As department chair, one of the most thrilling experiences is to attend the Spring Com-mencement and present the graduates in mathematics. This year, when I presented the graduates and watched them stepping up to the podi-um one by one to receive their diploma, as you once did, I was fi lled with pride and joy. While a lot has changed since you left MSU, you can always count on more than 70 new graduates to join our big MSU Math Alumni family every year.

It has been several years since our last alumni newsletter. It is my desire to reconnect with you more frequently, com-municate our exciting stories and hear from you.

If you detect excitement in my letter it is because I’m thrilled about the depart-ment’s future. The hallmark of any top mathematics department is combining research with strong, diverse educational commitments. Our department is among the National Research Council’s top tier and we continue to attract high quality students and faculty from around the world.

Much of the excitement I have felt since joining the department is a direct result of new research programs, initiatives and

From the Department Chair...

faculty members. I joined MSU two years ago after 17 years at Georgia Tech and a year at the National Science Foundation. A national trend shows support for math-ematical research stagnating in recent years, yet our external research funding has more than doubled in the last fi ve years in core areas of algebra, analysis, applied mathematics and topology.

Building off of MSU’s strength in inter-disciplinary research, the department launched the a center for industrial and applied mathematics in 2006 as a vehicle for research collaborations between the department and industry. More details are on page 5, and I invite business leaders to join us in collaboration as we provide real solutions for business and industry.

Our faculty are nationally recognized and effectively blend their research and teaching responsibilities. The topology group has recently been awarded a NSF Research Training Group grant and two of our young faculty members have received prestigious NSF CAREER Awards.

Our undergraduate program continues to be among the largest and most diverse in the country as we teach a staggering 60,000 credit hours every year! Around 500 students are enrolled in our majors each year. To best serve the multiple interests, we have created several differ-ent degrees and specializations in recent years. The Actuarial Science Specializa-tion is one of the more popular special-izations and we are in the process of making it a major. We also created special courses including some for future teach-ers as well as life science students.

The interdisciplinary nature of our programs along with the research ex-periences earned one of our students a prestigious Goldwater Scholarship this year. Tory McCoy, a senior from Wexford, Pennsylvania, is a dual major in math-ematics and geological sciences. She is a University Distinguished Scholar and also earned fi rst place at the MSU Herzog Mathematics Competition. She exempli-fi es how our students customize their education with interdisciplinary research experience by blending traditional educa-tion with research opportunities available at a tier-1 institution.

The graduate program currently has more than 120 doctoral students and we continue to see our alumni going on to become faculty members in top universi-ties. One of our doctoral alums, Jongil Park, is an invited speaker at the 2010 International Congress of Mathematics. This is an honor given to few mathemati-cians, yet this marks the third consecutive ICM where an MSU alumnus has been invited to speak.

While we are all excited about the direc-tion the program is heading, tough chal-lenges are ahead. Like other departments and institutions across the nation, we are making strong sacrifi ces and painful cuts. No decision is easy and you can be assured that while our budget may be reduced, our commitment to excellence will not. I hope you will be able to join us in making sure the department continues to serve our students and remain a point of pride for years to come.

Yang Wang, Ph.D.Chair, Department of MathematicsMichigan State University

JUNE 2009

Yang Wang

Newsletter for Alumni and Friends

W W W. M AT H . M S U . E D U

Department of Mathematics

2Department of Mathematics

NSF Award Supports

Geometry and Topology

The department continues to have success with a Research and Technology Group (RTG) award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to teach and research geometry and topology. The RTG grant currently supports four graduate students and three postdoctoral researchers, with plans to add more of both next year. The group studies low-dimensional topology and geometric analysis.

“The RTG grant has been quite suc-cessful in teaching graduate stu-dents and postdocs,” said professor Ron Fintushel, principal investiga-tor for the award. “This grant ad-dresses the production of research mathematicians and teachers of mathematics who are interested in geometry and topology.”

The students and postdoctoral assistants contribute to research in geometry and topology using tech-niques including gauge theory, geo-metric analysis, pseudoholomor-phic maps, knot invariants, surgery techniques, 3-manifold topology and mapping class groups.

