SSU M*A*T*H Major

From the Chair It's been an exciting year in the Math Department! We began by moving back into

a remodeled Darwin Hall – it's a huge improvement! We're always happy to see

friends and graduates of the Department, so please come see us in our new

offices! We've got a better space than ever before for student-faculty interaction around mathematics, and this

interaction is what we're all about. Another big change in the Department was the Fall

arrival of Professor Cora Neal. After 4 years as a faculty member in Mathematics at the University of Alaska – Anchorage, Prof. Neal and her family decided to make a

southerly move, and she's jumped right into active roles in the statistics and math education groups in the department. We're delighted to have her with us!

The Department is an exciting place to be. We have great students and excellent programs. Come see us!

Math Festival 2007 The 2007 Math Festival was a big success. About 100 people gathered for the Department's awards/alumni dinner at the Cotati Veterans Hall, following a great

Math Festival Colloquium by Prof. David Eisenbud, Director of the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute. The Department faculty, assisted by Dean

of the School of Science and Technology Saeid Rahimi and Vice President for Administration and Finance

Laurence Furukawa-Schlereth, presented awards to many of our students. Numerous alumni and their high school students joined the fun.

Graduating With

Distinction

• Nick Dowdall will be attending graduate

school at the University of Iowa (joining Aba Mbirika; see Alumni News) on a prestigious

Dean's Fellowship.

• Aaron Donahue will be continuing his studies

as a graduate student and teaching assistant at

San Diego State University.

• Steven Moore, graduating with a double

major in mathematics and computer science, will

begin a job as a software engineer at Apple after graduation.

• Tiffany Ward will be happy to graduate, and

is eagerly anticipating her future career in mathematics.

• Emanuel Rasolofomasoandro graduated

in December in Mathematics, Applied Math and Statistics with a Minor in Women’s and Gender

Studies. He will be pursuing Investment Banking.

• Virginia Knott has been accepted into SSU's

credential program, and should earn her teaching credential in Spring 2008. She hopes to teach mathematics in her home town of Fort

Bragg.

Steven Moore, Virginia Knott, Tiffany Ward, Nick Dowdall, Aaron Donahue Saeid Rahimi, & Ben Ford

Sonoma State University

Spring 2007 Department of Mathematics

Issue 15

The Third Annual Northern California

Undergraduate Mathematics Conference

On April 21, 2007, the SSU math department hosted the third annual Northern California Undergraduate Mathematics Conference. This year, we welcomed

students and faculty from 18 colleges and universities from Northern California and Southern Oregon into our new home in Darwin Hall. Student volunteers and the

math club set up the Darwin Lobby for the conference. Macy Ma, Kristen Roland, Elizabeth Giuliani, Aaron

Donahue and Natasha Ataiiyan helped prepare for an early start on Saturday morning and staffed the registration desk throughout the day.

In the morning, undergraduate math students gave high quality talks in two parallel sessions. The conference

kicked off with talks on “Duplicating the Cube” by HannaH Fournier from SSU and “Variations on Conway’s Game of Life” by Josh Abbott from Humboldt State

University. Talks included Graph Theory, Linear Algebra and Cryptography.

A new event this year was a panel discussion on careers in mathematics with four mathematicians from industry, research and teaching. Valeria de Paiva from the Palo

Alto Research Center explained how a pure mathematician’s research is used to increase the

efficiency of internet search engines. David Neal, a statistician for United Behavioral Health in San Francisco, advised the students in the audience to take as many

statistics courses as possible to prepare for a lucrative career in applied statistics research. Yolanda Woods, an SSU graduate who is teaching at Napa High School, and

who is also working on her master’s degree in mathematics education, emphasized that the skills she learned in upper division proof courses enable her to

teach high school mathematics from a conceptual point of view with understanding. Finally, Bill VonSeggern, an actuary for the Fireman’s Fund Insurance Company,

talked about the roles mathematicians play in the insurance industry. All panelists reiterated that aside from acquiring solid mathematical skills, students should

make sure to become good communicators. The career panel was well received.

After a pizza lunch, the conference continued with student talks on topics such as Knot Theory and

Mathematical Modeling. A group from San Francisco State University shared their research on using results from Knot theory to model DNA unknotting.

