Current Headlines
- MENGER AWARDS AT THE 2009 ISEF
The 2009 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) was held May 10-15, 2009 at the Reno- Sparks Convention Center in Reno, Nevada. More than 1500 students in grades nine through twelve from over 50 countries participated in the fair. Student finalists who compete at the ISEF go through a multi-step process to qualify and have won an all-expense-paid trip to the fair. In addition to numerous grand awards presented by the ISEF, sixty-seven federal agencies and professional and educational organizations, including the AMS, participated by giving special awards. Prizes given by the AMS included cash, certificates, AMS tote bags and books.
Pictured here, front (left to right): Alicia Zhane, Sohini Sengupta, Almas Abdulla, Yale Wang Fan. Back (left to right): Sameer Kirtikumar Deshpande, Jeffrey Chan, Sarah Lee Sellers, Joshua Vekhter, Andrei Triffo, and Ed Connors. Click here to view a larger image.
The Karl Menger Memorial Prize winners for 2009 are as follows:
- First-Place Award (US$1,000): "Graph Crossings and Cyclic Permutations: Towards a Proof of Zarankiewicz’s Conjecture," by Joshua Vekhter, Williamsville East High School, East Amherst, NY
- Second-Place Awards (US$500): "Infinite Sums of Zeta Functions and Other Dirichlet Series," by Andrei Triffo, Synge Street CBS Secondary School, Dublin, Ireland; "A Quantum Algorithm for Molecular Dynamics Simulation," by Yale Wang Fan, The Catlin Gabel School, Portland, OR
- Third-Place Awards (US$250): "Universal Law for the Distribution of Odd Periodic Cycles within Chaos in Nonlinear Dynamical Systems: An Analysis of Rigid Bifurcation," by Almas Abdulla, West Shore Junior/Senior High School, Melbourne, FL; "Dirichlet Prime Magic Square," by Sarah Lee Sellers, Hedgesville High School, Hedgesville, WV; "Controlling HIV from Transformation into AIDs: Mathematical Modeling of HIV Dynamics," by Sohini Sengupta, Ocean Lakes High School, Virginia Beach, VA; "Survival Analysis of Gene Expression Data Using a Hybrid Dimension Reduction Technique," by Sameer Kirtikumar Deshpande, Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science, Denton, TX, Jeffrey Chan, William P. Clements High School, Sugar Land, TX, and Alicia Zhang, Liberal Arts and Science Academy High School, Austin, TX
- Honorable Mention Awards: "Sequences of Reducible 0,1 Polynomials," by Martin Augustine Camacho, Central High School, St. Paul, MN; "Convergence Acceleration for the Power Series Representation of the Exponential Integral," by Michael Christopher Yurko, Detroit Catholic Central High School, Novi, MI; "MatheMagical Pool," by Wenhan Cui, Cookeville High School, Cookeville, TN; "An Analysis of Erdos's Conjecture," by Matthew Henry Stoffregen, Woodoland Hills High School, Pittsburgh, PA; "A Relativistic Generalization of the Navier-Stokes Equations to Quark-Gluon Plasmas," by Nilesh Tripuraneni, Clovis West High School, Fresno, CA.
- U.S. 2009 IMO TEAM
The six members of the U.S. team who will compete in the 2009 International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) are (in alphabetical order):
*John Berman, John T. Hoggard High School, Wilmington, NC
*Wenyu Cao, Phillips Academy, Andover, MA
*Eric Larson, South Eugene High School, Eugene, OR
*Delong Meng, Baton Rouge Magnet High School, Baton Rouge, LA
*Evan O'Dorney, home-schooled, Danville, CA
*Qinxuan Pan, Thomas S. Wootton High School, Rockville, MD
The IMO takes place in Bremen, Germany, July 10-22. This is the 50th IMO. The first was in Romania in 1959 (it was not held in 1980). More information about IMO 2009 is online. A list of all participating teams, with links to pictures of each team member is also online.
- MATH EN JEU - A NEW INTERACTIVE MULTIMEDIA GAME
How does this online game work?
* create your own identity;
* launch a new game or join a game in progress;
* and it's started!
Math en Jeu was developed by SMAC (Sciences and Mathematics in Action), directed by Professor Jean-Marie De Koninck and a team at the department of mathematics and statistics of Université Laval, and is offered in English or French. "This is basically a board game with a mathematical flavor. Up to four players confront each other in a game by moving on a randomly created board. The players try to accumulate as many coins as possible before the time runs out. To be able to win coins, each player must answer mathematical questions. The more spaces in a move, the harder the question, and the more coins it is worth." See the Math en Jeu website to read more about how the game works, learn about the question bank, and start playing!