Activities began in 2005 and the program has reached hundreds of students through seminars at the undergraduate, graduate and research levels.

“Our plan is to streamline the path to the Ph.D. and to provide enhanced research opportuni-ties,” said Yang Wang, chair of the department. “The RTG provides eleven months of support for new graduate students with no teach-ing duties for the fi rst two years of study. During their third year, the students are supported as teaching assistants.”

The grant also makes it possible to bring in guest lecturers and visi-tors to the Math Department. Every lecture is recorded and used on the geometry and topology website (http://www.math.msu.edu/gt/) for continued access. The research environment reaches all levels of the mathematics program.

Fintushel noted that the grant has also brought many top students to the department. The grant has increased visibility of the pro-gram which has attracted talented students from around the globe to study geometry and topology.

“One key is how successful our students have been,” Fintushel said. “It’s a measure of how good the teaching program is as well as the program at-large. When people hire young Ph.D.s, they typically do it on the reputation of how well you train students – and ours have been doing very well.”

“We have had students give invited lectures at the International Con-gress of Mathematics for the last several meetings,” Fintushel said. “Since there are very few invited lectures, this is a great honor for our students.”

The MSU Department of Mathematics newsletter is published annually by the College of Natural Science for alumni and friends. Copyright 2009 Michigan State University. MSU is an affi rmative-action, equal-opportunity employer.

Send correspondence to: Dept. of Mathemat-ics, c/o College of Natural Science Advance-ment Offi ce, 103 Natural Science Building, East Lansing, MI 48824. Ph (517) 353-9855. E-mail: natsci4u@msu.edu.

Contributing writers: Yang Wang, Gordon Shetler, and Mike Steger. Photography: Gordon Shetler, Mike Steger and Kurt Stepnitz.

The Numbers Puzzle

For alumni eager to re-live their college years, try this puzzle cur-rently challenging our students:

Professor Cliff Weil selected two natural numbers greater than 1 and gave the sum of the two numbers to Professor T.Y. Li and the product of the two numbers to Professor Tom Parker. He asked them to fi gure out each other’s numbers. The following conversa-tion took place between the two professors:

Prof. Parker to Prof. Li: “I don’t know your number.”Prof. Li to Prof. Parker:“I knew you don’t know my number.”Prof. Parker to Prof. Li: “In this case I now know your number.”Prof. Li to Prof. Parker: “I now know your number, too.”

What are their respective num-bers, and what are the two num-bers Prof. Weil had selected? (You may assume that both Profs. Li and Parker are geniuses.) Send your answer and comments to NatSci4U@msu.edu or use the en-closed envelope. We look forward to hearing from you.

3Michigan State University

Mathematics Study Abroad Partnerships

For the fourth year in a row, MSU lead the nation in study abroad participation among public universities in the U.S., according to the Institute of International Education. The opportunity to experience the different cultural infl uences on the international language of mathematics is an intriguing aspect of the college experience, and for mathematics students, it works in both directions.

The department has focused on creating programs that provide longer, more intensive experiences than the shorter summer or winter break programs led by MSU.

“The department’s Study Abroad programs are direct enrollment programs with partner universities around the world,” said Wellington Ow, professor and director of mathematics Study Abroad. “MSU students spend an entire semester taking classes at the other university. The sustained exposure to different mathematics professors and students helps provide them with a greater understanding of the international infl uences on mathematics. Spending an entire semester abroad has an enormous impact on their learning.”

Students in the program take a full schedule of courses at a foreign institution for the complete semester. Ow said that the students often fi nd the language issue not to be as complicated as they thought, given mathematics is universal. Instead, students learn and improve their communication skills while adjusting to the foreign environment. According to Ow, the more popular programs are those in English-speaking countries or the program at the City University of Hong Kong where all instruction is done in English.

The partnership in Hong Kong is reciprocal and this semester was the fi rst time students from City University attended MSU. Xiaochen Xing, a junior from Beijing, and Jundai Song, a junior from Tianjin, are both mathematics majors at City University and came to MSU for the spring semester. They are the fi rst mathematics students to participate in the program between MSU and City University.

