New faculty are set to join the Mathematics Department this year, increasing our presence in the area of Geometry and Topology. Eli Grigsby, who received her Ph.D. from Berkeley and did post-doctoral work at Columbia University, will join as a tenure-track Assistant Professor. We will also host three visitors: Professors Hua Bai (Southern California), Sungmo Kang (U. of Texas at Austin) and Ilker Yuce (U. of Illinois at Chicago). All four specialize in the field of Topology.
The second edition of An Introduction to Analysis, by retired faculty members Gerald Bilodeau, Paul Thie, and G.E. Keough has just been published by Jones and Bartlett.
The Department of Mathematics is pleased to announce that our Ph.D. program in mathematics has been approved. We will admit our first class of doctoral students in the Fall of 2010. We look forward to implementing a program that allows our students to reach a high level of scholarship as they experience the excitement of carrying out mathematics research, and also to develop excellence in teaching. Details of the program will be announced this fall.
Ebony Harvey, a second-year graduate student, will be presenting a poster on Knot Theory at the Conference for African American Researchers in Mathematical Sciences (CAARMS) this summer. She has received full funding from the conference.
Solomon Friedberg has written an Op-Ed piece for the Boston Globe about the current state of mathematics and science education. Read more »
Math Department faculty will be traveling the globe this summer. Seven of our faculty will be presenting research at mathematics conferences, from Ireland to Germany to Japan to the US, while Professors Martin Bridgeman and Tao Li will be serving as co-organizers for the 5th William Rowan Hamilton Geometry and Topology Workshop, held in conjunction with the Hamilton Mathematics Institute, Trinity College, Dublin. Read more »
Thomas R. Runyon and Rebecca F. Wentzel have been selected as the 2009 recipients of the Paul J. Sally, Jr. Award and the Albert A. Bennett Award, respectively. In addition, 22 students were inducted into Pi Mu Epsilon, the mathematics honor society. Read more »
Teaching Award Received
Solomon Friedberg, professor of mathematics and department chair, has received the Mathematical Association of America's 2009 Northeastern Section Award for Distinguished College or University Teaching. Read more »
Master Educator Recognized
The Association of Teachers of Mathematics in Massachusetts presented the inaugural Rev. Stanley J. Bezuszka, S.J. Achievement Award for Excellence in the Teaching and Learning of Mathematics to Professor Margaret J. Kenney at their Spring Conference in Marlborough, Massachusetts.
Graduate Student Recognized
Papers in Top Journals
Congratulations are in order to two BC math faculty who have had articles accepted or appear recently in top math journals. Prof. Mark Reeder (with S. DeBacker) has published "Depth-zero supercuspidal L-packets and their stability," a 107 page parer, in the May 2009 issue of Annals of Mathematics. Prof. Rob Meyerhoff (with D. Gabai and P. Milley) has had his paper "Minimum volume cusped hyperbolic 3-manifolds" accepted by the Journal of the American Mathematical Society.
Second Annual Boston College Distinguished Lecturer in Mathematics Announced
Professor Ravi Vakil of Stanford will be speaking this spring as the department's second annual Boston College Distinguished Lecturer in Mathematics. Prof. Vakil is a renowned algebraic geometer who has received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the Andre-Aisenstadt Prize from the CRM in Montreal, an American Mathematical Society Centennial Fellowship, a Frederick E. Terman fellowship, and an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship. He will be the Mathematical Association of America's 2009 Hedrick Lecturer. He also received Stanford's 2004-05 Dean's Award for Distinguished Teaching and the Brown Faculty Fellowship. Prof. Vakil will be visiting the department March 31 and April 1, 2009.
Pizza and Profs Event
Math majors, minors, and other students interested in advanced mathematics courses met with department faculty over pizza on March 26th. If you missed it, and have questions about math courses offered in 2009-2010, you can contact the instructors directly, or e-mail mathugrd@bc.edu.
New One-credit Courses
In the fall of 2009, the Math Department will offer 3 one-credit courses. The courses will each meet once per week and, as noted, carry one credit. These courses will not count as electives for the purpose of the mathematics electives for a mathematics major or minor. Neither will they count as courses for the 38-course requirement for graduation from Boston College. Rather, these should be seen as enrichment courses for mathematics majors or interested students in other departments.For more information, visit the "Course and Schedule Information" section of our website.
