Departmental News
from the desk of Dr. Robinson, Chair
Math Department Newsletter, 12/03/07:
* Holly's Last Day: It is difficult to believe how quickly the time has passed, but Holly Gambill will be working in the math office for the last time this Friday . Holly has been a superb student worker, and just a wonderful person to be around. We will really miss seeing her in the office every week. She is graduating at the end of this semester and will surely accomplish great things as she moves on to medical school.
* December Department Meeting: Department faculty will be meeting tomorrow, Tuesday, at 11:00 in the lounge. We will continue our discussions on salary and on Sterge funding. In a separate email I will forward a Faculty Information Form and Timeline that the provost distributed this morning.
* Putnam: We had three students participate in the Putnam Exam last Saturday. They were Anna Walker, Ben Goldman, and Roumen Iordanov. Please congratulate them for their efforts if you see them.
* Since I will be leaving town for a while starting on Friday, I may not be putting out any new newsletters until January.
* (Repeat) Put it on your calendar!: Liyang Diao's senior research presentation is scheduled for Thursday, December 6, at 4:00. Look for flyers.
* (Repeat) Holiday Party: On Tuesday, December 11, let's have an informal holiday party at 1:00 in the third floor lounge. All those who are willing and able are encouraged to bring a favorite holiday treat or drink. Please let Jane know if you are planning to bring something.
Math Department Newsletter, 11/26/07:
* (Repeat) Put it on your calendar!: Liyang Diao's senior research presentation is scheduled for Thursday, December 6, at 4:00. Look for flyers soon.
* Colloquium on Thursday: This Thursday Dr. Roummel F. Marcia of Duke Univ. will be speaking about "Numerical Methods for Predicting Protein-Protein Interactions" See flyers for details.
* Agenda for Dec. Department Meeting: Next week we will have the last department faculty meeting of the semester. If you would like to add something to the agenda, then please let me know. I am currently planning to continue our discussions on salary and on Sterge funding.
* Holiday Party: On Tuesday, December 11, let's have an informal holiday party at 1:00 in the third floor lounge. All those who are willing and able are encouraged to bring a favorite holiday treat or drink. Please let Jane know if you are planning to bring something.
Math Department Newsletter, 11/19/07:
* Congratulations to Bob who has received a grant from the TSI. Recall that Carl Langefeld visited with us earlier this semester to talk about potential collaboration with TSI. This project will attempt to evaluate two new methods of burn evaluation developed by WFU and V.Tech researchers, and compare them to three other existing methods. Peter Zhang, who graduated from our Masters program, is also involved in the grant.
* Annual Report of Professional Activity: The provost recently announced that annual activity reports will be due on Friday, January 18th, 2008. I will get the forms distributed as soon as I have them. I suspect that they will be nearly identical to last year, but I want to be sure before I send them out.
* Put it on your calendar!: Liyang Diao's senior research presentation is scheduled for Thursday, December 6, at 4:00. Look for flyers after the holiday.
* Math in Vienna this summer: I found out this morning that I will be teaching at the Flow House in Vienna during first summer session. I plan to offer a version of MTH 107, but if there is sufficient interest amongst math majors and minors I can make sure to offer something at a higher level for them also. If you know of any students who might be interested in this opportunity then I will appreciate your help in advertising it.
* Strategic Initiatives: Thanks to everybody for the thoughtful discussion on Friday, and particular thanks to Jule and David for volunteering to take a leadership role for the Math Center. Their willingness to do this makes the MC a realistic possibility. As mentioned last week I plan to present our three initiatives to the dean in two formats. I want to be sure she understands what we would really like to do given enough support, and that she understands what we think can be accomplished with the more limited funds. I am going to talk to her this morning and see if she has any advice for creative funding of the MC or for scholarships.
Math Department Newsletter, 11/12/07:
* Registration: I am watching the current registration process with some interest. This may be the semester that we see the impact of the reduced divisional requirements. One change that is already in place is that I have set caps on all 100 level course that should encourage students to spread out. (In fact, I am now wishing that I had set the initial caps even lower.) If we end up with a few courses with very low enrollment, then we may need to close those courses and shift people elsewhere. I am hoping that we will not have to do much of this, but I will keep you updated.
* Department Meeting/Discussion: Faculty will meet this Friday, Nov. 16, at 4:00 in the lounge. An agenda will be sent in a separate email.
* Annual Report of Professional Activity: In a separate email I will be sending out a standard form for faculty to report their activities for the last year. You might like to know that it looks as if this one report will now serve both purposes of providing information for raises, and for the department's annual report to the office of Institutional Research.