Kevin Dowdey and Katie Mingoia from SSU’s math modeling class presented a model for the effects of

alcohol consumption on blood alcohol concentration. Out of the participating schools, SSU’s math department

had the largest group of student speakers with seven talks. In addition to the talks already mentioned, the group included Aaron Donahue “Quivers… What are

they?” Kristen Roland “Khipu: Code of the Incas”, Abe Goldman “Poker over the Internet”, Nicholas Dowdall “Area Equivalence Implies the Occurrence of

Concurrence”, and Sean MacRae “Algorithms for Generating P(n), the Sequence of Partition Numbers”.

Chad Griffith of Santa Rosa Junior College gave an illustrated talk on an application of the gradient vector on his solar design network.

The high quality and variety of the talks was amazing. The audience was continually impressed with the high

level of mathematics presented and by the imagination and creativity of students who, for example, used mathematics to model behavior of characters in video

games (World of Warcraft) or to predict the financial success of hit movies.

The conference concluded with a fascinating keynote talk by Frank Farris from Santa Clara University on Visual Geometry. The award-winning author and teacher

offered three stories of visualizations in his talk: Wallpaper for inhabitants of the hyperbolic plane, graphs

of functions of complex variables, and something that doesn't even exist, namely, Euclidean wallpaper with 5-fold symmetry. The audience was dazzled by the colorful

images representing mappings of the complex plane and the entertaining exposition of the speaker.

The conference is a wonderful opportunity to involve undergraduate students actively in the mathematical community, and we hope to expand the participation of

our own students, high school students and community college students from the area in the future.

Department Focus Areas

The Math Education faculty has been busy this year. Brigitte Lahme, Ben Ford, Rick Marks, and Edie Mendez,

joined by Kathy Morris of the School of Education, are working on a research project sponsored by the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute. (MSRI) and the

Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching to develop new ways of teaching prospective elementary teachers. We are working with teams of mathematicians

and math educators from other universities – Stanford, University of Michigan, University of Nebraska-Lincoln,

University of Arizona, and Mills College. We have welcomed new faculty member Cora Neal to our group – when we can pull her away from the Statistics Group! We,

and Bill Barnier, are also key players in the MA in Curriculum, Teaching and Learning with emphasis in Mathematics Education. Our students are finishing their

coursework and beginning to work on their culminating projects. We look forward to having this group of Math teacher leaders in the community. The Math Ed faculty has

also developed a Math minor for prospective elementary and middle school teachers. There are 7 graduating seniors in the Secondary Teaching track; several of them

are entering or continuing in the SSU credential program.

Cora Neal from the University of Alaska has joined the

faculty of the Statistics Track. Susan Herring, Cora Neal, Elaine McDonald-Newman, and Ai-Chu Wu have undertaken a revision of the Statistics major, proposing

new courses to strengthen the major and recruit double-majors and strong minors among students in economics and biology. There are 5 graduates in Statistics this year.

The Applied Math group, led by Sunil Tiwari, supported a group of applied math and statistics majors in the annual

Math Modeling Contest. There are 3 graduating seniors in the Applied Math track and another 3 in the computer science track.

Aaron Donahue Nick Dowdall

The Pure Math track has 2 graduating seniors this year. The entire faculty supports this group, and is working to develop a larger cohort to take our upper division courses.

Nick Dowdall and Aaron Donahue will be starting graduate school at the University of Iowa and San Diego State University, respectively.

Community Outreach One of our major efforts in Community Outreach is through Expanding Your Horizons. EYH is an annual

conference to increase the awareness of young women and their parents of the importance of adequate preparation in math and science. Sharon Cabaniss is

one of the founding members of the Organizing Committee.

Several faculty members and students from the Department participated in the fifteenth annual EYH Conference held at SRJC this spring. Ai-Chu Wu set a

record by leading a workshop for each of the fifteen conferences! Her title this year was “Play Your Favorite Statistical Game,” which received good reviews from the

students. Brigitte Lahme and Izabela Kanaana held a workshop again this year entitled “Geometry and Interior Design,” another popular topic. In addition, SSU

Math alumna Elizabeth Giuliani led a team workshop of Computer Science faculty and students entitled “Hardware to Software—Let’s Code.” Izabella Kanaana

also helped produce the conference brochure used to publicize the event, and math minor Kimberly Carman organized the mailing to area schools. Andrew

McFarland, another alumnus and a member of the SSU Math faculty, reported that the Math Club puzzle table

was “busy and swamped as always!” “The Mathemagician Jeff Hrdlicka and I manned a total of 7 tables. Students were challenged, puzzles perplexed,

solutions sought; never enough time.” Others who helped with the conference organizing include Julie Bonds, Sharon Cabaniss, Edie Mendez, and Mary Anne

Sobieraj. Next year’s conference is scheduled for SSU, and volunteers are always appreciated.