- PLUS MAGAZINE ANNOUNCES 2009 NEW WRITERS AWARDS
The 51st issue of Plus includes the winning entries of the 2009 New Writers competition:
* Secondary school category: Winner is "Beauty in Mathematics," by Surein Aziz, and Runner-up is "The expression that (nearly) explained the Universe," by Sophie Butchart
* University category: Winner is "How maths killed Lehman Brothers," by Horatio Boedihardjo, and Runner-up is "Thinking outside the box," by Sonia Buckley
* General public category: Winner is "The Carol syndrome," by José-Manuel Rey, and the Runner-up is "Knitting by numbers," by Lucinda Mathews
The issue also includes feature articles, book reviews, a puzzle and
podcasts, and check out "All the Latest News".
- NOTICES OF THE AMS--JUNE/JULY ISSUE
 This month's issue includes "Remembering Atle Selberg, 1917-2007," Dennis Hejhal, coordinating editor, "On the Concept of Genus in Topology and Complex Analysis," by Friedrich E. P. Hirzebruch and Matthias Kreck, and "WHAT IS...an Elliptic Genus?" by Serge Ochanine. Also in this issue, advice from Professor Nescio on the two-body problem, and on changing advisors and graduate schools; and a reflection, "My First Forty," by Notices Editor Andy Magid.
- FEATURE COLUMN and MATH IN THE MEDIA-- JUNE/JULY ISSUES
The June/July Feature Column is "How Much Longer Can This Go On?" about
finding the longest subsequence in a sequence, by Bill Casselman. This month's Math in the Media includes
Tony Phillips' Take on an "intimidatingly awesome" knot theory project; many
Math Digest summaries, including two on analyzing the spread of the swine
flu, and the building of a differential analyzer at Marshall University; and
links to recent reviews of "Between the Folds" (a documentary on origami)
and the book, "The Calculus Wars: Newton, Leibniz, and the Greatest
Mathematical Clash of All Time," among others. [Photo: Bonita Lawrence with the differential analyzer (nicknamed "Art" after Dr. Arthur Porter--now age 99--who built the first differential analyzer in England). Image courtesy of Bonita Lawrence.]
- INTEL ISEF MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES PRIZES
Intel has announced the prizes for the International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF). Best of Category in the mathematical sciences went to Eric Kerner Larson, of South Eugene High School in Eugene, Oregon, for his project, The Classification of Certain Fusion Categories. Eric receives US$5,000 and a laptop from Intel. See news items on Eric who previously won first place in the 2009 Intel Science Talent Search and second place in the 2008 Siemens Competition in Science, Math, and Technology. Other Intel ISEF awards in the mathematical sciences are:
First Award of $3,000: The Classification of Certain Fusion Categories, Eric Kerner Larson;
Second Award of $1,500:
*Universal Law for the Distribution of Odd Periodic Cycles within Chaos in
Nonlinear Dynamical Systems: An Analysis of Rigid Bifurcation, Year II, Almas Abdulla, West Shore Junior/Senior High School, Melbourne, FL;
*Forcing a Draw in K-in-a-Row Games, Sheng-Hao Chiang, National Experimental High School at Hsinchu Science Park,
Hsinchu City, Chinese Taipei; and
*On G-Difference: A Property of Permutations and Words, Kristin Rose Cordwell, Manzano High School, Albuquerque, NM;
Third Award of $1,000:
*Sequences of Reducible 0,1 Polynomials, Martin Augustine Camacho, Central High School, St Paul, MN;
*Matching Preclusion for the (n,k)-Bubble-Sort Graphs, David Alfred Sherman, Wylie E. Groves High School, Beverly Hills, MI;
*An Analysis of Erdős's Conjecture,
Matthew Henry Stoffregen, Woodland Hills High School, Pittsburgh, PA; and
*Infinite Sums of Zeta Functions and Other Dirichlet Series, Andrei Triffo, Synge Street CBS Secondary School, Dublin, Ireland
Fourth Award of $500:
*An Investigation of the Closure of the Set of Singleton Sets of Natural Numbers
under Union, Intersection, Complement, Addition, Multiplication, Jason Saul Gross, 17, Commack High School, Commack, NY;
*Approximation of the Size of Distorted Spherical Objects, and a New Algorithm for
Precisely Estimating the Size of Spherical Fullerene Molecules, Jun Sup Lee, 15, Langley High School, McLean, VA;
*Parameterizing Knots with Chebyshev Polynomials, Jenna Kay Freudenburg, Kalamazoo Area Math and Science Center,
Kalamazoo, MI;
*Graph Crossings and Cyclic Permutations: Towards a Proof
of Zarankiewicz's Conjecture, Joshua Vekhter, Williamsville East High School, East Amherst, NY; and
*microRNA Expression Patterns in Mouse Lung Development and Cancer, Kevin Kyle Hawkins, Glen Oak High School, Canton, OH.
