Mathematics Department
College of Arts and Sciences
Summer 1998
Editor: Russell
Brown,
rbrown@ms.uky.edu
|
Mathematics Department College of Arts and Sciences |
Perspectives
on UK Mathematics
Summer 1998 Editor: Russell
Brown,
|
I would like to extend my greetings to all members of the mathematics community associated with the University of Kentucky. The department has grown in many ways during the past few years to maintain our strength in mathematics research and education, and to meet the challenges of the employment environment. Some highlights: the research group in numerical analysis and scientific computation has been rebuilt, here has been a marked increase in the number of doctoral students graduating each year, we have a more active group of mathematics majors who are involved in research and advanced studies, and we are helping develop excellent mathematics instruction throughout the Commonwealth.
The department has just concluded a self-study and established a new five-year plan for 1998-2003. Some of the goals include the hiring of new assistant professors, the establishment of visiting assistant professorships for new scholars, enhancement of the undergraduate mathematics experience, and development of the applied and industrial mathematics program. We are striving to develop several tracks for graduate students to allow them to succeed in an industrial or academic career.
New faculty and a retirement
Some recent changes in the faculty include retirements and new arrivals. The department's numerical analysis and scientific computation program is thriving with several recent hires. Craig Douglas joined the department as a professor in January 1997. He came to the department from IBM's Thomas Watson Research Center. Craig received his PhD from Yale University in 1982. Craig's research is in the numerical solution of partial differential equations, especially multigrid methods. He brings to the department a wealth of experience in industrial mathematics. Craig is heading up our program in industrial and applied mathematics, and also serves as Associate Director of the Center for Computational Sciences.
Two new junior members of the numerical analysis and scientific computation research group are Ren-Cang Li and Seongjai Kim. Ren-Cang received his PhD in Applied Mathematics in December 1995 from the University of California, Berkeley. He won a prestigious Householder Fellowship in Scientific Computing in 1995 and worked at Oak Ridge National Laboratory until his arrival in Lexington in January 1997. Ren-Cang is a numerical analyst specializing in numerical linear algebra and techniques for the numerical solution of differential equations. Our most recent hire is Seongjai Kim, who also works in the numerical solution of PDE's with emphasis on wave propagation and inverse problems. He received his PhD from Purdue University in 1995. Seongjai joins our department after postdoctoral positions at Rice University and Shell Oil.
This year, we say goodbye to Professor
Ray Rishel, who will retire after twenty-six years at the University
of Kentucky. Ray received his PhD from the University of Wisconsin in 1959,
and worked for many years at Boeing. He joined the faculty at UK as a professor
in 1972. An expert in stochastic control, Ray has been active in applied
mathematics and operations research at UK. Ray will be honored at a symposium
on stochastic control and financial models that will be held at UK on 2-3
October 1998.
Faculty honors
There are two recent faculty honors.
At the annual meeting of the Kentucky Section of the Mathematical Association
of America, Jim Wells
received the section's award for outstanding
teaching at the college or university level. Anyone who has experienced
Jim's teaching knows that this is a well-deserved recognition. In 1997,
Zhongwei Shen received a prestigious Centennial Fellowship from
the American Mathematical Society. This fellowship will allow Zhongwei
to pursue his research at the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute
in Berkeley, California, in the fall of 1997, and at the University of
Chicago in the fall of 1998. The department is also pleased that, subject
to final approval by the Board of Trustees, Zhongwei will be promoted to
Associate Professor with tenure this summer.
Visitors
The department welcomed several research visitors this year. Marco Bittencourt is visiting Craig Douglas and the numerical analysis group. He is an assistant professor at the State University of Campinas, Brazil. He received his PhD in 1996 and is a specialist in multigrid methods. Robert Reams is a postdoctoral fellow working with Tom Hayden. He received his PhD from University College Dublin in 1994. His fields of expertise are matrix theory and linear algebra. Ben Brewster, a professor from Binghamton University, spent his sabbatical year in the department working with Jim Beidleman and the algebra group. Ben received his PhD from UK in 1970.
Two mathematicians, supported by the National Science Foundation, are visiting the department to work with Peter Perry. Ruth Gornet received her PhD from Washington University, and is taking an 18 month leave from her position as a tenure-track assistant professor at Texas Tech University. She is supported by a National Science Foundation POWRE (Professional Opportunities for Women in Research and Education) fellowship and works in spectral geometry. Ed Taylor received his PhD from SUNY-Stony Brook. He joined the department for one year as an NSF postdoctoral fellow after a three-year postdoctoral position at the University of Michigan. Ed works in Kleinian group theory: his work combines techniques of complex analysis, geometry, and spectral theory.