* Math Club Talk on Thursday: Ed Allen will be the speaker and the title is "Computational Algebraic and Game Theoretic Models of Proteomic Signalling Networks" Please be sure to join us and encourage students to attend.
* Congratulations to Luke Kohler: Luke is the October winner of the monthly problem-solving contest. Luke is a student in Mioahua Jiang's MTH 113 class. The November problem has been posted, so please encourage students to give it a try.
* Online Teaching Evaluation: If you would like to experiment with an online teaching evaluation form, then please talk to Steven. He can customize the form to fit your preferences. The results should be easy to download to a spreadsheet format.
Math Department Newsletter, 11/05/07:
* Please let Robin know if you have any problems with the exam room schedule that she has sent via email. This schedule will be posted in a prominent place near the department office.
* Desk Copies and Solution Manuals: If you are expecting to have a desk copy and/or a solution manual for your courses next semester, then be sure that you have communicated this to Jane.
* Department Meeting (repeat): We have a department faculty meeting on Tuesday Nov. 6 at 11:00. The graduate dean, Lorna Moore, will be visiting with us. I encourage you to refresh your memory about graduate program issues before tomorrow.
* Robin and Steven visited with Janet Lange last Friday. Janet is doing well. She has not smoked a cigarette in over two years and she is about to have another grandchild.
* Alumni News: I saw Matthew Rudd at a conference last week. He is doing well at the University of Idaho, and continues to compete in long-distance running events. I will encourage him to post a current picture and paragraph at our alumni page. Speaking of our alumni page, if you happen to talk to an alumnus, then I hope you will direct them to this page and suggest that they send something.
Math Department Newsletter, 10/29/07:
* New Alumni Page: Please visit our new alumni page. You will find a prominent link at the department home page. We will continue to build this page as more alumni respond. Thanks to Steven for putting this together.
* Joan Pharr in Moscow: As many of you know, Joan is doing a semester of mathematics in Moscow. Her studies include Abstract Algbra and Non-Euclidean Geometry. I am attaching a picture that she sent recently.
* Virginia Tech Exam: Six students took the VTE last Saturday: Brendan Bettinger, Erik Forseth, Ben Goldman, Roumen Iordanov, Mercy Palamuleni, and Anna Walker. If you have any of these students in a class, then please congratulate them for their efforts.
* Summer Session Scheduling: I have now received all summer session teaching requests and I should have the schedule ready before the beginning of next week. There are more requests than there are classes to teach, and there is a large preference for first summer session. I will follow the guidelines that have been in place since Ivey Gentry assigned summer courses. Tenured and Tenure-Track faculty receive first preference according to seniority, then Instructors and Visitors are selected according to seniority.
* Department Meetings in November: We have department faculty meetings on Tuesday Nov. 6 at 11:00 and on Friday Nov. 16 at 4:00. The graduate dean, Lorna Moore, will be visiting with us on Nov. 6. If you have an item that you would like to get on the Nov. 16 agenda, then please let me know.
* A Note From Dr. Yunan Diao: Last Friday Dr. Diao gave a very nice talk on Knot Theory. He sent the following note the next day: "I want to take this opportunity to sincerely thank you and your department for doing such a great job in teaching and service. We are so glad that we sent Liyang to such a perfect place for her college education."
* Problem of the Month (repeat): So far no solutions have been turned in for this month's problem "Leonardo of Pisa's Optimal Intervals". Please encourage your students to give it a try. If no perfect answer is given, then I will give the prize to the student whose solution is the optimal amongst those that are turned in.
* The MA in Management Program (repeat): Scott Shafer, the director of the program, has invited department chairs to lunch meetings to provide information about this program. Unfortunately, I am unable to attend on Tuesday, October 30. If you would like to learn more about this program, which may be of interest to our students, then you are welcome to go in my place. Just let me know soon.
Math Department Newsletter, 10/22/07:
* Department Meeting Minutes: The minutes of our 9/19 and 10/11 minutes have been posted at department's blackboard site.
* Math Club Talk: At 4:00 on Thursday, Jim Norris will be making a presentation entitled "How Many Are There?" for the math club. See flyers for details. Please encourage students to attend.
* Colloquium: At 4:00 on Friday we will have a colloquium talk entitled "Geometric Problems of Physical Knots" presented by Dr. Yuanan Diao (Liyang's father). Look for the flyers.
* Virginia Tech Exam: On Saturday, October 27, from 9:00a.m. to 11:30a.m. some of our students will be trying the Virginia Tech. Exam. If you know of a student who might be interested in this sort of thing, then have that student talk to either me or Miaohua right away.
