Current Headlines
- 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.
- MATHEMATICS PROGRAMS THAT MAKE A DIFFERENCE
The AMS honors two exemplary programs that aim to increase diversity in
the mathematics profession: the Summer Undergraduate Mathematical
Science Research Institute (SUMSRI, top photo) at Miami University (Ohio), and the
Mathematics Summer Program in Research and Learning (Math SPIRAL, bottom photo) at the
University of Maryland, College Park. The selection of SUMSRI and Math
SPIRAL recognizes the programs' outstanding work in training and
mentoring students from minority groups underrepresented in mathematics.
The programs provide the students with the background and skills they
need to excel in Ph.D. programs in mathematics and to launch successful
careers. See the news release with citations and links to descriptions
of the model programs.
- UNIVERSITY OF IOWA MATHEMATICS DEPARTMENT WINS AMS EXEMPLARY PROGRAM AWARD
The Mathematics Department at the University of Iowa is the 2008
recipient of the AMS Award for an Exemplary Program or Achievement in a
Mathematics Department. The award citation calls the department "a
national leader in recruiting and developing underrepresented US
minority doctoral students in mathematics." Over the past decade, the
department produced about 4 percent of the mathematics doctorates
granted in the U.S. to students who are members of underrepresented
minorities. The department's recruitment effort is supported by a
carefully designed program that includes an intensive summer institute,
weekly help sessions, and extensive faculty and peer mentoring.
- NOTICES OF THE AMS - MAY ISSUE
 The May issue of Notices of the AMS includes the following feature articles: "Interview with Martin Davis," by Allyn Jackson, "Visualizing the Sieve of Eratosthenes," by David N. Cox, "Evansville Honors the First Black Ph.D. in Mathematics and His Family," by Talitha M. Washington, and making its debut in this issue: "Ask Professor Nescio."Also in this issue: "Interview with George Csicsery," by Bill Casselman, and "WHAT IS...a Toric Variety?" by Ezra Miller.
- STUDENT WINS $3000 IN WHO WANTS TO BE A MATHEMATICIAN
 Joseph Futoma won $3000 when the AMS math game was held at Providence College on April 3. Joseph, pictured (at left) with AMS Public Awareness Officer and game host Mike Breen and (at right) fellow contestant Semih Aydinli of Classical High School, is a sophomore at Portsmouth High School in Rhode Island. He and Semih each won a TI-Nspire graphing calculator, donated by Texas Instruments. Semih, an exchange student from Turkey, also won $500 in the game.
- FEATURE COLUMN and MATH IN THE MEDIA - MAY ISSUES
This month's Feature Column is "The Mathematics of Surveying: Part I,"
by Tony Phillips. This image is a detail of the triangulation of Hanover carried out under Gauss's supervision between 1820 and 1850. The pink lines are part of the Hauptsystem (main system) laid out by Gauss himself in 1821-1825. Collected Works, Volume 9, p. 347. The May Math in the Media includes Tony
Phillips' Take on hearing molecular drums, Markov Clusters in the tree
of life, and the path to algebra: fractions; Math Digest summaries of
math-related articles in the media; and links to Reviews of recent
books, films and plays.
- NEW ON MATHEMATICAL IMAGERY - WOVEN BEADS ALBUM
 "Woven Beads" by Gwen L. Fisher, California Polytechnic State
University, San Luis Obispo, is the newest album on Mathematical Imagery. Other recent additions include "Hyper Symmetries," by Dejenie A. Lakew of the Virginia State University Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, and "Algorithmic Artwork," by Nathan Selikoff. See all images in the albums, as well as other mathematical images at the site, and send them as e-postcards.
- 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.
- AMS BOOKSTORE PARTNERS WITH GOOGLE BOOK SEARCH
 It is now easier than ever to find information on over 3,000 AMS books
through the online AMS Bookstore. Choose a book you want to view and use
the power of Google Book Search to explore the contents, view sample
pages and search by specific keyword. From that search result page a
search across the entire AMS Bookstore can identify all AMS books of
interest in seconds.