New Elective Opportunity
The Mathematics Department will occasionally allow courses taken from other BC departments to count as electives for the mathematics major. For this Fall's opportunity and how you can take advantage of it, see the "Course and Schedule Information" section of our website.
Teaching Award
Professor and Chair Solomon Friedberg has been selected as the winner of the Mathematical Association of America's 2009 Northeastern Section Award for Distinguished College or University Teaching. The Northeastern Section of the MAA includes the six New England states of Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont, and the four Canadian provinces of New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. Prof. Friedberg was cited for his enthusiasm and skill in the classroom, his commitment to his students and accessibility outside the classroom, and his efforts to improve the teaching of the next generation of college and university faculty.
New Hire Announced
Dr. Julia Elisenda (Eli) Grigsby will be joining the Mathematics Department next fall as an Assistant Professor. Dr. Grigsby is currently a third-year NSF postdoctoral fellow in the Columbia University Mathematics Department. She studies low-dimensional topology, especially applications of Heegaard Floer homology to knot concordance questions and interactions between Heegaard Floer homology and Khovanov homology.
Graduate Award
First-year graduate student Ebony Harvey (pictured above) has been accepted with full funding to attend the Arizona Winter School 2009 at the Southwest Center for Arithmetic Geometry.
The best job in the U.S...Mathematician!
According to a recent study reported in the Wall Street Journal, the three best occupations in the U.S. are (1) Mathematician; (2) Actuary; and (3) Statistician. Learn more....
Upcoming Talks
Prof. Ben Howard has been invited to speak at the Southern California Number Theory Day held at Caltech on Saturday, February 28. More information about the event at http://www.math.caltech.edu/events/SCNTD09.html.
Special General-Audience Lecture
Professor Tom Banchoff of Brown University spoke on "The Four-Dimensional Geometry and Theology of Salvador Dali." More...
Most Downloaded Paper from Crelle's Journal...
is "On the p-parts of quadratic Weyl group multiple Dirichlet series" by Gautam Chinta, Solomon Friedberg, and Paul E. Gunnells.
Math Major? Career Options are Limitless!
"Your career as a teacher, corporate researcher, business executive, venture capitalist or investor - as a math major, you don't have to pick just one!" Dr. Don Telage, a new part-time faculty member in Mathematics, shared his varied experiences in all these careers and more over pizza in a short, informal talk, followed by discussion and Q&A on Thursday, Nov. 20.
Looking for a Math Elective?
The Math Department is introducing two new electives: MT450 Advanced Linear Algebra, and MT455 Mathematical Problem Solving. More...
BC Math Society/Math Department Block Party
Students enjoyed pizza and took advantage of the chance to ask Math professors about the Math major, classes being offered next year, and opportunities for mathematicians. If you missed it, feel free to stop by the department with any questions.
Jenson to Speak on Technology-Enhanced Feedback
Prof. Richard Jenson has been selected to present a 45-minute address in the Session on Pedagogy and Research Assessment at the International Conference in Collegiate Mathematics to take place March 12-15, 2009 in New Orleans. His presentation is titled "Technology Enhanced Feedback and Engagement in Teaching Calculus."
BC Math Society Elects Officers
The BC Math Society held its first meeting of the year on Wednesday, October 8. This year's officers are Albert Meng (President), Grant Salzano (Vice President), Ben Kocarnik (Secretary), Stephanie Chmura (Treasurer), and Jessica Ulcickas (Publicity Chair).
New NSA Grant Awarded
Prof. Avner Ash has been awarded a two-year grant by the National Security Agency for his research in Number Theory. The project is entitled "Mathematical Sciences: Cohomology of Arithmetic Groups and Galois Representations."
Upcoming BBC Program - "The Story of Maths"
The British Broadcasting Company will be airing a program on the history of mathematics, presented by Prof. Marcus du Sautoy of the University of Oxford. Although unavailable for direct viewing in the U.S., it can be seen over the Internet on the BBC's website.