“Mathematics study abroad works in both directions,” added Ow. “Our partnerships don’t just impact MSU students, but we can help provide an equally engaging program to foreign students who wish to experience MSU.”

Xing and Song both decided to attend a semester at MSU in order to best experience college in the U.S. They intend to pursue graduate degrees from programs in the U.S. and they felt coming to MSU for a semester would give them a good understanding of the differences and what to expect.

“The biggest surprise was the size,” said Xing. “MSU is much larger, as City University only has about 40 students in each grade. It was different being in large classes and experiencing the size of the campus.”

The class structure is also different, according to Jundai Song. Where the focus in Hong Kong is on the fi nal exam, she said the classwork at MSU is more distributed throughout the semester with many items contributing to your grade and not just the fi nal exam.

While issues like transportation, campus size and dorm cuisine required some adjustment, both students found their reception at MSU to be warm and welcoming.

“Experiencing the Final Four basketball games in McDonel Hall was exciting,” said Song. “It was great seeing everyone come together; clapping and cheering for one event. It was my fi rst time watching basketball and a very memorable experience. It is something I will never forget.”

Xiaochen Xing and Jundai Song attended MSU this spring as part of a program between the MSU Department of Mathematics and City University of Hong Kong. The department currently organizes full-semester study abroad mathematics programs with 11 institutions in Australia, China, Ecuador, Mexico and the U.K.

4Department of Mathematics

Program Challenges Gifted Youth

For some gifted middle school and high school students, mathematics can seem trivial and mundane. For these talented students, a rigorous program led by the department seeks to challenge and excite them while preparing them for high level coursework in college. The Cooperative Highly Accelerated Mathematics Program, or CHAMP, pairs gifted high school students between 7th and 10th grade with mathematics professors at MSU. Students learn four years of high school math – algebra, geometry and pre-calculus – in four intensive semesters.

“These gifted kids need to be challenged,” said Pavel Sikorskii, Executive Associate Director for Undergraduate Programs. “We challenge them. We use high school material, but teach them as if they were college students; we write tests for them like we would for college students. They rise to the challenge and excel at many levels.”

Students attend a 2.5-hour class each week, where they do problems and go over their homework, which can amount to more than eight hours per week. In between class periods, there is an online community where the students can get help with their homework, connect with professors and share experiences with their cohort of students.

After students complete the program, they have the option to take more advanced classes by enrolling at MSU, or another local college, while they are in high school.

The CHAMP program was started 23 years ago and is a joint effort between the Department of

Mathematics and the Honors College. All of the instructors for the program come from the math department. Each year, between four and six professors teach in the CHAMP program. “Faculty really enjoy teaching these classes and infl uencing these young minds,” Sikorskii said. “We volunteer to do this on top of our regular duties.”

Students are selected for the program based on their SAT and ACT scores. The program costs $900 per student to operate, with almost half of the cost covered by private foundations and Intermediate School Districts. The rest is paid for by a combination of school districts, parents and the Intermediate School districts.

“I run into people all the time whose children have been through the program,” Sikorskii said. “All they have to say to me is ‘thank you, the program challenged my student and helped them get ahead,’ everything I have heard has been very positive.”

The Triangular Duel Puzzle

Reminisce about your days as a stu-dent by solving this puzzle currently challenging our students:

Aaron, Alexander and Thomas have agreed to fi ght a three-way pistol duel under the following unusual conditions. After a random draw determine who fi res fi rst, second and third, they take their places at the corners of an equilateral tri-angle. It is agreed that they will fi re single shots in turn and continue in the same cyclic order until two of them are dead or incapacitated. At each turn the man who is fi ring may aim wherever he pleases. All three duelists know that Aaron always hits his target, Alexander is 80 percent accurate and Thomas is 50 percent accurate. Assuming that all three adopt the best strategy, and that no one is killed by a wild shot not intended for him, who has the best chance to survive? What are the exact survival probabilities of the three men?

Send your answer and comments to NatSci4U@msu.edu or use the enclosed envelope. We look forward to hearing from you.

5Michigan State University

The department launched the Michigan Center for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (MCIAM) led by professor Gang Bao in 2006 as a way to adminis-ter the industrial math professional masters program while developing intensive partnerships with busi-nesses.