Another outreach effort is our work with SCOE (Sonoma County Office of Education) and local schools. Much of this work is under the aegis of the North Bay Math

project, led by Ben Ford. Ben, Edie Mendez, and Brigitte Lahme have been actively engaged with professional development for math teachers. Brigitte has been

working with teachers in the San Rafael district, and Edie has been working with teachers at Rancho Cotate High School.

This year saw the first offering of a new early fieldwork course for prospective secondary teachers. Math 390

replaces the old Community Involvement Program and develops closer links with participating schools in the community. The pilot schools for the program were

Mountain Shadows and Roseland Accelerated Middle Schools, Casa Grande High School and Roseland University Prep. RUP’s Math Department is entirely SSU

Math graduates – Andrea Chambers and Jessica Balli, with former SSU grad and math teacher Jennifer Flory now Assistant Principal! The RUP staff frequently bring

their students to our M*A*T*H Colloquium.

Mathematics faculty continue to engage in research and scholarship, which provides added dimensions to their courses as well as topics for undergraduate research projects. Over the last year, the following articles were published in highly respected journals:

Bill Barnier, “Descartes Tangent Lines”, College Math Journal, (with J. Jantosciak) Ben Ford, “Self-conjugate t-core partitions, sums of squares, and p-blocks of An,” Journal of Algebra; Brigitte Lahme and Jerry Morris, "The Case for Labs in Precalculus,” MAA Notes, Volume: A Fresh Start Collegiate Mathematics: Rethinking the Courses Below Calculus (with E. Toubassi); Brigitte Lahme and Elaine McDonald, “Infinity and Beyond – A Mathematics Class for Life Long Learning”, Focus of the Mathematics Association of America.

Two other articles will appear soon: Edith Mendez, "Multiple Perspectives on the Development of an Eighth-Grade Mathematical Discourse Community," The Elementary School Journal (with Sherin, M.G., & Louis, D. A.): and Cora Neal (co-author), "A longitudinal, qualitative analysis of the context of substance use and sexual behavior among 18- to 29-year-old men following their release from prison," Journal of Social Science and Medicine.

Ben Ford is an editor of Mathematician’s Corner: Essays on elementary mathematics, a book of essays by research mathematicians on topics from elementary school mathematics. He also wrote several of the essays. Brigitte and Jerry have continued their collaboration with the Harvard Calculus Consortium. Last year they were among the co-authors of the precalculus text, Functions Modeling Change, 3rd edition. In addition, they are contributors to three supplemental texts, Instructor’s Manual to accompany Functions Modeling Change, 3rd edition; Instructor's Manual to accompany Applied Calculus, 3rd edition; and Instructor’s Manual to accompany Calculus 4th edition (D. Hughes-Hallett et al). Brigitte Lahme was also one of the main editors of Instructor’s Manual to accompany Functions Modeling Change .

This past year, as usual, Math Department faculty has been very busy around the University. Elaine McDonald-Newman took over as Chair of the Faculty Senate in Fall 2006. She also serves on a large number of administrative and Senate committees. Edie Mendez continues as the Secretary of the Senate and a member of the Executive Committee. In addition, we have four other members of the Math Department sitting on the Senate: Sam Brannen, Rick Luttmann, Cora Neal, and Steve Wilson.

Ben Ford serves on the Academic Planning Committee. Sharon Cabaniss serves on the Educational Policy Committee. She’s been thoroughly immersed in program review and assessment and just recently completed our Math Department’s review. Sunil Tiwari sits on the Faculty Standards and Affairs Committee. Izabela Kanaana and Jerry Morris are on the University Scholarship Committee. Izabela is now Chair of that committee. Rick Marks has served on the University, Reappointment, Tenure and Promotion (RTP) Committee since 2003.