The ISEF is a program of the non-profit organization, Society for Science & the Public which has posted a list of all award winners (a PDF with the mathematical sciences winners beginning on page 19). Craig Barrett, Intel chairman, said, “I hope that more young people will look at these students and
realize they can be recognized for using their brains. You don’t have to be a quarterback, a
basketball player or a baseball player to be recognized by your peers and the public.”
- 2009 M3 CHALLENGE WINNERS
 Congratulations to High Technology High School, Team #58, Lincroft, New Jersey,
on becoming M3 Challenge Champions (Summa Cum Laude Team Prize) and winning the top prize of US$20,000. [Photograph courtesy of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM).]
The other M3 Challenge prizewinning teams are:
* Runner Up (Magna Cum Laude Team Prize of $15,000): Elk County Catholic High School, Team #290,Saint Marys, Pennsylvania
* Third Place (Cum Laude Team Prize of $10,000): The Wheeler School, Team #128, Providence, Rhode Island
* Fourth Place (Meritorious Team Prize of $7,500): Bergen County Academies, Team #119, Hackensack, New Jersey
* Fifth Place (Exemplary Team Prize of $5,000): West Windsor-Plainsboro High School North, Team #57, Plainsboro, New Jersey
* Sixth Place (First Honorable Mention Team Prize of $2,500): Staples High School,Team #143,Westport, Connecticut
The M3 Challenge competition spotlights applied mathematics as a powerful problem-solving tool, a vital contributor to advances in an increasingly technical society, and a viable and exciting profession. The competition for high school students is sponsored by Moody's Foundation and organized by SIAM. The 2009 M3 competition teams were asked to solve this real world problem:
$787 Billion: Will the Stimulus Act Stimulate the U.S. Economy?
1. Which elements of this $787 billion package are most likely to produce the greatest improvements in employment?
2. How quickly can they be expected to produce results? How will we know whether the stimulus package is "working"? How confident are you in your predictions?
3. There is considerable discussion about a second stimulus package. How will we know if such a package will be needed? If it is needed, how large should it be, and how should it be structured? Are there better ways to stimulate the economy and increase employment?
Read the winning papers.
- AMS ANNOUNCES MASS MEDIA FELLOWSHIP AWARD
 Baldur Hedinsson has been awarded the 2009 Mass Media Fellowship. Baldur is a Ph.D. student in mathematics at Boston University. He will be working at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel for ten weeks over the summer under the sponsorship of the AMS.
The Mass Media Fellowship program is organized by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and is intended to strengthen the connections between science and the media, to improve public understanding of science, and to sharpen the ability of the fellows to communicate complex scientific issues to non-specialists. The program is available to college or university students (in their senior year, or in any graduate or post graduate level) in the natural, physical, health, engineering, computer, or social sciences or mathematics with outstanding written and oral communication skills and a strong interest in learning about the media. It is a highly competitive program and the AMS wishes to congratulate Baldur Hedinsson on his accomplishment.
- MATHEMATICAL MOMENTS - RECENT ADDITIONS
 See the most recent Mathematical Moments:
*Working It Out. Hear the podcast with math professor Jason Brown on how he solved a mystery about the opening chord of the Beatles' "A Hard Day's Night."
*Pulling Out (from) All the Stops. A couple young researchers use graph theory to break a New York City subway record.
In addition to reading about applications of math, listen to researchers talk about their work. Mathematician Kevin Short (University of New Hampshire) talks about what it's like to win a Grammy Award,
physicist Diandra Leslie-Pelecky (University of Texas at Dallas) discusses how math is used by NASCAR engineers, and mathematician Ken Golden (University of Utah) relates his adventures in the Arctic and Antarctic as he seeks to understand the properties of sea ice.