In its short history, the center has already collabo-rated with more than a dozen major corporations in insurance, automotive and pharmaceutical indus-tries. The center provides research and modeling in biological, information and optical, environmental/energy, and materials sciences.

The department launched the actu-arial science specialization in the fall of 2003 and between 60 and 70 students have been enrolled in the program each year. On aver-age, 15 students graduate with the concentration each year.

“The student response was good and surprisingly immediate,” pro-fessor Wellington Ow said. “This specialization adds an alternative career path for students into a job that pays well and has a good description. This program has at-tracted some of our best students.”

The specialization is the fi rst step in establishing a degree program for actuarial science. As a special-ization, it provides students with extra emphasis in areas important to careers where there is a need to weigh the fi nancial consequences of risk.

Currently, the department is inves-tigating the expansion of the pro-gram toward a bachelor’s program with a potential graduate program as well.

The majority of students who en-roll in the concentration are math and statistics students, however

Undergraduate students at MSU have the option to earn a concentration in actuarial science. The interdisciplinary specialization prepares students for employment in many fi elds of the fi nancial services sector as it combines classes in math, statistics, fi nance and economics.

Actuarial Science Program Develops

it has also attracted students from fi nance and engineering.

An alumni actuarial advisory board has been created to advise the de-partment on trends in the fi eld and to keep up with changes in actu-arial science in the business world.

“We’ve had great support from our graduates,” Ow said. “The advisory board serves as a useful resource and allows us to ensure that the program refl ects the changing business landscape by providing students with a rigorous program that will benefi t them throughout their career.”

The center provides businesses with high-end com-putational and modeling solutions. While doing this, the center simultaneously develops interdisci-plinary students with real-world problem solving skills and personal contacts. This allows for an easy transition to business upon graduation.

In the last year, the center has created summer graduate fellowships and has hosted three work-shops on multiscale modeling, computation and signal processing. It also conducts a weekly semi-nar and a distinguished speaker series. The center provides a good solution for businesses while giving students real-world experience and to benefi t their careers.

Center Builds Partnerships with Business

6Department of Mathematics

ALUMNI CLASS NOTES

Neil Larks, B.A. ’59, is enjoy-ing retirement by serving as a garden docent at Rancho Los Cerritos in Long Beach, Calif.

Wayne Carpenter, B.S. ’61, retired after 43 years of teaching in public schools.

Jerald Murdock, B.S. ‘61, is co-author of the recently revised high school algebra text Discovering Advanced Algebra and Discovering Algebra.

Alan Harvey, B.S. ’62, retired after teaching high school math for 38 years.

Stanly Steinberg, B.S. ‘62, M.A. ‘63, is professor emeri-tus at the University of New Mexico and is actively work-ing on the design of mimetic fi nite difference methods for discretizing the partial dif-ferential equations in con-tinuum mechanics.

Jeff Hack, B.S. ‘63, has re-tired as a software engineer and is a Silver Life Master for the game of bridge.

Peter Rheinstein, B.A. ’63, M.S. ’64, served for more than 25 years as a senior manager at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and is president-elect of the Academy of Pharmaceutical

Physicians and Investiga-tors. He is also a member of the United States Adopted Names Council that negoti-ates the generic names for all drugs marketed in the United States.

Shirley Gloss-Soler, B.A. ’64, is happily retired in Colo-rado Springs and indulging her love of gardening, skiing, and travel.

Wilbur McReynolds, ’64, ‘65, is retired from a career in actuarial science at Metropol-itan Life Insurance Company.

Cynthia Brown, B.S. ’65, is a professor and past chair of the computer science department at Portland State University.

Don Benbow, M.S. ‘66, has recently co-authored Certifi ed Reliability Engineer Handbook, Certifi ed Six Sigma Black Belt Handbook, 2nd Ed. and the Chinese translation of Certi-fi ed Quality Engineer Hand-book, 2nd Ed.

Gary Bond, B.S. ‘66, is retiring after 26 years in the Dept. of Psychology at Indi-ana Univ.-Purdue Univ. In-dianapolis. IUPUI is hosting a Festschrift in his honor this September before he begins a second career at Dartmouth.