Brigitte Lahme served as Chair of the School of Science and Technology Recruiting Taskforce in Fall 2006 for the School. She worked with a consultant to design a new website for the School and each Department.

Jean Bee Chan serves on the SSU Academic Foundation Board and is the Outreach Coordinator for the Mathematics Department. She also serves on the national MAA Book Prize Committee and on the MAA Math Horizon Magazine Editor Search Committee.

Bill Barnier is on the School RTP committee and also serves on the SSU Enterprises Board of Directors.

Excellence in Teaching Award Recipient Sunil Tiwari’s love for teaching is evident all

over campus. He earned his PhD in Applied Math at Montana State

University and joined the SSU math faculty in 1996. Prof. Tiwari’s

passion for teaching is rooted in his love for

empowering students with knowledge and guiding them to reach their full potential. His research

interests include numerical analysis, differential equations, and math applications in biology and environmental science. He recently authored two papers

with SSU colleague Stephen Norwick.

Prof. Tiwari joined the rank of the Department’s

Teaching Award Recipients of previous years: Susan Herring, Bill Barnier, Jean Bee Chan, and Brian Jersky.

Rick Luttmann and Sam Brannen in the new Math Lab, Darwin 108 married Math majors

FACULTY NEWS

Two long-time faculty members are retiring at the end of this academic year, and the Department will feel their absence! Norm Feldman joined the Department in 1967, the third mathematics faculty member of the new Sonoma State College (following now-emeritus professors Don Duncan and Clem Falbo). He's always been excited to share his love of mathematical research, and was instrumental in nurturing faculty study groups that helped many of us branch out into new and exciting areas. Prof. Feldman was also important in the mathematical lives of many students – one 1980's graduate wrote recently and mentioned that “he was indeed important in my becoming a mathematician.” He has recently finished Functional Representation of Substitution Algebras and is working on another paper focused on multi-valued logic. Mary Anne Sobieraj joined the Department in 1989. She coordinated the Alliance for Minority Participation (AMP) program at SSU from 1994 to 2003; this program supports efforts to broaden minority participation in the sciences and mathematics and has been highlighted in the Santa Rosa newspaper. The pre-calculus and calculus workshops which she coordinated as part of AMP have become an important resource for all of our students. Mary Anne has been an important mentor to many lecturers who have taught in the Department since her arrival, and, most importantly, has helped so many SSU students have positive mathematics experiences. A typical student comment: “...by far one of the best instructors I've had in my 5 years of college.” Thank you Mary Anne and Norm!

Retirements

SSU Faculty Generate Grants

To Support Research & Mathematics Education The Mathematics faculty is always reaching out for financial support for our many activities illuminating the wide range of projects faculty are involved with on a daily basis. For example, when Izabela Kanaana, Brigitte Lahme and Jerry Morris organized the Northern California Undergraduate Mathematics Conferences for the last three years, they obtained grants of $1550 for each year. The grants were obtained from the NSF, administered by the MAA. Lahme also obtained a $22,000 grant for the Teacher Collaborative Algebra Assessment Project last summer. Edith Mendez and Ben Ford received the Project RAAFA (Redwood Area Algebra for All) professional development grant from the California Mathematics and Science Partnership with lead district Healdsburg USD. The total of the funding is approximately $800,000 with about $50,000 to SSU. They are also principal investigators for SSU for the Math MASTERS (Making Advances in Standards-based Teaching Effectiveness using Research-proven Strategies) professional development grant from the California Mathematics and Science Partnership with lead district Bellevue Union ESD. The total funding is $435,836 with $84,231 to SSU. Rick Marks has been involved with the Interactive Mathematics Program Implementation Center since 1995. He has been the principal investigator for several grants, including from the National Science Foundation and various private foundations, ranging from $500,000 to $650,000 per year. Their goal is to provide professional development and other support for IMP, an integrated high school mathematics core curriculum. Cora Neal is the co-principal investigator on a $1.5 million grant project called "Journeys in Mathematics" to provide professional development to K-8 teachers in Alaska in mathematics content knowledge and pedagogy. Since 2003 Ben Ford serves on the Advisory Board of a project called Teaching the Big Ideas of Early Algebra which is an NSF-funded professional development program for teachers in Boston. Sam Brannen continues to be the SSU ccordinator of the Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP) program. LSAMP is sponsored by NSF and is designed to broaden participation in science, mathematics, engineering and technology disciplines. Mathematics students who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents and who identify as belonging to a group that has traditionally been underrepresented in higher education or faces social, cultural, educational, or economic barriers to careers in the sciences are eligible to join. NSF has entered into its third 5-year agreement with the CSU to provide $800,000 per year to encourage such students to graduate in science related fields. Two SSU participants, Nicholas Dowdall and Natasha Ataiiyan, received approximately $2500 each as a supplemental grant to visit graduate schools, attend conferences, take a GRE preparation course, and buy computer equipment. Nicholas used his funds for travel to conferences and graduate schools, and for taking a GRE preparation course. Natasha used her funds to buy a laptop computer and related equipment. This is just a sampling of faculty efforts to obtain funding to support work in many areas of mathematics and math education.