Workshop Organizers
Profs. Martin Bridgeman and Tao Li served on the organizing committee for the 4th William Rowan Hamilton Geometry and Topology Workshop held August 28-30, 2009 at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. The workshop was co-sponsored by Boston College, and included a wine reception at Boston College Centre for Irish Programmes in Dublin. The theme of this year's workshop was Heegard splittings, mapping class groups, curve complexes and related topics.
Friedberg Reappointed as Editor
Chair and Professor Sol Friedberg has been appointed to a second two-year term as editor of the book series Issues in Mathematical Education; he will now serve as editor through 2010. This series, published by the American Mathematical society and the Conference Board of the Mathematical Sciences, is devoted to upgrading the base of scholarly knowledge concerning learning, teaching, and curriculum at the undergraduate and graduate levels in the mathematical sciences, the education of pre-service teachers for the mathematical sciences, and graduate programs in education in the mathematical sciences.
New Joint BC-MIT Seminar Series
Boston College and MIT will join forces this coming year to create a Number Theory Seminar series, with the goal of attracting number theorists from the greater Boston area and featuring important advances in modern number theory. More...
The Mathematics of Middle School
Prof. Solomon Friedberg was one of a group of 12 mathematicians who met twice this year in Berkeley, California to clarify the mathematical underpinnings of secondary school mathematics in the United States. This project, funded by the Noyce Foundation, is the initial step in a larger effort to provide a comprehensive treatment of mathematical topics that generate confusion in school mathematics.
BC Math Professor Contributes to Revising the AP Calculus Curriculum
Prof. C-K Cheung was one of about 50 university faculty members from around the country to participate in the AP Calculus Faculty Conference, which took place in Chicago October 4-5, 2008. Participants reviewed a draft of the new AP Calculus curriculum, and worked on changes to it.
Putnam Competition
The William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition will take place this year, here at BC and across the US and Canada, on Saturday, Dec. 6. Professors Keane and King will be holding problem sessions for any undergraduates interested in participating. The competition is based on the usual mathematics curriculum (calculus and linear algebra, for example), and rewards not just knowledge but ingenuity and insight. If you would like more information but missed the first organizational meeting, contact Professor Keane.
The Ideal Mathematics Teacher
Chair and Professor Sol Friedberg was recently featured in the online publication of the Centro de Modelamiento Matemático at the University of Chile, when he was invited to visit that nation to advise them on several projects related to the mathematical preparation of future teachers.
A Passion for Mathematics
BC Math Department alumnus Dr. Paul J. Sally, Jr. (BA '54, MA '56), a mathematician who is world-renowned for both his research and his contributions to mathematics education, was recently profiled in the University of Chicago Magazine. More...
Friedberg Featured Speaker in Edinburgh
Professor Sol Friedberg presented a talk this summer at the Conference on Multiple Dirichlet Series and Applications to Automorphic Forms, sponsored by the International Centre for Mathematical Sciences. More...
Mirollo attends IMA course in Mathematical Neuroscience
Professor Rennie Mirollo participated in this intensive course at the Institute for Mathematics and its Applications. This exciting field of research involves mathematical theory as relevant to studies of the brain and neural networks. More...
Congratulations to Our Undergraduate Award Winners!
The Albert A. Bennett Award was given to Colleen A. Sampson, and the Paul J. Sally Jr. Award was presented to Brendan Keenan. More...
Congratulations on Book Publication
Congratulations are due to Paul R. Thie and Jerry Keough on the publication of the third edition of Introduction to Linear Programming and Game Theory.
NSF Grant Awarded
Professor Mark Reeder has been awarded a new 3-year, $135,326, National Science Foundation grant for his research on explicit Langlands correspondences. This belongs to the interface between the fields of Representation Theory (the study of the manifestation of symmetry) and Number Theory. The Langlands correspondence is a series of conjectures which predict strong interactions between three very different kinds of symmetries: i) symmetries of the roots of polynomials; ii) symmetries in finite dimensional spaces, such as one sees in the Platonic solids; and iii) symmetries in infinite dimensional spaces. It is expected that verification of the Langlands correspondence will lead to deep new results in Number Theory.
