ContinuUM Newsletter of the Department of Mathematics at the University of Michigan 2008 View from the Mel Hochster Named Chair's Office New Chair Tony Bloch This has been a busy year for the Department of Mathemat- It is exciting for me to have the chance to serve as Chair of ics. The year was mostly upbeat and filled with interesting math- the Department of Mathematics. ematical occasions. Unfortunately, however, we were saddened In his column, Tony Bloch has spoken of the passing of our by the tragic loss of our esteemed colleague and good friend, colleagues, Juha Heinonen and Wilfred Kaplan. Wiflred contrib- Juha Heinonen, and we mourn the passing of our much loved and uted so much to the admired emeritus professor, Wilfred Kaplan. Department for such During this past academic year we had 21 visiting scholars a long time that it is and faculty members playing an active role within the Depart- hard to imagine be- ment, and more than 160 short-term visitors. In addition, our own ing without him. faculty members presented numerous lectures at venues through- The unexpected out the USA and all over the world. loss of Juha Heino- We had an excellent colloquium series. We also enjoyed two nen this past year superb lecture series, one on Hyperbolic Dynamics by Curt Mc- was a tremendous Mullen and the other on Complex Manifolds by Gang Tian. In shock. He was an addition, our Department members organized numerous confer- amazing man, both ences on various subjects, including a wonderful conference in a renowned math- honor of Juha Heinonen. An exciting conference in honor of the ematician and a 65th birthday of Mel Hochster, our new Department Chair, was wonderful friend. He held in August. personified what it We have a remarkable faculty who continue to be recognized means to lead a bal- both internally and externally. The Math Department has 62 anced life. He will regular tenured/tenure-track members, 5 non-tenure-track mem- be greatly missed bers, and 53 three-year post-graduate positions. We are pleased and long remem- to have hired Professor Roman Vershynin who joined us from bered. UC Davis. Tony has described several of the more upbeat events of the One measure of our excellence is that our faculty members year. Here, I want to look to the future and describe some of the currently hold more than 91 federal grants for their research. things that will be happening over the course of the next three Several of our faculty have received distinguished honors, the years. details of which can be found on page 4. Hy Bass was named a We expect to be doing a significant amount of hiring. There Distinguished University Professor, the highest honor bestowed has been a terrific, albeit unwelcome, testimonial to the quality upon faculty by the UM. We are proud that the Department now of our faculty: many of them have gotten very good offers from boasts two such professorships. As a result of the strength of our other excellent mathematics departments. We have managed to faculty, we continue to face intense outside pressure in the form retain a strong majority of those receiving such offers, but we of external recruitment attempts. I am happy to report that we have also had some losses. We anticipate being able to make a continue to succeed in retaining most of our excellent faculty. substantial number of faculty appointments at the tenure-track Our student body this year comprises 143 graduate students and tenured levels. Rob Lazarsfeld has taken over from Sasha and approximately 415 math concentrators. In the fall 2007 term Barvinok as Chair of the Personnel Committee. I want to thank 7,353 students were enrolled in math courses. In the winter term both of them: Sasha for the work he has done over the previous there were 5,298 such students. We graduated 133 undergraduate two years, and Rob for his willingness to take over. math majors this year, and 31 new graduate students will be start- Dick Canary will be replacing me as Associate Chair for Term ing their degrees in the fall of 2008. There are many outstanding Faculty and Andreas Blass will be replacing Peter Hinman as As- continued on page 2 continued on page 2 Notes from the Chair Mel Hochster the answer that I got was that Michigan is (continued from page 1) (continued from page 1) better. This is encouraging to hear, but I feel that we need to do a more systematic students, several of whom have won the sociate Chair for Regular Faculty. I want analysis. prizes which are awarded internally every to express my appreciation to all of them I am planning to make some changes year as detailed on pages 6, 7, and 9. for their willingness, past and future, to in our website. I would like to give ev- It goes without saying that we are take on these sizable jobs. eryone ever associated with the Mathe- very grateful to the valued alumni of our Our key administrator, Doreen Fuss- matics Department at any level, including Department, whose support has helped to man, served in Iraq this past year. We are current and former faculty, graduate and make our development and fund raising pleased that she has safely returned this undergraduate students, staff, and visi- efforts very successful. Through the gen- fall. Laura Hornbeck has done a great tors, as well as their families, the oppor- erosity of our alumni, faculty, emeritus job filling in, and all of our staff deserve tunity to have some space on our website faculty and Juha’s many friends and col- high praise for stepping up during Do- to give contact information and, if they leagues, we were able to raise more than reen’s absence. wish, describe briefly what they are do- $50,000 for the Juha Heinonen Memorial We are due to have an External Re- ing now. This will enable people to keep Fund. The fund was established after view in March of 2009. A committee of in touch with friends who have been here Juha’s passing and will provide graduate distinguished mathematicians from other at some point in their careers whom they student support. This memorial is appro- institutions will give their advice about might lose track of otherwise. Computer priate given Juha’s dedication to young various aspects of Department opera- memory has become so inexpensive that mathematicians and his extensive men- tions. This review was postponed from I believe we can make such space avail- toring efforts. Our annual fund mailing last year, partly because of the transition able to anyone who is interested. to all alumni this year focused on funding in the Chair and partly so that Doreen I would also like web pages for for- for graduate student support. This was to would be here to help get ready for it. I mer faculty who have retired or passed take advantage of the President’s Initia- have asked the ADVANCE program to away to be maintained for a very substan- tive to match at a 50% ratio contributions do a climate survey for the Department as tial period of time, perhaps fifty years. to funds designated to support graduate part of the preparation for this review. students. Other fund raising allowed us Beyond that, I would like to think to continue our affiliation with the Inqui- Regular faculty, postdocs, staff, and about what information we might make ry Based Learning program, a program doctoral students will all have a chance available on our web page, possibly with which funds exciting new innovations in to voice their opinions about how the some limitations on access, that would teaching. Department operates and what we can do increase its availability to those with a to improve. legitimate interest. I would like to thank the faculty who served on the various Departmental com- During my term as Chair I would like In the course of preparing for the job mittees while I was Chair. Dick Canary, to do a thorough evaluation of our teach- of chairing this Department, I learned Joe Conlon, John Erik Fornæss, Juha ing of Calculus, and, more generally, of a great deal from working with Tony Heinonen, Peter Hinman, Mel Hochster, our Undergraduate Program. I believe Bloch. This was truly an education: I Curtis Huntington and Alejandro Uribe that we are doing an excellent job, but started with very little understanding of served as Associate Chairs. Sasha Barvi- it has been a considerable time since we the magnitude of the tasks the Chair must nok and Mel Hochster chaired the Per- have attempted a substantial assessment assume. sonnel Committee. of the program. The Department may In conclusion, I want to offer my seek external funding to study issues deepest appreciation to Tony, both for I would like to thank my Key Ad- related to the teaching of Calculus. I ministrator, Doreen Fussman, and Laura all that he has done for the Department want to mention that I have informally during his term as Chair, and for all of Hornbeck who did so much work in this asked several graduate students and Post- position while Doreen was away in Iraq. the help he gave me in getting ready to doctoral Assistant Professors who have follow him. I would also like to thank my Executive experience with the teaching of Calculus Secretary, Sallie Kne, and all the wonder- Melvin Hochster, Chair both at Michigan and elsewhere for their Jack E. McLaughlin Distinguished ful faculty and staff members who were opinions of the system here.