Elaine McDonald-Newman Senate chair

Cora Neal Newest faculty member

Roger and Heidi Ahders (1991) met and married as math majors at SSU. Roger earned his Master's and did advanced work at Oregon State University at Corvallis while Heidi earned her teaching credentials. They now live in Northern California with their two children. Roger and Heidi are both on the Math faculty of Mendocino College in Ukiah. Leslie Banta (2006) is teaching Math at Ukiah High School and loving it! Melissa Bauman (2002) Starting June 11th Mel will be working at Oakland tower as an Air Traffic Controller. Currently, she is in Oklahoma finishing up the required training for this position. Mel is looking forward to this exciting and fun career with the FAA! Crazy how having a math background can open doors to a variety of careers...She!’s math!!! Anne Cavagnaro (1987) earned a B.A. in Math from SSU, M.A. in Math from University of Kentucky, is now a faculty member at Columbia College, California. Her family includes her husband and two children. Anne's son is taking both mathematics and computer science courses at Columbia. Alyson Clark (1997) is the Math Department Chair at West Valley College in Saratoga, CA. Melissa Deweg (2003) earned her M.S. in Statistics from UC San Diego in June, 2004. Melissa worked as a military analyst for 2 years and has been working for Cymer, Inc. as a Statistician in San Diego, CA since April, 2006. Lori Eurgubian (2006) is currently student teaching at Petaluma Junior High School. She graduated from the Credential Program on May 22, 2007. Holly Hunter (2006) is currently student teaching at Kennilworth Junior High School in Petaluma. She graduated from the Credential Program on May 22, 2007. Aaron Ives (2000) earned his Masters from UCLA, is now teaching at College of the Redwoods Mendocino Coast Campus. Emily Kendall (2003) moved to San Jose and has worked in the Financial Planning industry for the past 5 years. Emily has just been offered a Marketing Associate position in Redwood City with a financial analyst group that reports on internet and networking hardware. Last year she married her life long sweet heart of 11 years. Kathy Kiely (2006) is currently student teaching at Eagle Peak Middle School in Ukiah. Kathy has accepted a position to start in the Fall at Baechtel Grove Middle school in Willits.

Christine and Joe Latullipe (2000) are both graduating from Montana State University this semester with PhD’s in Math Ed and Math. In the fall they will be starting new jobs at Cal Poly Pomona where both have tenure-track faculty positions in the math department. Andrew McFarland (2003) graduated with a Master’s Degree from University of Oregon, Eugene in 2005. Andrew has been teaching here in the SSU Math Department since Fall 2005. He and his wife, Joanna, were married in Poland last June. They became parents to Maria Anna in April. Aba Mbrika (2003) is in his 3rd year of graduate school at the University of Iowa. Sarah Minnick (2005) is currently in a Masters program (in Biology) at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Sarah will be doing an internship this summer with the Washington State Transportation Department monitoring and analyzing data on wetlands. Wendy Rawlinson (1988) married Sean Lloyd, whom she met in our Math 320 class. They now live in Eugene, Oregon with their three children. After earning her Master's in Math at the University of Oregon, Wendy became a mother and began teaching at Lane Community College. Sean is applying his math skills at a high tech company in Corvallis. Heidi Sager (2002) graduated 2004 from UC Davis with a M.S. in Statistics. Heidi is teaching for the SSU Math Department this semester. Megan Wong (2006) is currently student teaching at Petaluma High School. Megan has been offered a position at Elsie Allen High School for Fall 2007. She graduated from the Credential Program on May 22, 2007. Kevin Wortman (1998) earned his PhD in geometry from the University of Chicago. While at Chicago, he won a teaching Award as an instructor. (He said he modeled his teaching after his professors at SSU). Kevin is now finishing a postdoctoral fellowship at Yale University.