Marilyn Capelli Dimitroff, B.A. ‘66, president of Capelli Financial Services in Bloom-fi eld Hills, Mich., is the 2009 chair of the Certifi ed Financial Planner Board of Standards – the regulatory/credentialing body for C.F.P. certifi cation. She also serves on the Financial Planning Coalition that is working toward new federal regula-tion of fi nancial advice at the fi duciary standard of care.

William Thompson, B.A. ’66, is a faculty member teaching math at Muskegon Com-munity College and Baker College of Muskegon.

Carole Minor, B.A. ‘68, was named a Presidential Teach-ing Professor at Northern Illinois University.

Richard Sgarlotti, B.S. ‘68, M.A. ‘70, recently retired from the Nah Tah Wahsh Public School Academy in the Hannahville Indian Community near Escanaba, Mich. He published Creating a Sacred Place for Students in Mathematics with the Na-tional Indian School Boards Association and heads the Educators of Native Ameri-can Students. He also directs a summer STEM camp for American Indian Students and coordinates a math-

ematics competition at the National American Indian Science and Engineering Fair.

Joel Boyd, B.S. ‘69, is the in-terim director for the Career English Language Center for International Students at Western Michigan University.

Robert Rietz, B.S. ‘70, is the Chief Pension Actuary for Deloitte Consulting and was recently named to the Actu-arial Board for Counseling and Discipline.

Linda Petlichkoff, B.A. ’72, is a professor at Boise State University and received a Crystal Apple Award from the MSU College of Educa-tion in 2008.

Rob Polsgrove, B.S. ‘72, is retiring this summer from Center Line Public Schools and Oakland Community College after 37 years of teaching math and science at the junior high, middle school, high school and community college levels.

Dean Sanders, M.S. ’67, Ph.D. ’72, is a professor in the Department of Computer Science/Information Sys-tems at Northwest Missouri State University. He is a co-developer of Jeroo, a widely

7Michigan State University

used pedagogical tool to help novices learn some funda-mental concepts of computer programming.

Ronald Simon, BS ‘67, has been elected Chairman of the Board of the six Auto-Owners Insurance Group companies.

Kevin Karplus, B.A. ‘74, is a professor in bioinformatics at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Nancy Nelson, B.A. ‘74, retired after 34 years of teaching mathematics at Wil-liamston High School and is now a part-time instructor with Michigan State.

Mark Squillace, B.A. ‘74, is director of the Natural Re-sources Law Center and will soon be celebrating 25 years as a professor at the Univer-sity of Colorado School of Law.

Raymond Greenwell, M.S. ‘76, Ph.D. ‘79, is a professor of mathematics at Hofstra University and has coau-thored the books Finite Math-ematics and Calculus with Applications.

Jeffrey Houtteman, B.S. ’77, is teaching high school math-ematics at Brighton Area Schools after a 25-year career with Household Internation-al/HSBC Finance.

Edward Imgrund, B.A. ’78, has been a math teacher at St. Dominic High School in O’Fallon, Missouri for 29 years and their math team

won the State Mathematics Contest for Small Schools in 2008.

Uttara Naik Nimbalkar, Ph.D. ’79, is the head of the Department of Statistics and Centre for Advanced Studies at Pune University, India.

Gerald Weightman, M.A. ‘80, recently celebrated 23 years as a computer applications developer with The St. Paul/Travelers Insurance Compa-nies in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Jeanne Cavelos, B.S. ‘82, is director of Odyssey, a workshop for writers of fantasy, science fi ction and horror. She has published two books, The Science of The X-Files and The Science of Star Wars, and appeared on the History Channel’s special Star Wars Tech. Edward Aboufadel, B.S. ‘86, is a professor of mathematics and the department chair at Grand Valley State Univer-sity, in Allendale, Mich., and is the principal investigator for a REU grant from the Na-tional Science Foundation.

Jeff Beranek, B.S. ’84, M.S. ‘87, is section head of the Census Statistics Section of the U.S.D.A. National Agri-cultural Statistics Service.

