Summer Research in Mathematics

Four BC undergraduate math majors will be carrying out research in mathematics this summer.

Karolina Cybert A&S '14, has been awarded a 2012 Advanced Study Grant for her project "Coronal Mass Ejections—Their Causes, Frequency, Probability Distributions and Impact on the U.S. Airline Industry". Prof. Jenny Baglivo and Dr. Charles Carrano, Senior Scientist at BC's Institute for Scientific Research, will serve as co-mentors on her project.

Stephanie Ger A&S '14, has been awarded an Undergraduate Research Fellowships to work on aspects of dynamical systems. Prof. Rennie Mirollo and Prof. Jan Engelbrecht (Physics) will serve as co-mentors on her project.

Amy Nesky A&S '13, will be one of the inaugural class at Brown University/ICERM's Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program, working on open questions in geometry and in dynamical systems of geometric origin. She will also attend summer mathematics workshops at Berkeley and at Notre Dame.

Lisa Piccirillo A&S '13, will attend Cornell University's REU. She will also attend the Women and Mathematics workshop at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton.

Professor Meyerhoff awarded Simons Fellowship

Congratulations to Professor Meyerhoff who has been awarded a prestigious Simons Fellowship. The fellowship will provide funding for a semester research leave allowing Meyerhoff to take a full year sabbatical in academic year 2012-2013.

Conference on recent work of Professor Tao Li

The Redbud Topology Conference is focussed around Professor Tao Li's recent examples of hyperbolic 3-manifolds whose Heegaard genera are strictly greater than the rank of their fundamental groups. See website.

Promotion to Full Professor

The Mathematics Department is pleased to announce that in recognition of his accomplishments in teaching, scholarship and service Associate Professor Benjamin Howard has been promoted to Full Professor.  Congratulations, Ben!

Women and Mathematics

Lisa Piccirillo '13 has been accepted as an undergraduate participant in the 2012 Women and Mathematics program taking place this May at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton. WAM is a two week mentoring program for undergraduate and graduate women in mathematics. Lisa will be taking courses entitled "Tangent Vectors and Twisting Planes: An Introduction to Legendrian Knot Theory" and "From Linear Algebra to the Non-Squeezing Theorem of Symplectic Geometry."

2012 BC Distinguished Lecturer in Mathematics

Robert Ghrist, Andrea Mitchell University Professor at the University of Pennsylvania, will be the 2012 BC Distinguished Lecturer in Mathematics. Prof. Ghrist will give 3 lectures April 18, 19, and 20, the first intended for a general university audience. Prof. Ghrist works in Applied Topology, and holds appointments at Penn in both the Department of Mathematics and the Department of Electrical/Systems Engineering.

Undergraduate Summer Research Opportunities

The NSF has announced summer sites for their Research Experience for Undergraduates program. Opportunities are also available on campus. More

Undergraduate Research Symposium

Three undergraduates who have carried out research in mathematics, Anna Broido, Michelina Pallone and Lisa Piccirillo spoke about their work in the BC Undergraduate Research Symposium on Friday, February 3rd at 2 p.m. in Fulton 235. The talks are intended for a general audience, and are a great way for math students interested in research to see what other students have done and get ideas for themselves. 

Are you interested in doing research in the mathematical sciences this summer? If so, please come to an information session Thursday, December 1, from 12 to 1 in Carney 309. Pizza will be served.
For more details, please contact Prof. Eli Grigsby

Profs. Chambers and Rallis are running weekly review sessions Wednesdays 3:00-4:00 p.m. in Carney 251 to hep BC students prepare for the actuarial examination Exam P- Probability.

For this and other actuarial information, please see: www2.bc.edu/daniel-chambers/actuarial/

This is an opportunity for math lovers to learn more and interact with other math students. Many group members compete in the Mathematical Association of America’s prestigious William Lowell Putnam Competition. The competition’s problems are drawn from the usual mathematics major curriculum. For additional information, come to the first meeting or contact Prof. Keane.

The Boston College Math Society will be hosting math study sessions on Sunday nights from 7:00–8:45 p.m. in Carney 309. The study sessions are intended for MT216 and higher courses. These drop in, informal sessions, are an opportunity for students in these classes to discuss some homework problems together.

Undergraduate Lecture, Co-Sponsored with the BC Math Society

Dr. Paul Garvey, Chief Scientist at the MITRE Corporation, will speak Monday, September 26, from 4:00-5:00 p.m. in Carney 102. His lecture, “Evaluating Risky Prospects, with a little Calculus,” involves the mathematics of risk. He will also be talking about his personal experience, which may be informative for those of you who are curious in learning about careers in math-related fields.

