spirit of innovation, and strong commitment to good advising tinued his service to the department until the last week of his in the Department, as well as the ability of the Department life, and it is hard to imagine how anyone might be more de- to create community among majors through sponsorship of voted than Curtis. Kristen Moore and Roger Natarajan stepped clubs, the Math T-shirts, publication of a weekly “missive,” in to assume Curtis’s responsibilities in connection with the and other activities. The Math Department has a strong com- Financial and Actuarial Mathematics Program. But Curtis was mitment to innovation for the sake of improved undergraduate also Associate Chair for Education. Joe Conlon took over that learning, and for the sake of giving undergraduates positive position, while Mattias Jonsson assumed Joe’s duties as As- experiences in a subject that is often looked at with dread sociate Chair for Term Faculty. People came from all over the rather than interest and excitement. world to attend the Memorial for Curtis last April. A write up Nearly a quarter century ago, as part of the university on Curtis is on page 10. wide Undergraduate Initiative, the Mathematics Department Everyone among our faculty and staff stepped up to help completely reformed its Introductory Calculus Program. In the the Department through a very diffi cult time, and I am deeply spirit of the Undergraduate Initiative, these changes included grateful. I have never felt more strongly that this Depart- smaller class sizes, an interactive, collaborative learning envi- ment—faculty, staff, and students—functions like a family, ronment, and a focus on problem solving. Concomitant with and I am most thankful to have spent my career in this ex- these initiatives, the Department developed an extensive, and traordinary environment. widely copied, training program for the instructors in the in- There is one transition that did not occur: I agreed to con- troductory program. These activities earned the Department tinue as chair for a fi nal three year term, which I am starting this same award in 1994. now. Part of the reason for my willingness to continue has During the intervening years, the Mathematics Department been the fl exibility that the College has shown in allowing us has worked to extend these successes to its entire undergradu- to hire outstanding faculty even when we do not have an open ate program. The results of these efforts are quite astonishing; position, a refl ection of the College’s continuing dedication for example, the department has experienced a more than to maintaining a preeminent faculty. At higher levels of ad- three-fold increase in the number of majors (more than 225 ministration a great deal has happened both in the University math majors graduated in academic year 2012–the 8th largest and the College. Mary Sue Coleman has stepped down and continued on page 7 the University has Inside a new president: View from the Chair’s Offi ce 1 Mark Schlissel. The Undergrad Program Award 1 search for a new Faculty Recognition 2 Dean of the College Entrain App 3 of Literature, Sci- New Faculty 4-6 ence and the Arts is MMSS 7 over, and Professor Graduate Program 8-9 Andrew Martin, a Huntington Obituary 10 renowned scholar Actuarial Program News 11 in the areas of judi- Undergraduate Program 12-13 cial decision mak- Alumni News 14 ing and political Development News 14 methodology, joins Math T-shirts 15 Alumni Reply Form 16 A Math Club talk for undergraduates by Professor Jeff Lagarias draws a continued on page 6 large crowd to the Nesbitt Undergraduate Common Room. UM DEPARTMENT OF MATHEMATICS CONTINUUM 2014 Faculty Recognition Collegiate Professor Charlie Doering received a 2014 Jeffrey Lagarias has been chosen as Professor Yongbin Ruan has been Simons Fellowship from the Simons a 2014 Fellow of the Society for Indus- named the William Fulton Collegiate Foundation. The fellowship provides trial and Applied Mathematics. Fellows Professor of Mathematics. Ruan re- funds to faculty for up to a semester are nominated and recognized for their ceived his Ph.D. in 1991 from the long research leave in order to pursue outstanding contributions to the fi elds University of California, Berkeley. He specifi c research opportunities. Doreing served by SIAM. came to UM in 2006 from the Univer- is recognized for his work in mathemati- Gavin LaRose was named the sity of Wisconsin, where he was the cal fl uid dynamics. Through this pres- recipient of the Deborah and Franklin Van Vleck Professor of Mathematics. tigious award, he will be researching Tepper Haimo Award from the MAA. Prior to that he held faculty positions the topic “Turbulence, Transport, and The award was presented at the 2014 at the University of Utah and at Michi- Mixing.” Joint Mathematics Meetings. The award gan State. He is a widely recognized Sergey Fomin was included in the honors college or university teachers researcher in the area of symplectic report by Thompson Reuters entitled who have been widely recognized as geometry, in particular the development “The World’s Most Infl uential Scien- extraordinarily successful and whose of Gromov-Witten invariants. These tifi c Minds, 2014.” More than 3200 teaching effectiveness has been shown invariants have become a mainstay in researchers worldwide are on the list, to have had infl uence beyond their own symplectic topology and gauge theory. which ranks an individual’s impact institutions. Ruan has also worked on signifi cant based on a survey of highly cited papers discoveries in the area of quantum co- Mircea Mustata presented an in- homology. His infl uential joint work on between 2002-2012. Fomin is one of 99 vited lecture entitled “The dimension of mathematicians included in the report. the cohomology of orbifolds has become jet schemes of singular varieties” at the known as the “Ruan Cohomology.” Anna Gilbert presented an invited 2014 International Congress of Math- lecture entitled “Sparce Analysis” at the ematicians. Ruan’s work has been recognized with a number of major international 2014 International Congress of Math- Kartik Prasanna received a 2014 ematicians. honors and awards. He was an invited Simons Fellowship from the Simons speaker at the 1998 International Con- Lizhen Ji received a 2014 Simons Foundation. The fel- gress of Mathematicians in Berlin, and Fellowship lowship provides in 2006 he was appointed a Clay Senior from the Si- funds to faculty Scholar. Ruan delivered a plenary lec- mons Foun- for up to a semes- ture at a regional AMS meeting in 2001, dation. The ter long research and he won research awards from the fellowship pro- leave from in order University of Wisconsin and National vides funds to to pursue specifi c Natural Science Foundation of China. faculty for up research opportu- to a semester nities. Prasanna Selfl essly devoted to the develop- long research will study number ment of young mathematicians, Ruan leave in or- theory, specifi cally Bloch-Beilinson has been remarkably successful in der to pursue conjectures that relate algebraic cycles mentoring Ph. D. students and postdocs. specifi c research opportunities. Ji will to L-functions, at the Institute for Ad- Several of his students have already use the time to work on books about vanced Study in Princeton. made fundamental contributions to the fi eld. He has also been extremely active Lie groups, discrete subgroups of Lie Karen Smith presented an invited groups, and associated locally symmet- in organizing conferences and work- lecture entitled “Local and global Frobe- shops, both at Michigan and externally, ric spaces, and work with colleagues in nius splitting” at the 2014 International China and Europe. and he runs a very active seminar in the Congress of Mathematicians. Department on geometry and physics. Ruan has chosen to name his pro- fessorship after his colleague, Distin- ContinuUM Editorial Board: Photos by UM Photo Services, the guished University Professor William Mel Hochster, Chair Department of Mathematics, Suzanne H. Rogers, Editor Danielle Ziaja, or submitted by the subjects. Fulton, a pioneer in the fi eld of algebraic Stephen DeBacker geometry. Doreen Fussman Kristen Moore Roger Natarajan www.lsa.umich.edu/math 2 CONTINUUM 2014 There’s an App for That Professor Danny Forger recently developed and released ness depending on the itinerary. The schedules boil down to a jet-lag mobile app which provides shortcuts that can help one block of time each day when you should seek the bright- travelers snap their internal clocks to new time zones as ef- est light possible and another when you should put yourself fi ciently as possible. “Overcoming jet lag is fundamentally a in the dark, or at least in dim light. You don’t even have to be math problem and we’ve calculated the optimal way of doing asleep. it,” said Forger. “We’re certainly not the fi rst people to offer The study, published in advice about this, but our predictions show the best and quick- Public Library of Science est ways to adjust across time zones.” Computational Biology, relies The iPhone app, called Entrain, is believed to be the fi rst to on two leading mathematical take a numbers-based approach to “entrainment,” the scientifi c models that have been shown term for synchronizing circadian rhythms with the outside to accurately describe human hour.