Awarded Tenure
Assistant Professors Benjamin Howard and Tao Li have been promoted to Associate Professor with tenure. Their promotions are effective for the coming academic year. We congratulate these two outstanding scholars and teachers on their accomplishments.
Donald J. White Teaching Award winners
The Math Department was fortunate to have an outstanding group of teaching fellows for the 2007-2008 academic year. We are pleased to announce that each of them has received the Donald J. White Teaching Award, which recognizes teaching excellence by graduate students. Congratulations to Tara Barnum, Michelle Clement, Elizabeth Dobrowolski, Rose Morgan, George Potter, and Bronwen Price.
Earthquakes and Mathematics
Professor Dan Chambers will be presenting a lecture entitled "Forecasting Earthquakes: A Statistical Approach" at the Weston Observatory (381 Concord Road, Weston, MA) from 7-9 p.m. on Wednesday, May 14th, and again on May 21st. Reservations are required, due to limited seating. For more information, call 617-552-8300.
Recent and Upcoming Invited Talks
Professor Avner Ash has spoken on "Stable Group Homology and Hecke Operators" at Brandeis University's Everytopic Seminar and at Boston University's Algebra Seminar, and will give a talk at New College, Florida later this month. He will also speak in May at the Wesleyan University Algebra Seminar. Professor Solomon Friedberg presented a talk entitled "Twisted Euler Products and Gelfand-Tsetlin Patterns" at the American Mathematical Society meetings in New York City this past March, and at the Stanford/AIM Number Theory Seminar. Professor Benjamin Howard has made presentations at the University of Toronto Number Theory Seminar, and at the Workshop on Automorphic Forms, Geometry, and Arithmetic at Oberwolfach, Germany in February. He also gave a talk entitled "Recent Developments in Number Theory: Selmer Groups, L-functions, and Galois Deformations" at UCLA in March.
Dr. John Horton Conway lectures
Our new Boston College Distinguished Lecturer in Mathematics series was successfully launched with lectures by Professor John Horton Conway, holder of the John von Neumann Chair of Mathematics at Princeton University. Dr. Conway has made significant contributions in a number of mathematical fields: the theory of finite groups, knot theory, number theory, game theory, coding theory, tiling, and the creation of new number systems. He also is noted for his interest in mathematical games, and is the inventor of the "Game of Life", a computer simulation of simple cellular "life" in which simple rules give rise to amazingly complex behavior. His first lecture, "The Surreal Numbers," drew a standing-room only crowd, and will soon be available on Front Row.
Actuarial Exam Review Classes
Review classes for the first actuarial exam are being held each Wednesday from 3-4 p.m. in Carney 003. The subject matter is probability and statistics. All interested students are welcome.
Appointment
Professor Solomon Friedberg has been appointed to a three-year term on the Massachusetts Department of Education's Mathematics and Science Advisory Council. This council advises the Commissioner of Education and the Board of Education on matters pertinent to mathematics and science education in the Commonwealth.
Appointment
Professor Avner Ash has recently been appointed as an editor of the Journal of Number Theory, an eminent journal in the field of number theory dedicated to providing an international forum for the publication of original research in this field. It has an editorial board of number theorists based all over the United States and Europe.
Geometry and the Imagination
Professor Rob Meyerhoff is among a trio of US and Australian academics who have proven that the "Weeks manifold" is indeed the smallest possible hyperbolic 3-manifold. More from Science magazine.
Appointment
Professor Solomon Friedberg has been appointed to the Advisory Board for the American Mathematical Society's Working Group on Preparation for Technical Careers.
BC Math Society and Math Department co-sponsor Ice Cream Social
Join us on April 8th in Carney 309, from noon until 2 p.m., for ice cream sundaes and a chance to meet with the professors who will be teaching upper-level mathematics courses in the coming Fall semester. Bring your questions and your sweet tooth!