Dr. Garvey is internationally recognized and widely published in cost analysis, cost uncertainty analysis, and in the application of advanced decision analytic methods to problems in engineering systems risk analysis and management.

You don’t need to be in the BC Math Society or a math major to come, so bring your friends—refreshments will be served.

Info Session for Undergrads Interested in Summer Research

Are you interested in doing research in the mathematical sciences this summer?
If so, please come to an information session Thursday, December 1, from 12 to 1 in Carney 309.
For more details, please contact Prof. Eli Grigsby.

Announcing New Faculty

We are pleased to announce four tenure-track Assistant Professor appointments: Professors John Baldwin (topology/Princeton), Dawei Chen (algebraic geometry/University of Illinois, Chicago), Joshua Greene (topology/Columbia), and Dubi Kelmer (number theory/University of Chicago). Profs. Chen, Greene and Kelmer will begin their appointments next fall, while Prof. Baldwin will begin his appointment in January 2012.

Professor Rick Faber

Retired Professor Rick Faber, a long time member of the math department, passed away on August 22, 2011. Rick was a special teacher, and a remarkable guy: he lived for 43 years undergoing dialysis.

Faculty Lectures

Math faculty lecture about their scholarship around the globe.  More

Eight mathematics majors will be involved in research and training programs this summer.

Tair Akhmejanov ’12 will participate in the research experiences for undergraduates program in mathematics at Cornell University, sponsored by the National Science Foundation. Students in this program will explore the properties of functions defined on fractals, the linear algebra of finite groups, and the combinatorial aspects of triangulations of manifolds and pseudomanifolds.

Jacobson Blomquist ’12 will participate in the research experiences for undergraduates program in mathematics at the University of Texas in Tyler, sponsored by the National Science Foundation. Students in this program will explore problems in knot theory, tiling theory and graph theory.

Anna Broido '12 will participate in the research experiences for undergraduates program in modeling and applied mathematics at North Carolina State University, cosponsored by the National Science Foundation and the National Security Agency. Students in this program will explore topics as diverse as ozone inhalation models, cluster analytics and visualization, cell rearrangements in tissues, models for financial risk, and models for the spread of HIV/AIDS.

Stephanie Ger ’14 will participate in the undergraduate research institute in experimental mathematics at Michigan State University, sponsored by the National Security Agency. Students in this program will study topics in the areas of generalized Fibonacci polynomials, inverse modeling dynamical systems, and patterns in permutations.

Troy Heffernan ’12 will be working under the joint supervision of Professors Rennie Mirollo (Math Dept.) and Jan Engelbrecht (Physics Dept.). His project will investigate connections among three research areas in applied dynamical systems and mathematical neuroscience: the study of synchrony in networks of simple coupled oscillators, like the classic Kuramoto model, the study of synchrony in the firing events of neural networks and its biological relevance to pattern recognition, and the question of decoding input signals from the firing patterns of single-compartment as well as networked neural models. He will be supported by a Boston College Undergraduate Research Fellowship.

Alexander Meyers '12 will participate in the summer institute in biostatistics program at Boston University, cosponsored by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute and the National Center for Research Resources. Students in this program will explore how quantitative methods can be used to investigate important health issues, learn from recognized practicing biostatisticians, epidemiologists and statistical geneticists, and train with leading researchers using data from the renowned Framingham Heart Study.

Michelina Pallone ’12 will participate in the research experiences for undergraduates program in mathematics at Louisiana State University, cosponsored by the National Science Foundation and the Louisiana Education Quality Support Fund. Students in this program will explore the interaction of several areas of mathematics centering around group actions, graphs and polyhedra, braids and knots as well as modular forms.

Lisa Piccirillo '13 is working with Professor Elisenda Grigsby, exploring the relationship between categorified quantum and gauge-theoretic invariants of knots and links. She will be supported by a Boston College Undergraduate Research Fellowship.

Clavius Group

The Clavius Group will be in residence at Boston College from June 27 to July 23. This group of Catholic mathematicians will organize research lectures, as well as a full day Symposium on Mathematics and Religious Discourse.

Publications

Two math faculty members have published papers in elite math journals. Prof. Ben Howard's article "Intersection theory on Shimura surfaces II" has appeared in Inventiones Mathematicae (Volume 183, Number 1). Prof. Solomon Friedberg's article"Weyl group multiple Dirichlet series, Eisenstein series and crystal bases" has appeared in Annals of Mathematics (Volume 173, Number 2).