Joint Mathematics Meetings in Atlanta, January 5 - 8, 2005

Contact: Mike Breen or Annette Emerson
paoffice@ams.org
Phone: 401-455-4000
Fax: 401-331-3842

December 13, 2004

Providence, RI::

Approximately 5000 mathematicians will attend the annual meetings of the American Mathematical Society (AMS) and Mathematical Association of America (MAA) at the Hyatt Regency Atlanta and the Atlanta Marriott Marquis, January 5-8. Researchers will present over 1600 papers from all specialties of mathematics. More information about the Meetings is online.

Topics: Themes of sessions include the mathematics involved in sports, biology, and the arts, current events in mathematics and mathematics education.

Press Room: Room #2 on the Ballroom Level of the Hyatt Regency, offering fact sheets, the book of abstracts, the complete program of the Meetings, phone, laptop, and a place to conduct interviews. Hours: Wednesday January 5 through Friday January 7, 7:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m., and Saturday January 8, 7:30 a.m. - noon.

Selected Events from the Joint Meetings :

Origami, linkages, and polyhedra: Folding with algorithms. Erik Demaine, MIT. Thursday January 6, 10:05 a.m. An MAA Invited Address..
Folding problems have applications in manufacturing, robotics, graphics, and protein folding. Demaine, a MacArthur Fellow, gives a taste of many recent results, as well as several exciting open problems.

Who Wants to be a Mathematician. Thursday January 6, 10:00 a.m. Marriott Marquis Imperial Ballroom B. AMS Special Presentation.
Eight Atlanta-area high school students answer questions on mathematics in their quest for up to $4000 in cash: A fun time for everyone.

Math in Sports and Games

MAA Session on Mathematics and Sports. Wednesday January 5, 8:00 a.m. - 10:55 a.m. and Friday January 7, 1:00 p.m. - 3:40 p.m.

Papers on using mathematics to analyze sports. Some of the talks are:

• Protection in the batting order: Does it matter who hits behind Barry Bonds? John-Charles Bradbury and Doug Drinen, Sewanee: The University of the South. Friday January 7, 1:20 p.m.
• Geometry of Yoga. H Soto-Johnson, Colorado State University-Pueblo. Wednesday January 5, 8:20 a.m.
• Optimizing distribution of power during a cycling time trial. Michael Scott Gordon, State University of West Georgia. Wednesday January 5, 9:05 a.m.
• Who will throw the next no-hitter? Modeling rare baseball events with a Poisson distribution. J. Scott Billie, Michael Huber and Michael Phillips, United States Military Academy. Wednesday January 5, 9:30 a.m.

Talks on mathematics in sports and games in other sessions:

• An unbeatable deal in card tricks. Colm Mulcahy, Spelman College. Wednesday January 5, 4:15 p.m.
• Going all in – taking a gamble on a poker project in an undergraduate probability course. Christopher Lacke, Rowan University. Wednesday January 5, 10:30 a.m.
• Rising to the occasion of modeling card shuffling. Timothy Chartier, Davidson College and Reuben Fries, University of Washington. Wednesday January 5, 3:00 p.m.
• Eigenvalues and hammer juggling. Carl Lutzer, Rochester Institute of Technology. Thursday January 6, 1:00 p.m.

Mathematics and Biology

The recent explosion in biological data has created new mathematical needs for biologists. Two sessions address problems and issues in mathematical biology.

AMS Special Session on Mathematics and 21st Century Biology. Wednesday January 5, 2:15 p.m. - 5:10 p.m.

• Opportunities at the interface between mathematics and biology. Jill Mesirov, The Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. 2:45 p.m. (program change)
• What can a mathematician tell a physiologist that she doesn't already know? James Keener, University of Utah. 4:15 p.m.
• Ecology: Towards mathematical insights and computational understanding. Louis Gross, University of Tennessee. 4:45 p.m.

AMS Special Session on Mathematical Sciences' Contributions to the Biomedical Sciences. Thursday January 6, 8:00 a.m. - 10:45 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. - 4:15 p.m.