Alumni! We'd love to get responses to our alumni survey from as many graduates as possible – the feedback helps us

improve our program. You can find it on the alumni page of the Department's web page at www.sonoma.edu/math. Also

on the web site is a new alumni notes feature – read about what your fellow students are up to, and add your own update.

ALUMNI NEWS

STUDENT SPOTLIGHT

SPECIAL AWARDS At the math festival dinner, Math Club Officers (and graduating seniors) Natasha Ataiiyan and Aaron Donahue were honored for their extraordinary services to the department.

Natasha was honored with the award for “Outstanding Service and Leadership” for her many contributions to the math department and the math club over the last three years. Since arriving at SSU in Fall 2004, Natasha has served as secretary, vice president and president of the math club. Under her leadership the math club has volunteered at annual conferences, such as Expanding Your Horizons and the Northern California Undergraduate Mathematics Conferences, and has organized numerous fundraisers. Natasha was instrumental in securing a sizable grant from the SSU Associated Students Inc. to help fund the undergraduate math conference. Over the last three years, whenever a math club presence was needed, Natasha has been there to represent our department. We will miss her happy personality very much after she graduates this spring.

Aaron was Master of Ceremonies at the Fashion Show in early May and did a splendid job. He has been an assistant in the Math Department Office. During the past year he has given two special presentations to the University's mathematics community. One concerned the year he spent with the CSU Study Abroad Program. He spent the 05-06 academic year studying at the University of Uppsala in Sweden. He found the experience so deeply rewarding that he has become a strong advocate for other students to consider participating. Last fall he gave a one-hour photo presentation on his experiences. In the spring term he gave a similar presentation on his adventures in the summer of 2006 when he spent six weeks in Bolivia working on an interesting project called "Bosque" [Spanish for "forest"]. It was grueling work in the jungles of the Amazon making statistical measurements on trees for the purpose of enhancing the country's logging practices. In honor of his work on this project, the Department awarded him a book called "Ring of Fire", which deals with the significant changes that have recently occurred in the governmental structure of Bolivia, affecting the power of the indigenous population and the different relationship this society expects to have with the international financial community.

Virginia Knott, a 2006 December Graduate was born and raised in Ukiah. She was a GATE and Honors student but she dropped out of high school in her junior year. She gave birth to son Paul when she was 18 years old (in 1988) and then at the beginning of 1989 she moved to Fort Bragg. She had Scott 3 years later (1991). In late 1992 Virginia took the GED test at College of the Redwoods Mendocino Coast Campus (CRMC) and the counselor was so impressed by her scores, he said that she should be in college. Virginia enrolled at CRMC full time in the spring of 1994 and took general education classes because she didn’t know what she wanted to do. Nine years later Virginia was still taking classes and working as a substitute aide for the Fort Bragg School District when she decided she wanted to become a math teacher. She has an AA in general education and an AS in university studies. The only university she applied to was SSU and thank goodness she was accepted. For the last 2 ! years, Virginia has split her time between living on campus in the dorms and living at home in Fort Bragg with her family. She is currently enrolled in the teaching credential program at SSU. Virginia hopes to eventually teach high school mathematics in Fort Bragg.

As an SSU Math graduate, you understand our programs and their benefits better than anyone. Think for a moment about your own student experience. Back then you could select courses leading in many directions. Perhaps you chose a career in teaching, applied mathematics, statistics, computer science, or some other field, or maybe you decided to continue studies in graduate school. Our students now have even more choices. But like you, they also enjoy being in an academic department truly devoted to developing their comprehension of mathematics and to enhancing their future success. You remember how course work in the Math Department at SSU took place within a community of scholars. The Math Lab is alive and active as ever. The weekly M*A*T*H colloquium continues each Wednesday as always. And faculty stand ready to discuss problems and help students over the rough spots anytime needed. Our campus may have grown up a bit since you left, but the spirit of friendship and common purpose still glows brightly in your Math Department. If you know co-workers, relatives, friends, or neighbors who could enjoy the Sonoma State experience that you remember, please tell them about us. Sending us one or two new students every year will enlarge our community, and help us to improve and to expand our degree programs. Support Your Math Department!