- AMS GRADUATE STUDENT BLOG
 The AMS Graduate Student Blog is a blog by and for math graduate
students, managed by Frank Morgan, AMS vice-president, and professor of
mathematics at Williams College. "Graduate students are the future of the
AMS, and they have a lot to talk about," says Morgan. The Graduate Student
Editorial Board members are Asher Auel, Adam Boocher, Diana Davis, Daniel
Erman, Fernando Galaz, Brian Katz, Alex Levin, Kathryn Lindsey, Andrew Obus,
David Shea Vela-Vick, Clay Shonkwiler, Annalies Z. Vuong, and Tom Wright.
Morgan hopes that more graduate students from around the country will join
the board. The blog entries to date concern organizing a reading seminar,
how to give a good mathematics talk, advice for beginning teaching
assistants, navigating seminars and finding an advisor--topics of great
importance to graduate students, who are all are invited to join the
community by posting comments, questions and advice on the blog, hosted by
Williams College.
- AMS EPSILON FUND MAKES 2009 AWARDS
 The AMS has chosen ten summer mathematics programs to receive Epsilon grants for 2009: Achievement in Mathematics Program (AMP), Lamar University; All Girls/All Math, University of Nebraska, Lincoln; Hampshire College Summer Studies in Mathematics (HCSSiM), Hampshire College; MathPath, Colorado College; Michigan Math and Science Scholars Summer Program, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; PROMYS, Boston University; PROTaSM (Puerto Rico Opportunities for Talented Students in Mathematics), University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez; Research Science Institute, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Ross Mathematics Program, Ohio State University; and Texas State University Honors Summer Math Camp, Texas State University.
"HCSSiM has taught me a whole new way of viewing and learning math."
"I've never been around so many people who love math as much as I do, and It's great. Nobody's afraid to be who they are. And everyone's a bit eccentric, in a very good sense of the word. The people here are just interesting and exhilarating to be around." These are just two of the comments from students who attended math camp in 2008.
In 2008, the Epsilon Fund, the endowment whose income supports the Young Scholars program, reached the initial funding goal of US$2 million. A very generous anonymous gift helped achieve that goal, together with numerous contributions from AMS members and others in the mathematical community. The AMS continues to place a high priority on supporting the programs that bring mathematically talented high school students together and introduce them to mathematical research. See more about the Epsilon Fund. [Image: At the PROMYS math camp at Boston University in 2008.]
- THE GNARLY GNEWS
"Sir Francis Galton was a polymath. He was a great traveler, showed how fingerprints could be classified, published the first newspaper weather map, and virtually created the science of statistics. He wrote a book on African travel, and showed how a non-swimmer could cross a river by hanging onto his horse's
tail." Read more in the most recent issue of the free humorous math newsletter The Gnarly Gnews.
- MATHEMATICIAN ON "SINGING ROAD" TEAM
You may have seen the Honda ads on TV recently. A team including musician/mathematician Paul Du Gre worked on "The Civic Project: Musical Road" -- a project that developed a rumble strip on a road in Lancaster, CA that when driven over (at 55 mph) sounded like the "William Tell Overture." Du Gre notes that the measured slits in the road (varying grooves) became data to to create the tones. The road was paved over so the strip no longer exists, but you can view videos of the Honda commercials that describe the process (and videos--of the production and the reaction--can also be found on YouTube).
- THE GEOMETRY OF 3-MANIFOLDS
The Geometry of 3-Manifolds is a lecture by Harvard University professor and Fields Medalist Curtis T. McMullen on the Poincaré conjecture, which can be viewed online. The video is divided into sections, including an introduction and a question-and-answer segment. The lecture was part of Harvard's Science Center Research Lecture Series. Other lectures, such as Evolutionary Dynamics by Martin Nowak and Solving Cubic Equations by Benedict H. Gross and William A. Stein, are also available online.
- CHECK OUT THESE WEBSITES:
- WHO'S YOUR FAVORITE FICTIONAL MATHEMATICIAN?
The PLUS Magazine Blog asks the question and invites readers to pick from among a list of 18 fictional characters. The Square (Flatland)? Charlie Eppes (Numb3rs)? Professor Moriarty (Sherlock Holmes)? You can also view the results of the poll, which re-calculates on an ongoing basis the voter favorites. And if your favorite character isn't on the list you can submit a comment to the blog editors.
- L'EXPLOSION DES MATHEMATIQUES
 The Société Mathématique de France (French Mathematical Society) has translated into English "L'explosion des mathématiques," an illustrated booklet on the many applications of mathematics. Chapters include "What lies behind mobile phones," "Preventing waves from making noise," "From DNA to knot theory," "How to rationalize auction sales," "Puzzles for airline companies," "Financial options pricing," and more. Download individual chapters or the entire pdf of the English-language version of the "L'explosion des mathématiques" booklet.