- 2007 PUTNAM RESULTS
Below are the team and individual winners of the 68th William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition, held last December 1. The mathematics department of the first-place team, Harvard University, receives US$25,000, and each Harvard team member receives $1000. The award amounts for second place are $20,000 and $800, respectively; for third place, $15,000 and $600; for fourth place, $10,000 and $400; and for fifth place, $5000 and $200. The team winners, in order, with team members in alphabetical order, are:
- Harvard University (Zachary Abel, Tiankai Liu, and Alison B. Miller)
- Princeton University (Andrei Negut, Aaron C. Pixton, and Andrei B. Ungureanu)
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Hansheng Diao, Eric C. Price, and Yufei Zhao)
- Stanford University (Serin Hong, Nathan K. Pflueger, and Kian Chuan Tan)
- Duke University (Tirasan Khandhawit, Peng Shi, and Lingren Zhang)
The Putnam Fellows, the top six individual scorers, each receive $2500. They are, in alphabetical order:
- Jason C. Bland (California Institute of Technology)
- Brian R. Lawrence (California Institute of Technology)
- Aaron C. Pixton (Princeton University)
- Qingchun Ren (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
- Xuancheng Shao (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
- Arnav Tripathy (Harvard University)
Alison B. Miller, of the first-place Harvard team, is the winner of the Elizabeth Lowell Putnam Prize, which is awarded to a woman whose performance on the exam is "particularly meritorious," and has a cash award of $1000. This is the third time she has won the prize. The Putnam Competition is for North American undergraduates and is administered by the Mathematical Association of America. More than 3700 students from more than 500 colleges, and teams from over 400 institutions, participated in the 2007 competition.
- RUBIK'S CUBE PROOF CUT TO 25 MOVES
Tomas Rokicki, a Stanford-trained mathematician, has proven that a scrambled Rubik's Cube can be solved in just 25 moves, regardless of starting configuration. (This is down from 26 moves proved last year.) Read and download Rokicki's paper, "Twenty-Five Moves Suffice for Rubik’s Cube," posted on arXiv.org. He says that he's now working on 24.
- 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.
- MATHEMATICS AND VOTING
 "Does my vote matter? Is the election process fair? Are the votes being counted correctly?" Mathematics and statistics provide the means to deal with the complexity of how votes are cast and counted and how that influences the outcome. Try out different voting methods online.
- PLUS MAGAZINE
The theme of the latest issue of Plus Magazine is Evolution. Articles include "Maths and climate change: the melting Arctic," "Reconstructing the tree of life," "Matrix: Simulating the world, Part II: cellular automata," and "Natural selection, maths and milk." Also read an interview with a Financial Engineer, and hear Plus Podcasts of the latest news from the world of maths, plus interviews and discussions with leading mathematicians and scientists.
- 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 2006 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. The Sloan
Career Cornerstone Center offers resources to explore career paths
in actuarial science, mathematics, and statistics. 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 2007 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.
- MATH IN MOSCOW - SPRING 2009 SEMESTER
Now's the time to consider attending the spring 2009 "Math in Moscow" semester at the Independent University of Moscow. Five
scholarships of US$7500 are available per semester, with funding provided by the National Science Foundation and administered by the American Mathematical Society. U.S. undergraduate mathematics or computer science majors may apply for a scholarship to cover some of the costs associated with attendance at the one-semester program. Occasionally, a scholarship may be awarded to a graduate student. The program provides a fifteen-week-long research experience for students, not only with other mathematically talented and highly motivated undergraduates but with some of the world's leading mathematicians as well. Students learn mathematics in an environment similar in spirit to that of an REU, but with broader representation from the international community. The deadline to apply for the spring 2009 semester and scholarship is SEPTEMBER 30, 2008. Learn more about the program and application requirements.
- ATTENTION STUDENTS!
If you are a member of the AMS, MAA, SIAM, AMATYC, AWM or CMS/SMC,
please 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
- NSF-AWM TRAVEL GRANTS. NSF-AWM Travel Grants 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 FEBRUARY 1, MAY 8 (extended!) , and OCTOBER 1.
- ALL DEADLINES
|