An Open Letter to Our Graduates

PI MU EPISILON

Natasha Ataiiyan, Aaron Donahue, Steve Foreman, HannaH Fournier, and Tiffany Ward were formally inducted as new Pi Mu Epsilon Honor Math Society

members at the Math Festival Alumni Dinner on April 18. Previous members, Nick Dowdall, Virginia Knott, and Steven Moore were presented with honor cords

with the other Pi Mu Episilon graduates. The Pi Mu Epsilon members contribute to the Math

Department community by raising money to buy cookies for the weekly M*A*T*H Colloquium. Several generous donations made this service possible. More

donations, big or small, are always welcome!

Jean Pedersen from Santa Clara University was the 2007 Pi Mu Epsilon speaker. Her topic, "My Favorite Mathematical Toys," filled Darwin 103 on April 19.

She brought her extensive collection of colorful polyhedrons, star-shaped configurations, and the five Platonic solids.

Pedersen hid these objects under a black velvet cloth and retrieved each at precisely the right moment. At

the outset, she proved that there are exactly five Platonic solids by studying the relationship among the numbers of vertices, edges, and faces of regular

polyhedrons. She then discussed the duality among these solids. Like a magician, she often tossed a seemingly flat figure into the air to produce a three-

dimensional solid. She showcased several movable star-shaped configurations to illustrate mathematical

insights about polyhedrons. At the conclusion, she showed several beautifully homemade mobius bands

connected by sturdy zippers. Different bands emerged as she opened the zippers. Quite a

performance! Students and faculty alike enjoyed the 2007 Pi Mu Epsilon talk.

M*A*T*H Colloquium and

Seminars The M*A*T*H Colloquium is completing its 66th consecutive semester of offering high-quality talks to the SSU community in all areas of the Mathematical Sciences. This semester has seen talks in pure mathematics, history of mathematics, applied math, and statistics – and even one talk by a major sculptor who draws inspiration from mathematics and other sciences. Colloquium talks are Wednesdays at 4 p.m. in Darwin Hall 103 during the school year. Check out the listings at www.sonoma.edu/math/colloquium. The Department also holds a bi-weekly lunchtime seminar at which students and faculty give presentations on mathematical topics of interest. We've had a wide variety of subjects this year: statistics in the Bolivian rain forest, partition theory, derivation of the normal distribution, and many more.

CALLING All Emeritus

and Retired Math Faculty! All emeritus and retired Math Faculty and others are cordially invited to participate in an informal monthly

lunch at noon, the first Wednesday of the month, from September through May. Following lunch, we

can have a leisurely visit to the library, attend the M*A*T*H Colloquium at 4:00 p.m., and go out to dinner with the speaker afterward. Call the

Department for information.

New Undergraduate

Research group Calling all serious math nerds! Nerds have all the fun! Students, including Chad Griffith of the Santa

Rosa Junior College, Brill Rawlins, David Lofte, Leanna Lofte, and others will be meeting at 1:00 p.m. on Wednesday afternoons to learn and to do research on

combinatorics and graph theory. Faculty members Cora Neal, Izabela Kanaana, and Jean Bee Chan are joining the students for the sheer joy of being stuck in

research problems and a glimpse of occasional sparks!

Leanna & Dave Lofte married Math majors

WHISKEYTOWN

On 6-7-8 October 2006, a number of faculty and students from the department participated in the 36th annual State of Jefferson Mathematical Congress at

Whiskeytown Lake. The State of Jefferson never came into existence, but it was contemplated by the residents

of southern Oregon and far-northern California in the 1920's and 1930's, who felt neglected by their respective State governments. The mathematical

communities at colleges and universities in the region felt similarly neglected by their respective mathematical associations, so they decided in 1973 to hold their own

conference. It is unique among mathematical meetings in being held at a campground -- at Dry Creek Group Camp on the southwestern shore of Whiskeytown Lake.