Master of Science in Applied Mathematics
One of our most ambitious projects concerns our program in applied and industrial mathematics. This year, the department received authorization from the Council on Post-Secondary Education to begin offering a Master of Science in Applied Mathematics. This intensive, two-year program will feature special industrial problem-solving seminars, training in computational skills, and summer industrial internships. Each year the department, together with other mathematics departments at nearby universities, will organize an industrial mathematics workshop featuring mathematicians from industry.
This is a brief summary of some of the highlights of the department during 1997-98. Many other outstanding accomplishments of our faculty and students are presented in the paragraphs below. We hope you enjoy this newsletter. Please feel free to contact me about any item discussed in the newsletter or other concerns.
Peter Hislop
Texture of Polycrystals.
Chi-Sing Man came to the University of Kentucky in 1985 after receiving his PhD from Johns Hopkins University. His current research is on the mathematics and mechanics of textured polycrystals. Many familiar solid materials (e.g., rocks and metals) are polycrystalline: they are composed of many larger or smaller single crystals or ``crystallites" with differently oriented crystal directions. The crystallites statistically often have preferred orientations so that the polycrystalline is textured. Crystallographic texture, which is described mathematically by a probability measure p defined on the rotation group, strongly affects the macroscopic behavior of the aggregate. In a new project supported by the Applied Mathematics Program of the National Science Foundation, Man will delineate explicitly how material tensors (e.g., the conductivity tensor, the elasticity tensor, etc.) of weakly textured polycrystals depend on the probability measure p. In another new interdisciplinary project, Man and J.G. Morris of UK’s Chemical and Materials Engineering Department will study how crystallographic texture would affect the plastic flow behavior of selected aluminum and titanium alloys in metal-forming processes; they will also strive to develop an ultrasonic device for on-line monitoring of textures in aluminum sheets. This project is supported by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research and has Commonwealth Aluminum Corporation as Industrial Partner. These two projects together will support one postdoctoral fellow and three full-time research assistants for three years. Roberto Paroni, a PhD student of Man, earned his degree in May. He will receive further training at Carnegie Mellon University as a postdoctoral fellow at their Center for Nonlinear Analysis.
Communicating Mathematics and Distance Learning
Faculty members Paul Eakin, Carl Eberhart, and Ken Kubota are in the fifth year of a communications project intended to support "distance learning" and active mathematical collaboration among UK faculty and students (present and former). The focus of the instructional component of the project is the development of a digital video disk (DVD) system which will hold the lectures for an entire course together with supporting documentation and software. Work over the last few years has concentrated on integrating satellite broadcast or taped lectures with the Internet for communication with the instructor. During this interim phase supporting documentation and materials have been produced on compact disks (CD's) which users install on their PC's. This CD also provides all of the basic communications tools. The DVD, which is now succeeding the CD, will merge the communication tools with the lectures and largely dispense with the need for satellite delivery. Everything the student needs (except the teacher) will be on the DVD. A major challenge is finding a way to put the student and teacher in contact in a reasonable approximation of the traditional classroom. Conferencing software is used to allow the student and teacher to converse and work on the same computer application over the Internet. Television images are possible but not practical at this point, as they require too much bandwidth. However, we expect communications of this type within the next five years. The same communications tools will also permit research collaborations to continue among people who are at different locations.
Jim Wells has agreed to develop the first "full blown" course in this project, a first year course in Calculus.
During the past academic year, nine students completed their PhD degrees. The students and their advisers are:
Wendy Weber, a doctoral student who is studying with Carl Lee, received the Chancellor's Outstanding Teaching Assistant award in May of 1998. The department is especially proud that our teaching assistants have earned these awards in five of the past seven years. These awards are a visible symbol of the excellent instruction that all of our teaching assistants provide.
Each year, the department selects a graduate student who has excelled both at teaching and at research for the Royster award, which is named for Emeritus Professor Wimberley Royster. This year the Royster award was given to Jerry Muir. Muir is a third year student who is studying with Ted Suffridge. He has also served as a teaching assistant in the MathExcel program. Jerry will receive $500 thanks to an endowment provided by friends of the department.
One of our graduate students, Douglas Riley, has been selected in a university wide competition to receive a yearlong dissertation fellowship from the graduate school. Riley will use this fellowship to work on his dissertation on fluid flows in thin channels. Riley is working with Peter Perry.
