Duke Math NewsDuke Math NewsThe CIGNA Foundation has once again made a generous contribution of $7500 to the Duke Math Department. Last year, several students took advantage of our offer to pay their actuarial exam registration fees and two of our majors interned with CIGNA in Philadelphia last summer. The CIGNA Foundation contribution has allowed us to continue our popular Undergraduate Mathematics Colloquium Series with Persi Diaconis from Harvard in the fall of 1993 and Joseph Gallian from Minnesota the spring of 1994. This series will continue with Robert Devaney giving a lecture on the Mandelbrot set and dynamical systems on Wednesday, September 21, 1994.
These funds have also been used to cover expenses of undergraduates who attended national mathematical society meetings for the purpose of reading papers and of accepting awards. They have provided nine majors with complementary memberships to the Mathematical Association of America.
Now in its third year, the Duke University Mathematics Union (or DUMU for short, pronounced "doo-moo") provides students with an interest in mathematics the opportunity to learn more about the subject outside the classroom. Several undergraduate students and professors have discussed their research on topics spanning the mathematics spectrum. DUMU also provides information on careers and summer research internships in mathematics. This fall, we will hold the third annual Duke University Mathematics Contest, a one-day student-run contest for high schools from throughout the southeast.
Most importantly, DUMU is FUN. We now have a lounge for our use and I plan to organize some social events and possibly some friendly competition against the other club in our building, the Society for Physics Students. In any case, we are going to have a great year ahead of us, and I hope you will become a part of it by joining DUMU. The first meeting will be during the first week of September, so be sure to keep your eyes open for announcements.
If you have any questions, I can be reached by e-mail at Box 91628 or by e-mail at pdreyer@math.duke.edu. I hope to hear from you soon!
The Americans became the first team in the competition's 35-year history to achieve a perfect score on the Olympiad's nine-hour test, which included this challenge: ``Show that there exists a set A of positive integers with the following property: For any infinite set S of primes there exist two positive integers m in A and n not in A each of which is a product of k distinct elements of S for some k greater than 1.'' (Half the Chinese team, which trained for a year, missed that one.)
( U.S. News August 1, 1994)
One of these Olympians, Noam Shazeer of Swampscott, MA, will enter Trinity College this fall. Noam will be the third gold medalist and the fourth Olympian to enter Duke since 1988.
Before you enter on the study of law a sufficient ground work must be laid. . . . Mathematics and natural philosophy are so useful in the most familiar occurrences of life and are so peculiarly engaging and delightful as would induce everyone to wish an acquaintance with them. Besides this, the faculties of the mind, like the members of a body, are strengthened and improved by exercise. Mathematical reasoning and deductions are, therefore, a fine preparation for investigating the abstruse speculations of the law.
THOMAS JEFFERSON
Quoted in Cajori's Teaching and
History of Mathematics in the
U.S.(Washington, 1890), p.35.
Emily Puckette's thesis title is Critical Exponents for Intersections of Random Walks in Dimensions Between 1 and 2. As for her immediate plans, she will remain at Duke, teaching in the Math Department and working with Project NExT (New Experiences in Teaching).
A Numerical Study of the Instability of Vortex Rings with Swirl is Henry Suters' thesis title. He has a job at Carson-Newman College in Jefferson City, TN.
Vince Moulton, whose thesis is entitled Vector Braids, will hold a postdoctoral position at the University of Bielefeld in Germany.
Chris Peterson's official title at Notre Dame is Visiting Assistant Professor. His thesis title is Applications of Liaison Theory to Schemes Supported on Lines, Growth of the Deficiency Module, and Low Rank Vector Bundles.
Responsibilities as a Fellow will begin Tuesday, August 23. Recipients will coordinate aspects of the Fall, 1994 Orientation for graduate students on August 26 and 27, stressing pedagogical issues and dilemmas. They will serve as small group discussion leaders in the afternoon. Fall semester, participants will meet twice a week with Center staff to plan a follow-up session in their department, using what they learned at the Orientation Program, emphasizing innovative approaches in the teaching and learning process. Duties will cover only five or six months. The appointment also includes a stipend of $1000 for professional development.
Kevin Knudson and Keener Hughen are this year's recipients of the L.P. and Barbara Smith Award for Excellence in Teaching. This award was established by Smith, Supervisor of Freshman Instruction (predecessor of Lewis Blake). Professor Smith set up the award in April, 1982 to give graduate students recognition for being good teachers. It also includes a cash prize.
NAME NAME OF INSTITUTION
Timothy D. Culver B.S., 1994 University of Notre Dame Charles D. Fargason B.A., 1994 Rice University Benjamin W. McKay B.S., 1993, University of Toronto, Canada Alexander M. Solodovnikov Diploma, 1993, Odessa State University, Ukraine Laura A. Taalman B.S., 1994 University of Chicago Kirsten E. Travers B.S., 1994, St. John's College, Oxford University Liya A. Zhornitskaya Diploma, 1993 Moscow State University
Professors Robert Bryant, David Morrison, and David A. Smith have returned to Duke after their own busy sabbatical leaves.
Among the visiting faculty at Duke this year are Professor Xabier Garaizer from NCSU and George Majda from Ohio State U. Each are experts in differential equations.
This year we will begin a new and exciting program by hiring the first of three Research Assistant Professors. These will be three year, non-renewable, positions for new PhD's in Mathematics. Programs like this exist at most major Universities where they provide a great source of stimulation for the research and teaching environments of the departments. The first of these positions will be funded by a donation from the late Professor William Elliott, who served as department chair from 1929 until 1937 and retired in 1968. The other two will be paid for by the University. Since they will be replaced as they come to an end, we will hire one new person each year once the program is established.
I wish you all a good year.