Dr. Barry Cipra to speak at BC
The Math Department and the BC Math Society have invited Barry Cipra to give a talk at BC on Tuesday, February 19th at 5 p.m. in Carney 103. Dr. Cipra is a prolific mathematics writer. He is a Contributing Correspondent for Science magazine, and the author of a number of popular math books including the series "What's happening in the mathematical sciences?", for which he won the Joint Policy Board in Mathematical Sciences Communication Award in 2005. The title of Dr. Cipra's talk is "SeVenn, EleVenn, and Beyond".
Our Harvard Connection
Caroline Jeffery (Mathematics, Boston College, B.A. 2000, M.A. 2002) has recently completed all coursework and qualifying exams on the way to earning a Ph.D. in Biostatistics from Harvard University. She will be working on statistical issues in biosurveillance under the supervision of Professor Marcello Pagano. Caroline will be our third graduate to earn a doctoral degree from the Biostatistics Department at Harvard. Prior graduates worked on statistical issues in pharmacogenetics and in neurotoxicity.
New Department Administration in Place for 2007-2008
Professor Solomon Friedberg has accepted the position of Department Chair, beginning June 1. He assumes the Office now being vacated by Professor Jerry Keough, who returns to the faculty after serving six years as Chair. Professor Dan Chambers will serve as Undergraduate Vice Chair, while Professor Rob Meyerhoff will become Graduate Vice Chair. Professor Richard Jenson will serve as the department's Computer/Technology Liaison.
Welcome Visitors
The mathematics department is hosting the Clavius Group, an international society of Catholic mathematicians, during July 2007. We extend them a warm welcome and wish them a productive visit to BC.
Workshop Organizer
Professor Martin Bridgeman is one of the organizers of the third William Rowan Hamilton Geometry and Topology Workshop at the Hamilton Math Institute in Dublin, Ireland, this fall. Boston College Ireland will host a wine reception for the workshop participants.
Senior Publishes in Mathematics Journal
Clare Duan '07, has distinguished herself by becoming the first undergraduate who has published in a mathematics journal. Her senior research thesis, A Multi-Objective Approach to Portfolio Optimization, has been published in the 2007 spring issue of the Rose-Hulman Undergraduate Math Journal. She was also invited to present her paper at the 2007 Hudson River Mathematics Conference and at the Pacific Coast Mathematics Conference in Malibu, California, sponsored by the Mathematics Association of America. There she was the recipient of a Student Speaker Award. Her research was conducted under Professor Nancy Rallis.
Clare, from Guangzhou, China, is a double major in finance and mathematics. She has played a leadership role instrumental in the revival of the Boston College Mathematics Society. In June, she will take a position as an investment banking analyst at a major financial institution on Wall Street.
2007 Award Winners Announced
Senior Alex C. Landraitis of West Roxbury, MA, was selected as recipient of the 2007 Paul J. Sally, Jr. award. This award, endowed by Professor Sally himself, is presented annually to a graduating senior (or seniors) who has shown true, academic distinction in a demanding program in Mathematics. Alex has gone on to attend Cornell on a graduate fellowship, working towards a Ph.D. in mathematical logic.
Senior Elizabeth Rini of Malverne, NY, was selected as the recipient of the 2007 Albert A. Bennett award. This award, endowed by friends of Professor Bennett after his death in 1971 and instituted in 1980, is presented annually to a graduating mathematics major who has shown a high level of achievement and a desire to teach mathematics. Elizabeth did her prepracticum work at Needham High School, and her full practicum (student teaching) at Newton North High School this past spring. She hopes to find a high school teaching position near her home in NY this Fall.
Three graduating seniors have been designated as graduates with Departmental Honors in 2007. They are Laura K. Henry, Alex C. Landraitis, and Janine D. Molino. Departmental Honors recipients must complete the mathematics major with a high level of accomplishment, and additionally complete two graduate courses (800-level) and participate in either a directed readings program or the undergraduate honors seminar.
New NSF Grant
Professor Martin Bridgeman has received a new 3-year NSF Grant for his work on Geodesic Currents, Hyperbolic Geometry, and Dynamical Systems.
Friedberg and Team Awarded Multi-million Dollar Grant
Mathematics Professor Solomon Friedberg is one of a team of investigators that have been awarded a 1.5 million dollar, three-year, NSF grant. More...
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