News from the undergraduate program
This year, we have 23 undergraduate majors graduating with degrees in mathematics. Of these, eight are receiving their degree with honors. The graduates are: Ivan Artiouchine, Gareth Bendall, Frank Brown, Eli Chandler, Ser Ee Chong, Daniel Gabhart, Kevin Kennedy, Kok-Leong Lee, Heather Lindauer, Laura Lohrman, Vanessa E. Magee, Susan Marra, Jason Masony, Sharon E. Palmisano and Douglas M. Wilham. The following students are graduating with honors: Lee R. Gibson, Michael Haney, Bradley W. Jiulanti, Laura Jones, Laura Oremland, James D. Pett, Jonathan Piercy and Darcy L. Thompson. In addition, five mathematics majors were accepted in Phi Beta Kappa this year. They are Lee Gibson, Kevin T. Kennedy, Laura Oremland, Johnathan Piercy and Douglas M. Wilham.
Each year the department provides awards to outstanding undergraduate students in mathematics. Three students are selected to receive the Carolyn S. Bunyan award for outstanding majors in mathematics. They are John Maki, John Pearson and Michael Ward and they will each receive a $500 cash scholarship funded by a gift from the Bunyan family.
This year, the department gives the Sallie Pence award to Thomas Aberli, Jerome Gallt, Chris Girard, Karise Mace and Douglas Wilham. This award recognizes outstanding students who are specializing in mathematics education. Each of these students receives a membership in the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.
The math club has been meeting monthly this year for pizza, speakers and problem solving. Officers for 1997-98 were Lee Gibson, John Maki and Jonathan Piercy. Officers for 1998-99 are John Pearson, Jenny Phillips, Nate Sanders and Charlotte Ochanine. Don Coleman serves as the faculty sponsor.
Last summer three students went to the Mathematical Association of America summer meeting, MathFest, in Atlanta. John Maki, Lee Gibson and Jenny Phillips went along with Suzanne Schontz from Northern Iowa University who was a participant in an Research Experience for Undergraduates program at UK. Gibson and Schontz gave talks. Plans are under way to send a delegation from Kentucky to MathFest in Toronto in July of 1998.
Eight undergraduate math club members attended the spring Mathematical Association of America, Kentucky Section meeting in Morehead in late March. They attended talks and gave a good accounting of themselves. The attendees were Lee Gibson, John Maki, Aaron Maschinot, Jenny Phillips, John Pearson, Jonathan Piercy, Nate Sanders and Aaron Zerhusen. Gibson and Maki gave talks that were quite well done.
Last year, undergraduates in the department participated in the ProSeminar led by David Leep and Serge Ochanine. The group met once a week during the academic year. The ProSeminar is an opportunity for undergraduates to study a chosen topic, but the meetings often attracted several graduate students and faculty. The group studied Projective Geometry in the fall and Quadratic Number Fields in the spring.
Don Coleman will direct a new version of Math 201/202 over next year. This course is required of all prospective elementary school teachers. The new version is an adaptation of MathExcel, the special program in calculus that we have run since 1990. Students in Math 201/202 will be invited to join a special collaborative workshop in which they will work on problems supplementary to regular homework. This project is funded by the College of Arts and Sciences and the Appalachian Rural Systemic Initiative College Project, a program supported by the National Science Foundation and directed by Mike Freeman.
Aaron Zerhusen, class of 1999, will spend the fall semester in Hungary participating in the Budapest semester in mathematics program.
Please let us know if you have news from graduates of the department of mathematics. Send items to:
Newsletter
Department of Mathematics
University of Kentucky
Lexington, KY 40506-0027
or to rbrown@ms.uky.edu.
Graduate Alumni
Albert Schueller, PhD 1996 and Laura Schueller, PhD 1996 are currently at Whitman College in Washington. They will be back at UK for the summer and fall of 1998.
Andrew Vogel, PhD 1990, is a faculty member at Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York.
Hi-Jun Choe, PhD 1989, is at the Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology.
Bruce Hughes, PhD 1981, is at Vanderbilt University. He recently completed Ends of Complexes, published by Cambridge University Press.
Armand Makowski, PhD 1979, is in the Electrical Engineering Department at the University of Maryland.
David Miller, PhD 1979, is in the mathematics department at Wright State University.
James Bain, PhD 1978 is at Dow Chemical Co. in Midland, Michigan.
Ben Brewster, PhD 1970, is
at Binghamton University. Ben spent his sabbatical at UK visiting the mathematics
department.
Undergraduate Alumni
Janice Winner, BA 1996, is studying mathematics at the University of Georgia. Her graduate work is supported by a fellowship from the National Physical Science Consortium.
Kent Orr, BA, is at Indiana University in Bloomington.