- NUMB3RS MATH ACTIVITIES
 The Mathematics Department at Cornell University has developed a series of materials on math behind the TV show Numb3rs. To date there are over 60 topics related to episodes in the first four seasons, including "Counterfeit Reality," "In Plain Sight," "The Mole," "Pandora's Box," and "Tabu." (Image to left: Diagram from Cornell's "Tabu" of a "tabu search, a kind of local search in which one moves from point to nearby point, trying to find an optimal solution." Graphic used with permission.) Each topic includes a brief synopsis of the program's plot and how the mathematician character Charlie used math to solve the crime, a more in-depth look at the mathematics, and often a suggested activity or a "Tangent"--a tidbit of historical background or other application of the mathematics.
- MOVIES ON THE FUTURES CHANNEL
See a series of brief movies that connect math to the real world: "First one in the ballpark," "Air coasters," "Ingrid's cross-country practice," "Tetradice," "Response time," and "New car tips," are just a few of the topics.
- MATH DOCTORAL PROGRAMS WEBPAGE
The webpage has separate lists for doctoral programs in mathematics, applied
mathematics and operations research, statistics/biostatistics, and mathematics education. The page was created and is maintained by Sarah-Marie Belcastro.
- HELP AT DIFFERENT STAGES IN YOUR MATH CAREER
The Art of Problem Solving website lists mathematics scholarships including national
mathematics scholarship competitions, university-specific mathematics
scholarships, and links to other opportunities such as study abroad and
summer programs. Use the 2008 Assistantships & Graduate Fellowships in
the Mathematical Sciences to compare graduate math programs, see
stipend amounts, locate sources of support, and more. See what past math
majors are doing now, on the Early Career Profile
Network. See the AMS web page for job-seekers that
includes links to advice on how to develop your curriculum vitae, interview,
decide if teaching is for you, apply for jobs, and more.
- SELECTED MATH BLOGS
See these sites for interesting math blogs, and give the authors feedback:
bit-player, by Brian Hayes,
Senior Writer for American Scientist; Numb3rs, by Mark
Bridger, Northeastern University; What's New, by Terence Tao, University of California, Los Angeles; MathTrek Blogs, by Julie J. Rehmeyer, Science News Web Editor and Mathematics Writer; The Mathematical Tourist, by Ivars Peterson, MAA Director of Publications for Journals and Communications; Teaching College Math Technology Blog, by Maria H. Anderson, Muskegon Community College; and Carnival of Mathematics, hosted by WordPress.com.
- SIAM UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH ONLINE - CALL FOR PAPERS. SIAM Undergraduate Research Online (SIURO) is a web-based publication devoted to undergraduate research in applied and computational mathematics. Topics include analysis, discrete mathematics, statistics, operations research, optimization, dynamical systems, modeling, and computation. Papers written by undergraduate students (or teams of students) are being accepted on an ongoing basis and will be posted online as they are accepted. The SIURO web site lists the editorial board and has instructions for authors, review policies, etc.
- STIPENDS FOR STUDY AND TRAVEL. The September 2008 issue of Notices of the AMS includes opportunities for graduate
support, postdoctoral support, travel and study abroad, and study
in the U.S. for foreign nationals. There are various deadlines throughout this academic year.
- ATTENTION STUDENTS!
If you are a member of the AMS, MAA, SIAM, AMATYC, AWM or CMS/SMC, please keep your contact information current on the online Combined Membership List. The directory is a
great networking tool, so be sure your mathematical colleagues all
over the U.S. and Canada can find you!
FOR POSTDOCS
- NRC RESEARCH ASSOCIATESHIP PROGRAMS. The National Research Council of the National Academies sponsors a number of awards for post-doctoral and senior researchers at federal laboratories. There are four review cycles annually. The next submission deadline is AUGUST 1, 2009, and the folloiwing deadline is NOVEMBER 1, 2009. The website has detailed program information.
- NSF-AWM TRAVEL GRANTS. This program enables women to attend research conferences in
their fields, thereby providing a valuable opportunity to advance their
research activities and their visibility in the research community. The
grants provide full or partial support for travel and subsistence for a
meeting or conference in the applicant's field of specialization. A
maximum of US$1,500 for domestic travel and US$2,000 for foreign travel will be
available. Women must hold a doctorate (or equivalent experience) and
have a work address in the US (or US home address, in case of unemployed
mathematicians). There are three award periods per year, with
applications due OCTOBER 1, FEBRUARY 1, and MAY 1.
- ALL DEADLINES
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