* Problem of the Month: So far no solutions have been turned in for this month's problem "Leonardo of Pisa's Optimal Intervals". Please encourage your students to give it a try. If no perfect answer is given, then I will give the prize to the student whose solution is the optimal amongst those that are turned in.
* The MA in Management Program: Scott Shafer, the director of the program, has invited department chairs to lunch meetings to provide information about this program. Unfortunately, I am unable to attend on Tuesday, October 30. If you would like to learn more about this program, which may be of interest to our students, then you are welcome to go in my place. Just let me know soon.
Math Department Newsletter, 10/15/07:
* Gentry Lectures: This will be an exciting week for the department. I hope that you are planning to attend the talks and that you have encouraged your students to do the same.
* The October Problem Has Been Posted: A contest problem for October has been posted in the lounge. The September contest winner was Megan Huber, a student in Jason Parsley's MTH 107 class. Please encourage interested students to give it a try.
* Alumni Project: We are in the process of constructing an alumni information page. Many alumni have already contributed some biographical information and pictures, and more alumni messages continue to come in. To see the current page go to http://www.math.wfu.edu/Alumni/Copy%20of%20index.html . This link is not yet on our department page, but I am planning to make it "live" on November 1. Many thanks to Steven for getting all of this posted.
* Book orders: Jane says "Thank you!" to all of the people who have already turned in their book orders. If you have not done so, then please try to turn yours in soon. The department actually receives some credit at the bookstore if all of the bookorders are in by 10/26.
* Summer School Requests: Faculty who are interested in teaching during the summer in 2008 should submit their forms to me by Friday, 10/26. (The forms will be supplied in a separate email.)
* Reynolds Leaves: Please remember that the deadline for Reynolds Leave applications is November 19. See the Provost's email on 9/14 for full details. Since part of the leave application includes a letter from me I would appreciate seeing a preliminary copy of your application well before the deadline. If you could provide me with the appropriate information by November 1, that would be very helpful.
Math Department Newsletter, 10/08/07:
* Another Baxley! Congratulations to John and Nancy who have another grandchild. Maria Price Baxley, born Friday, Sept 28, at 4:13 p.m. She weighed in at 5 pounds, 15 ounces and 20 inches tall.
* Department Discussion Reminder: We have our next department meeting/discussion on Thursday at 4:00. The agenda will be very simple and will be sent out in a separate email.
* Gentry Lectures are almost here. Please help to publicize this event to your students.
* Advising: Advising begins right after Fall Break, which is coming up soon. If you are doing major advising and need Robin to print out transcripts for your students, then please let her know well ahead of time.
Math Department Newsletter, 10/01/07:
* Scholarship Announcements: Please join me in congratulating our Raynor Scholars (Candace Curry, Laura Odom, Andrew Fisher, Benn Stancil, Jamie Cohen and Erik Forseth) and our Driggs Scholar (Holly Gambill) who have all been officially notified about their awards.
* Alumni News: Although he is not really an alum, some of you will remember Scott Messick who attended a number of our classes while finishing high school locally. Scott is now at the University of Chicago. Sarah saw him there and reports the following: "He seems really, really happy here. Apparently he completed their honors-level analysis sequence last year as a freshman. The honors analysis course is the highest possible track for incoming freshman after they take a placement exam. (There are 3 levels of calculus, a "transitions" course, and regular analysis as well.) He is now taking honors algebra and logic, as well as TAing for one of the calculus courses. He also participated in their REU program this summer and wrote a paper about category theory (which he warned me is still a rough draft), available here: http://www.math.uchicago.edu/~may/VIGRE/REUPapers/FINALAPP/Messick.pdf "
* September Problem-Solving Contest Winner: Megan Huber submitted a correct solution for the September problem and is our first winner for the 2007-2008 academic year. Good job Megan!
* Gentry Lecture Reception: If you are planning to attend the afternoon reception before the Gentry Lecture on Tuesday, 10/16, then please let Robin know. She is trying to plan refreshments for the right number of people.
* Reminder for Faculty: Provost Tiefenthaler will be attending our department meeting tomorrow and is likely to stay past 12:00.
Math Department Newsletter, 09/24/07:
* Congratulations to Ken Berenhaut who has been appointed to the board of directors of Mathematical Sciences Publishers (http://www.mathscipub.org/index.html).
* Room-Scheduling Online: We now have online calendars showing our use of classrooms, seminar rooms, and the lounge. You can find these calendars by going to the Events link on our department home page. On each calendar is a link that will send Robin and Jane an email so that you can schedule time in a room. Many thanks to Steven Wicker for setting this up.
* Pandemic Plans: All faculty should gather some basic contact information from their students so that classes can be continued in case students are sent home during a pandemic. When you have this information, then please send a copy to Robin so that we can keep a central file with contact information.