• Mathematical modeling of bacterial biofilms. David Chopp and Brian Moran, Northwestern University, and Matthew Parsek, University of Iowa. 2:30 p.m.
• The need for mathematics in biomedical research. John Whitmarsh, National Institute for General Medical Sciences. 3:30 p.m.

Mathematics Education

Several sessions and talks deal with issues in, and approaches to, mathematics education. One of the sessions is:

MAA Session on Countering "I Can't Do Math": Strategies for Teaching Under-Prepared, Math-Anxious Students. Thursday January 6, 8:00 a.m. - 11:25 a.m.

• Coping with math anxiety in college: Not for students only! Fred Peskoff, Borough of Manhattan Community College/CUNY. 10:45 a.m.

A math education talk from another session:

• Throwing away the calculator. Jason Kelly, Derek Burt and Edgar Rugenstein, United States Military Academy. Thursday January 6, 9:30 a.m.

Mathematics in Other Cultures

MAA Session on Mathematics in the Islamic World. Wednesday January 5, 2:40 p.m. - 5:55 p.m.

• A computer-programmed version of a medieval Islamic instrument for the determination of the direction and distance to Mecca. Eelco Nederkoorn and Jan Hogendijk, University of Utrecht. 3:55 p.m.
• How does the Islamic calendar really work in different parts of the world? Helmer Aslaksen, National University of Singapore. 4:20 p.m.

From another session:

• Ancient Chinese Approach to Proof in Mathematics. Jean Richard and Nkechi Agwu, Borough of Manhattan Community College, City University of New York. Friday January 7, 9:00 a.m.

Mathematics and Art

AMS Special Session on Mathematics and Mathematics Education in Fiber Arts. Friday January 7, 1:00 p.m. - 5:50 p.m.

This session, which begins with the talk below, has an exhibit of mathematical artworks.

• An overview of mathematics in fiber arts, with an attempt to answer an age-old question. Sarah-Marie Belcastro, Xavier University. 1:00 p.m.

Other talks on mathematics and art:

• Using art to teach elementary group theory. Jeffrey W. Clark, Elon University. Thursday January 6, 2:00 p.m.
• Seeing and hearing eigenvalues in animation. Gilbert Strang, MIT and William Briggs, University of Colorado at Denver. Wednesday January 5, 5:10 p.m.

Mathematics and Space

• New methods in celestial mechanics and mission design. Jerrold Marsden and Shane Ross, California Institute of Technology. Friday January 7, 4:00 p.m.
• Foam insulation, wind resistance, and the space shuttle. Mark McKinzie, St. John Fisher College. Thursday January 6, 10:15 a.m.

Mathematics in Business

MAA Session on Mathematics Experiences in Business, Industry, and Government. Saturday January 8, 8:00 a.m. - 10:30 a.m.

• Office management: A Markov model. Gregory Battle, Morehouse College. 9:05 a.m.
• The statistics behind the scenes: Statistics in Consumer Reports. Abbe Herzig, University at Albany, State University of New York. 9:20 a.m.
• Optimizing the retail experience: A new frontier for applied mathematics. Tracy Bibelnieks, Augsburg College. 10:20 a.m.

Also of Interest

Believe It or Not: Some mathematical lies of Ripley. Vince Schielack, Texas A&M University. Friday January 7, 10:00 a.m.

Digital image processing in nanoscale materials research. M. Sun, C. Liu and H. Fujiwara, The University of Alabama. Thursday January 6, 1:45 p.m.

Sliding along a chord through a rotating earth. Andrew Simoson, King College. Thursday January 6, 2:00 p.m.

Party favors of revolution: A calculus visualization technique. Laurie Johnson, Trinity College. Friday January 7, 2:15 p.m.

The Joint Mathematics Meetings are held for the purpose of advancing mathematical achievement, encouraging research, and providing the communication necessary for progress in the field. These meetings serve to preserve, supplement, and utilize the results of the research of mathematicians worldwide.

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Founded in 1888 to further mathematical research and scholarship, the 29,000-member American Mathematical Society fulfills its mission through programs and services that promote mathematical research and its uses, strengthen mathematical education, and foster awareness and appreciation of mathematics and its connections to other disciplines and to everyday life. 5