Mohamed Elgindi, Ph.D. ‘87, is the principal investigator of Summer Undergraduate Research Experience in Pure and Applied Mathematics at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and recently organized a workshop on

Application of Analysis in Mathematical Biology.

Todd Swanson, M.A. ‘89, received the Janet L. Ander-sen Award for Excellence in Teaching from Hope College.

Jongil Park, Ph.D. ’96, has been invited to speak at the 2010 International Con-gress of Mathematicians at the University of Hydera-bad, India. This is the third consecutive I.C.M. where an MSU alumnus has spoken (Eleny Lonel, Ph.D. ’96, in 2002 at Beijing and Grisha Mihalkin, Ph.D. ’93, in 2006 at Madrid).

Hanni Nichols, M.S. ’99, is an academic specialist at MSU’s Lyman Briggs College and is involved with MSU’s Math, Science and Tech-nology Summer Program for Academically Talented Middle School Students.

Thomas Mark, Ph.D. ’00, is assistant professor of math-ematics at the University of Virginia.

Camillia Barnes, B.S. ’02, MS ‘02, is graduating in June from Harvard University with a Ph.D. in Mathemat-ics and her specialization is Enumerative Combinatorics.

Karen Brunner, B.S. ‘03, is a mathematics teacher at Oke-mos High School in Okemos, Mich.

Matt DuPrey, ’06, is teaching music and math in St. Clair Shores, Mich.

Gina Dattolo, B.A. ‘07, re-ceived an M.A. in Mathemat-ics Education last year from Columbia Univ. Teachers College and teaching mathe-matics at the Jacqueline Ken-nedy Onassis High School for International Careers in Times Square, New York.

Antonio Johnson, B.S. ’08, coached Peter Vetal Elemen-tary in Detroit as they won the state championship in the Set Theory game of On-Sets as part of the Michigan League of Academic Games.

Thank you to everyone who contributed news on their career accomplishments. We like to hear from alumni and encourage you to stay connected...

Visit the alumni section of naturalscience.msu.edu • and use the on-line form to send your career news and address updates.Network with alumni by joining the MSU College • of Natural Science groups on Facebook.com or LinkedIn.com.Join the alumni association and become involved in • the college alumni organization.Visit the department website for the latest news at • http://www.math.msu.edu.

Alumni Staying Connected

DEPARTMENT OF MATHEMATICSCollege of Natural Science103 Natural Science BuildingEast Lansing, MI 48824-1115

NSF Career Awards

Faculty members Di Liu and Jeff Schenker recently received Faculty Early Career Development Awards from the NSF – one of the NSF’s most prestigious and competitive awards for junior researchers.

Di Liu is studying numerical methods for the simulation of sto-chastic chemical kinetic systems with multiple time and spaces scales. The support from the award will enable investigation of biological systems involving gene regulations, which is becom-ing new focus of genomic research, through collaboration with biologists at MSU. The research fi ndings will provide useful scientifi c computing tools for life sciences.

Schenker is studying the behavior of waves traveling through different forms of imperfect media. The award allows for better understanding of how waves scatter from imperfections while passing through complex materials. The fi ndings could make for further advances in semiconductors and provide fundamen-tal knowledge for theoretical physics.

NSF career awards recognize faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through the integration of education and research. Each 5-year award provides the faculty member a fi rm foundation for a lifetime of integrated contributions to research and education.

New Department Faculty

Join us in welcoming these new faculty who recently joined the department:

Matt Hedden earned his Ph.D. from Columbia Uni-versity. His research interests are in Knot theory and low dimensional topology, Heegaard Floer homology, gauge theory and Symplectic geometry.

Ben Schmidt earned his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. His research interests include non-pos-itive curvature, locally symmetric spaces, geodesics, hyperbolic dynamics, geodesic fl ows and large group actions.

Ignacio Uriarte-Tuero earned his Ph.D. from Yale University. His research interests are in Potential theory, Fourier analysis, functions of a complex vari-able and functional analysis.

Dapeng Zhan earned his Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology and came to MSU from Yale. His research interests are in probability theory, statis-tical mechanics and stochastic Loewner evolution.