* The minutes of the 9/19/07 department faculty meeting have been posted at our blackboard site.
* Math Club Talk: Richard Carmichael will be this week's math club speaker on Thursday at 4:00. Please encourage your students to attend and attend yourself if possible. See flyers for details.
* Game Night: Please encourage your students to attend math club activities such as Game Night, which happens every Monday evening at 7:00pm.
* Problem-Solving Competition: Please point interested students towards the monthly MAA problem-solving competition. The problem description and rules can be found in the lounge.
* Scholarship Announcements: We are in the process of issuing letters of congratulation to Raynor and Driggs' Scholars. I will send out a general announcement soon.
Math Department Newsletter, 09/17/07:
* Teaching Preferences for Spring 2008 (reminder): Faculty should turn in their preferences for the Spring no later than Friday of this week.
* Two Speakers This Week: Carl Langefeld will be speaking at 11:00 on Tuesday in room 24. He will discuss research and funding opportunities at TSI/Health Sciences. Joe Rusinko will be speaking on Thursday at 4:00 in room 16. See flyers for details.
* Departmental Discussion: We will have a faculty discussion on Wednesday afternoon starting at 4:00. We will begin this meeting with some departmental business and then move on to a discussion of Teaching Evaluation.
* The minutes of the 9/4/07 department meeting have been posted at our blackboard site.
* Game Night: Please encourage your students to attend math club activities such as Game Night, which happens every Monday evening.
Math Department Newsletter, 09/10/07:
* Syllabi (again): Please remember that every class that we teach must have a syllabus. Please send a copy of your syllabi to Steven Wicker.
* Math Club Event: The math club is welcoming back both students and faculty tonight starting at 6:00 in the lounge. There will be pizza, games and prizes. Those who are interested can stay for the first Game Night of the year.
* Fall Department Meetings: I now have Provost Jill Tiefenthaler scheduled to meet with us in October and Graduate Dean Lorna Moore scheduled to meet with us in November. Thus we will need to use some of the time at our departmental discussions on 9/19 and 10/11 to take care of departmental business such as scholarship awards, etc. We should still have time to discuss other issues of interest.
* Scholarship Nominations: The scholarship committee, chaired by Hugh Howards, has requested nominations for the Raynor and Driggs scholarships. Please take a moment to send Hugh the names of deserving students.
* Security: The security committee will be having its first meeting later this week. If you have a particular concern or observation that you would like to pass along to the committee, then please send me a note or just stop by to talk.
* Math/CS computer support: Paul Whitener has been hired to fill our long-vacant support position. Stan and I have met Paul and are hopeful that he will do an excellent job. He starts this week. I will invite him to this Thursday's tea so that he can get to know a few people.
* Reminder: The first campus-wide faculty meeting of the semester is today at 4:00.
Math Department Newsletter, 09/03/07:
* Enrollment Data: Here are some enrollment figures. The format is (class number, number of sections, number of students this fall, number of students in fall 2006). (107,1,36,41), (109,6,225,147), (111,13,397,396), (112,5,140,200), (113,2,44,59), (117,1,13,18), (121,1,31,19), (251,1,32,14), (256,1,46,13). The demand for statistics has clearly increased. It will be interesting to see how this continues in the spring.
* Syllabi (again): Please remember that every class that we teach must have a syllabus. Please send a copy of your syllabi to Steven Wicker.
* Department Meeting Reminder: We are meeting at 11:00 on Tuesday, 9/4, in the lounge.
Math Department Newsletter, 08/27/07:
*Math Department Open House Today from 1:00-3:00.
* Enrollment: I have been looking at some enrollment projections provided by the dean's office and have decided to cap all MTH 111 and 112 classes at 35 students. I am hopeful that we can hold our class sizes at this level, or possibly smaller. After this fall we should have a much better idea of how the new divisional requirements will affect our enrollment.
* Calculus Resources: The department owns several resources that you may want to explore. One is a collection of visualizations called Calculus in Motion. I think that David and Jule ar the primary users of this software and can tell you more about it. We also have three videotapes called the MAA Calculus Film Project. I have not viewed the videotapes myself, so I do not know how useful they are. See Steven Wicker if you would like to look at any of these items.
* Syllabi: Please remember that every class that we teach must have a syllabus. Please send a copy of your syllabi to Steven Wicker.
* MTH 165: Miaohua and I are in charge of MTH 165 this fall. We are hoping to encourage more students to attempt the Virginia Tech and Putnam exams. If you know of students who may have an interest, then please let us know.