Families come, as do kayaks, frisbees, telescopes, and other devices to help everyone enjoy some recreational time. Everyone has fun around the campfire on Saturday night.

Math Morsels – A Mathematics Class for

Life Long Learning During the Fall 2006 semester several members of the

Department offered a course called Math Morsels for the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (LLI).(Bill Barnier, Edie Mendez, Ben Ford ,Elaine McDonald-Newman, Brigitte

Lahme, and Sam Brannen) This was our second course for LLI. In the Fall 2003 semester we had collaborated to present a course titled Infinity and Beyond.

LLI is offered at over 90 universities and is for mature

people (over 50) who wish to continue their education just for the pleasure of learning and without the pressure of earning grades. Ours is the only LLI

mathematics course to have been offered at SSU and we think is the only one offered nationwide.

The class included retired engineers and mathematics teachers along with people who had had terrible experiences with mathematics in school. Expecting

something like this we had designed our presentations so they did not involve detailed calculations or knowledge from prerequisite classes. Each class period

was independent of the others and proofs that were presented could be understood visually or through analogy.

Our challenge was to construct a course with topics that were appealing, beautiful, and touched on deep

mathematical ideas without prerequisites and without building a foundation of basic skills. Our goal

was to share our love and knowledge of mathematics with a community whose members had not recently been exposed to mathematics.

Morsels chosen included fractals, special numbers, the Pythagorean theorem, strange phenomena, math and

popular culture, perspective and art, and Turing and the first computer. Edie Mendez, our participating mathematics historian, put most of the topics into

historical perspective. The students seemed to enjoy taking the class as much

as we enjoyed teaching it. And, again, we collectively contributed the money earned to our Math Faculty Development Fund.

EMERITUS NEWS

Three of the Department emeritus faculty - Don Duncan, Chuck Phillips, and Tom Nelson – live in Sonoma County. Clem Falbo lives in Oregon. Don still plays strategic

tennis and takes brisk walks for exercise. He is looking forward to shooting baskets with his two grandchildren when they visit in June. Chuck’s passion for hiking has

helped him hike all but 75 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail. He just recently went on a cruise to the Mexican Riviera and also spent several days in Yosemite.

Tom has continued tutoring for the Adult Literacy Program. When he is not occupied with his grand

daughter or at the gym he works on Sudoku puzzles. Clem recently attended the tenth annual Legacy of R. L.

Moore Conference in Austin Texas, where the focus was Inquiry Based Learning. In January 2007 Clem gave a talk titled Elementary Methods for Solving Functional Differential Equations in Hawaii. His paper A Tale of Two Problems with the Same Differential Equation was published in the Mathematical Gazette in November 2006.

Sean, Natasha, and HannaH prepare for the fun

Edie Mendez

Rick Luttmann modeling his Mona Lisa outfit

Aaron Donahue, Ai-Chu Wu, Jean Bee Chan & Friends

married Math majors

MATH CLUB What a wonderful year for the Math Club! We kicked it off with our Halloween Pumpkin Carving Contest event which had a good

turnout, especially thanks to Elaine McDonald, our biggest customer. Keeping the hype alive and tradition going, Math Club embarked in

selling t-shirts for the holidays. Also in time for the holiday break was a Mobius scarf raffle

which sparked an interest for club advisor Brigitte Lahme. The scarf was eyed by Gina Voight, but ultimately won by Bill Barnier. Pi Day

was up next, with perhaps the biggest turnout yet! You may have seen our picture in the Press Democrat.

During this time the Club participated in the annual Math Festival, and Expanding Your

Horizons, showing off math puzzles. Lastly, after a 3 year hiatus, the Luttmann

Fashion Show came back with vengeance. Host and club treasurer, Aaron Donahue entertained the crowd with math jokes, and a variety of skits

were performed by professors and students alike.

Thanks for the awesome year!

Susan Herring pledged a donation to the Math Club if Marybeth Hull, the Dept AC would dress like a banana and sing the “Peanut Butter and Jelly song”. So like the “math mom” she is, she did!

Office Staff Gina Voight & Marybeth Hull

Ben Ford

Jerry Morris, Brigitte Lahme, Jean Bee Chan & Lynn Stauffer