Math Department Newsletter, 08/20/07:
* Math Department Open House: We will be hosting our usual Open House on Monday, August 27, from 1- 3pm in the lounge. Light refreshments will be served. I am planning to spend the first hour in the lounge before going to another meeting. If you can spend the second hour in the lounge, then please let me know. These open houses are not usually very busy, but it is helpful to be available just in case an interested freshman stops by.
* Visit with TSI representative: Carl Langefeld of TSI will visit with us on Tuesday, 9/18 at 11am. This is an opportunity for both faculty and graduate students in math and computer science to learn about research opportunities with TSI/Health Sciences.
* Alumni News: Ken attended John Foley's wedding recently. He reports "John Foley and Rebecca Hix (BA, 2006) were married on August 11, 2007 in Columbia, SC. The service and reception were held at the Lutheran Seminary where Rebecca’s mother studied and was ordained. Further details are available at hixfoley.googlepages.com. The gathering was small and very nice. John also had an enjoyable and successful first year of PhD studies at UC San Diego which included passing his qualifying exams."
* Update on the Gentry Lectures: Plans for this year's lectures are going well. Robin in particular has been doing an excellent job in getting everything prepared. I have attached a copy of a poster and brochure that we are using to promote the event.
Math Department Newsletter, 08/13/07:
* Alumni at Math Fest: Ellen reports that a number of our alumni participated in the Math Fest, including Doug Norton, Doug Chatham, Kevin Woods, Tim Hendrix, Marc Renault and Ted Monroe.
* Math Department Open House: We will be hosting our usual Open House on Monday, August 27, from 1- 3pm in the lounge. Light refreshments will be served. I am planning to spend the first hour in the lounge before going to another meeting. If you can spend the second hour in the lounge, then please let me know. These open houses are not usually very busy, but it is helpful to be available just in case an interested freshman stops by.
Math Department Newsletter, 08/07/07:
* Alumni News: Jacob Lyles (Math Econ, 2005) stopped by to visit yesterday. He is currently working as an investment banker, but says that his job is not challenging enough so he wants to go to graduate school. His first choice is the computer engineering program at Stanford. He is also looking at a program at MIT.
* Computer Support: I had a brief meeting this morning with Lee Norris and Anne Bishop. We talked about our upcoming shift to a new server and the shift from Solaris to Linux. They would like for the shift to be as easy for us as is possible. If you currently use software that will be affected by this shift, then I encourage you to pay attention to the Math/CS newsletters that Anne sends via email. She said that she will keep people updated about when changes are occuring, and she said that IS people will be available to answer questions and to help people get started with Linux, if necessary. All of this should become easier if the current efforts to hire a systems admin. work out.
* Faculty Reminder: Please be thinking about your committee preferences for the Fall. Be sure to let me know if you would like to talk before, or after, turning in your preferences.
Math Department Newsletter, 07/31/07:
* Congratulations to Jule Connolly who has been promoted from Instructor to Senior Lecturer!
* While Robin is recovering Caroline has agreed to fill in a little bit in the department office. However, Caroline will be leaving for Math Fest later this week, so if you need her help with something, then I suggest that you ask either today or tomorrow.
* Yesterday, Stan Thomas and I met with Carl Langefeld of the Translational Science Institute. We discussed the possibility for research connections between math and computer science and TSI. They have a number of research projects underway in areas such as genetics, bioinformatics, data mining and imaging. They are interested in collaborating with our faculty on research projects and grants, and they are also interested in creating opportunities for students. Stan and I are inviting Carl to come over and make a presentation followed by some informal social event. This will most likely happen at 11:00 on a Thursday in late September. I will keep you posted.
* Committee Assignments: I will send out the usual committee preference memo to faculty by the end of this week and will allow plenty of time for people to consult with me before completing the memo.
* Space Study: There is an ongoing study of how space is used on campus. In the last two weeks I have reviewed, and occasionally corrected, university records of how much space we have and how it is being used. I am hopeful that this study along with recent enrollment data will help us to get easier access to the classroom space that we need.
Math Department Newsletter, 07/24/07:
* Not much has happened in the last week other than summer session. I am continuing to receive questionnaires from alumni. Here's another ...
* Mitzi McLean works for AON Consulting and is now an ASA (Associate of the Society of Actuaries) and EA (enrolled actuary). She works in Winston-Salem and might be a good alumnus to invite back for a Math Club event. One of her suggestions to Wake Forest math students is "I think students should take as many math courses as they can fit into their schedule, and that they should try to get a sampling of the different types of mathematical courses."
Math Department Newsletter, 07/16/07:
* Preliminary Dates For Gentry Lectures: Jeff Weeks has agreed to be our next Gentry Lecturer, and the likely times for his talks are the evening of Tuesday, October 16, and the afternoon of Wednesday, October 17. Many thanks to the colloquium committee for their work on this. Further anouncements will be made when more details are confirmed.
* Alumni News: John Bowman completed his PhD in Mathematics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in May 2007. (Research Areas: Lie theory, representation theory, quantum groups.) He is currently a consultant for OpenBI, a Chicago firm that specializes in business intelligence (database work and data analysis for business.)
* More Alumni News: Lauren Toney says "hello" to everybody in the dept. She is currently working towards her MD at the Univ. of Pittsburgh and expects to finish in the spring of 2009.
Math Department Newsletter, 07/09/07:
* Maple 11: Steven Wicker now has the code that will allow those who are receiving a new thinkpad to start using Maple 11. The people at IS do not yet know when other faculty and students will be able to download and use Maple 11.
* Michelle Sikes was named USTFCCCA Outdoor Track & Field Scholar Athlete of the Year.
* Summer Session II starts today.
* Free Tickets: I have two free tickets to give away. They are for a concert at Guilford College this Friday, 7/13, at 8:00. The program is part of the Eastern Music Festival and presents Holst's "The Planets" with Gideon Rubin playing piano. Please let me know if you are interested.
Math Department Newsletter, 07/02/07:
* Congratulations to Richard Carmichael on the publication of his book BOUNDARY VALUES AND CONVOLUTION IN ULTRADISTRIBUTION SPACES. I was pleased to see a listing for the book when I received my usual email advertisement from World Scientific. More details can be found at http://www.worldscibooks.com/mathematics/6484.html
* Congratulations to Bob Plemmons who is one of a dozen distinguished researchers who have been invited to speak at the international symposium "The birth of numerical analysis" to be held in Leuven, Belgium, this comming October.
* Jennifer Erway has arrived in Winston-Salem!
* New Thinkpads: I picked up my new T60p last week and attended the optional training, which I have usually skipped in past years. A few useful items came up:
** Maple 11 is installed on the machine, but a code has to be entered before Maple can be used. Steven Wicker has inquired about obtaining an appropriate code, but we do not yet have an answer.
** If you want to use IRove when you are travelling, please get that set up ahead of time. The department can cover any charges involved.
** The hard drive on your old thinkpad will be erased three days after you pick up the new one, so look through all of your important data promplty after pickup.
** Some useful information was given regarding customization of wireless access at home and of classroom presentations.
Math Department Newsletter, 06/25/07:
Math Department Newsletter, 06/12/07:
* Remarks on Committees for Next Year: I am hoping to send a note out to faculty before I leave on vacation. Having just finished the annual report, I think that this is a realistic possibility.
* Alumni News: Bill Johnston has become the provost at Randolph-Macon College. See: http://www.rmc.edu/spotlight/new_provost.asp.
* My Schedule: I will be travelling for most of the next two weeks, but I expect to maintain email contact. If you need me for a signature or something of that sort, then I will be in my office for most of the day next Tuesday(5/29), and then I will be back in my office the following Monday (6/4)
* Student Profiles in OGB: You will find some interesting student profiles at http://ogb.wfu.edu/07/index.php?/ee/grad/ Anna Snavely and Bennett Stulting are included.
Math Department Newsletter, 05/07/07:
Math Department Newsletter, 4/30/07:
* Alumni News: I spoke to Chris Conner last week. He is a graduate of our M.A. program and is currently working at Salem Health Solutions in Winston-Salem. He is doing well and asked about people in the department. His organization is interested in providing internships to our more advanced students.
* Student News: Donghui Chen has been awarded a $600 grant for travel to the Southern Regional Council on Statistics' annual Summer Research Conference to participate in the graduate student poster competition. Congratulations!
* Course Evaluations: Faculty should remember to distribute course evaluations this week if they have not done so already. Instructors, visitors and pretenured faculty should have a student collect the evaluations and bring them to the department office. Earlier this semester I mentioned an interest in developing an online course evaluation form. The form on WIN seems to be too inflexible to be of general use to the department. I am going to use the survey tool on Blackboard to do my evaluations this semester, but I am hoping to find a better option next year.
* Undergraduate Research Presentations: This Thursday afternoon three students will be making presentations based upon their research projects. Look for the flyers for details. Please encourage other students to attend and encourage them to stay after the talks for fruit, sandwiches, and cake.
* Forum on Enrollment Growth: If you have the time, then I hope that you will attend the forum on Enrollment Growth on Tuesday. The Forum will begin at 1:00 and will be in Pugh Auditorium. I know that we are all busy, but this is an important issue to all of us, so pleast attend if you can.
* Remark: I had an interesting discussion with Sam Kaplan during his visit last week. The math major at UNCA has experienced remarkable growth and I asked him if he can point at specific reasons. He emphasized the fact that they have faculty who are excited about their work and who actively encourage students to continue in mathematics. I think that this is a good thing for us to keep in mind as the semester finishes. You have one more opportunity to talk to students, let them know that they have done good work in your class, and encourage them to continue taking math courses. If you have some students who deserve particular attention, then I encourage you to send me a list of names so that I can write them a note of congratulations on their good work.
Math Department Newsletter, 4/16/07:
* Planning Survey Reminder: Please find the time to fill out the planning questionnaire and then return it to me no later than Friday, April 20. I will summarize the results at our next department meeting.
* Upcoming Colloquia: We have speakers today, 4/16, and next Monday, 4/23. Please look for the flyers for times, dates and titles.
* Math Club Talk: The math club is sponsoring a talk on Thursday, 4/26, by Dr. Paul Stockmeyer. The title is "Pascal's Rhombus and the Stealth Fractal". Please encourage students to attend. See flyers for details.
* Congratulations to Michelle Sikes who is one of three Wake Forest student-athletes to receive an ACC Weaver-James-Corrigan Scholarship. Michelle was one of only two student-athletes in the ACC to speak at the awards ceremony last week.
* Congratulations to Ken Berenhaut who was awarded a Faculty Entrepreneurship Prize for his work in creating the journal Involve.
Math Department Newsletter, 4/09/07:
Math Department Newsletter, 4/02/07:
- Math ( BA, BS, Stats) Total: 57, New for '07: 21
- Mth/Ecn: Total: 51, New for '07: 21
- Mth/Bus: Total: 13, New for '07: 8
Math Department Newsletter, 3/26/07:
"I was just emailing to let you know how graduate school was going. I really like the program here at Vanderbilt. It is very challenging (I didn't realize it was possible to study so much for each test!), but I am also learning a lot. Our class also gets along very well. There are just 9 of us: four Americans and then the others are from China, Bangladesh, Benin (Africa), India, and Turkey. So, it is always very interesting to be in our lounge and listen to all of the languages that are being spoken. I am currently taking monetary theory, game theory, econometrics, and economic history. In our Macro I class, we used the dynamic programming that we learned in the math econ seminar, so I felt very fortunate to have already done some of that before!"
Math Department Newsletter, 3/19/07:
* Hiring Update: I have distributed the current short list for our visiting position and am in the process of making phone calls to people on that list. Your input is welcome.
* Colloquium: Pavel Drabek will be our speaker this Wed. at 4:00. Flyers have been posted. Pavel's talk is part of the PDES (Piedmont Differential Equations Seminar), but is open to all who are interested. Even if you do not plan to attend the talk I encourage to come and meet Pavel and our other visitors during the tea before the talk.
* Strategic Planning Discussion: On Thursday, 3/22, the math dept. faculty will discuss the strategic planning document that was recently distributed by email. The committee welcomes all comments and questions. The meeting will begin at 4:00 in the lounge. Refreshments will be set out ahead of time. An additional item for discussion will be the recent division 5 Interdisciplinary Institute proposed by Danny Kim-Shapiro, Jacque Fetrow and others. I will provide a written description of this proposal as soon as it is available.
* Alumni News: Mark Kozek has accepted a tenure track position at Whittier College. Fred sent an email about this a few days ago. At the end of this newsletter I am attaching a message that Mark sent.
* Book Orders (Repeat Reminder): Now that the schedule has been distributed, it is time to select your textbook(s). I will take care of orders for MTH 109,111, and 112. We will continue to use the same textbooks with appropriate adjustments for new additions. If your book order is identical to something that was used recently, then you can simply send Jane an email to that effect.
* Copy Codes(Repeat Reminder): I have asked Robin to set up an individual copy code for each faculty member. The default code will be your year of birth. If you want to use some other number, then just let Robin know. If you want your TA to do some copying for you, then they will need to do so on your number.
* Math Contest Volunteers: David Wilson still needs some volunteers to help with the math contest. The jobs are easy and do not take much time. Please contact David if you can help.
* Message From Mark Kozek:
It was great talking to you the other day. Again, I'm sorry that I won't be able to complete my application to Wake Forest for the visiting assistant professor position. I just accepted a tenure-track position at Whittier College, in Whittier, CA (near Los Angeles). I am very excited by this appointment, as Whittier offers me everything I could have wanted both in a college and in a surrounding community. Also, if everything goes as planned, I will spend this summer teaching at the Summer Mathematics Institute at Cornell University. Aside from that, let's see... I plan to defend my dissertation (in number theory, supervised by Michael Filaseta at South Carolina) in May-ISH; my girlfriend will be moving with me to Whittier; oh, and I went to Germany for the World Cup last summer and attended five games. In a nutshell, that "briefly" updates my last year or so... And I will definitely drop by Wake Forest at least once before heading out West.
Cheers!
Mark
Math Department Newsletter, 3/05/07:
* Hiring Update: Electronic advertising for our Visiting Asst. Prof. position began last week and we already have in excess of 100 applications. I am sorting through them and will present a "short list" to the department before inviting a candidate to campus. All tenured and tenure-track faculty are welcome to look at the applications at mathjobs and pass along comments or suggestions to me.
* Gentry Lectures: Please encourage your students to attend. Also, Ken has posted an invitation to faculty to have dinner with Jeff Rosenthal. Please respond soon if you are interested.
* Scheduling for Fall 2007: One or two minor adjustments have been suggested for the rough draft schedule that I distributed last week. I have learned that we will not be getting additional sections of 109 or 111 unless enrollments are unusually high. Finally, I will most likely be adding a section of 712. This depends upon the amount of interest expressed by our graduate students.
* Book Orders: Now that the schedule has been distributed, it is time to select your textbook(s). I will take care of orders for MTH 109,111, and 112. We will continue to use the same textbooks with appropriate adjustments for new additions. If your book order is identical to something that was used recently, then you can simply send Jane an email to that effect.
* Midterm Grades: The time for midterm grades is almost upon us. Please help advisors by posting midterm grades for your courses.
* New Majors: Our count for new majors is 13 Math majors, 8 Math/Business majors, and 17 Math/Econ majors.
* Copy Codes: I have asked Robin to set up an individual copy code for each faculty member. The default code will be your year of birth. If you want to use some other number, then just let Robin know. If you want your TA to do some copying for you, then they will need to do so on your number.
http://www.wfu.edu/wowf/2007/2007.02.22.awards.html
* The Gentry Lectures are almost here: Please look for the flyers that have been posted in the building and distributed in mailboxes. Please encourage students to attend the general audience talk as well as the reception before the talk.
* Friday Department Meeting and Discussion: This Friday, 2/23, at 4:00 we will have a short department meeting followed by an open discussion about the future of our graduate program.
* Math Major Sign-ups: The time of year is upon us! Please encourage potential new majors to come to room Manchester 122 on Wednesday, February 21, to learn about our majors. You can also encourage them to stop by your office to talk about it, or to stop by the department office to talk to me.
* Help Needed for the HS Math Contest: (From David Wilson) The Wake Forest Mathematics Contests will be held on Saturday, March 24, 2007. I will need 3 people to proctor the tests; these proctors would need to meet in the lounge at 9:30am; the test will be over at 12:00. In addition to these 3 proctors, I would need about 3 more people to help score the tests from 12:00 to 1:00. If some of the proctors have to leave and cannot help score, then I would need more than 3. I can offer the leftover fruit and danish as payment for your help.
Math Department Newsletter, 2/12/07:
* Copy Machine Use: Several problems have arisen recently with regards to copy machine use. During the last quarter of 2006 there were 20,000 copies made in *excess* of our usual allowance. That is expensive. There is probably a completely legitimate reason for this excess, but I don't know what it is. Also, we have observed graduate students using the copy machine for personal use. This has happened even though the graduate students are not supposed to have the copy code, and even though the copy code was recently switched. Robin and I are talking about finding a way, such as issuing personal copier codes, that will allow us to track copy machine use in greater detail. We do not want to become heavy-handed about this, but we would definitely like to understand what is happening when large excesses arise.
* Agenda Items For The Next Dept. Mtg.: If you would like to suggest an agenda item for the next department meeting, then please let me know about it.
* Math Major Sign-ups: The time of year is upon us! Please encourage potential new majors to come to room Manchester 122 on Wednesday, February 21, to learn about our majors. You can also encourage them to stop by your office to talk about it, or to stop by the department office to talk to me.
* Seeing Andy Sterge on Saturday: The math department was well-represented at last Saturday's alumni event. Andy Sterge and Hugh Howards both did an excellent job of representing Wake Forest and the department of mathematics. They provided interesting and thoughtful comments from a student/alumnus and faculty perspective, respectively. Also in attendance were Marcellus Waddill, Miaohua Jiang, Ken Berenhaut, Richard Carmichael, Jason Parsley, John Baxley and me. (I hope that I didn't forget anybody.)
Welcome to the new semester!
* Department Meeting: Our first department meeting of the new year will be today at 11:00.