News Archive

Back to Archive Listing

Climenhaga and Willett receive Graduate Teaching Awards.
We congratulate Vaughn Climenhaga and Rufus Willett as the recipients of the Departmental Graduate Assistant Teaching Awards for the Fall 2008 semester. These awards are given by the department to TAs who have made an outstanding contribution to teaching as determined by faculty visits, student evaluations, and solicited and unsolicited student comments. The awards are departmentally funded. The value of each award is $250. In addition, Vaughn and Rufus will receive award certificates.
12 / 17 / 2008

Rosemary Frank to retire.
Rosemary Frank plans to retire at the end of the year. Rosemary has served the Department of Mathematics faithfully since 1986 with unfailing courtesy and efficiency on countless administrative projects. Most recently her service was honored by the "Achieving Woman Award" of Penn State's Commission for Women. We thank Rosemary and wish her all the best for retirement. Congratulations, Rosemary!
12 / 01 / 2008

Special departmental tea.
As usual we will celebrate the last day of classes, Friday December 12, with a special departmental tea. This year the tea will include a presentation to Rosemary Frank on the occasion of her retirement.
12 / 01 / 2008

Welcoming a visitor.
The Department of Mathematics welcomes Professor Michael Hirschhorn of the University of New South Wales. He will be visiting 12/2/08 - 12/15/08 as a research collaborator with Associate Head James Sellers. His office is 209 McAllister.
12 / 01 / 2008

Conference in honor of George Andrews.
On December 5-7 the conference Combinatory Analysis 2008 will be held at Penn State in honor of the seventieth birthday of our colleague, Evan Pugh Professor George Andrews. We congratulate George on this significant occasion!
12 / 01 / 2008

Summer program at Peking University.
This summer a program on differential equations for selected Penn State students will run at Peking University. Interested students will need to register for a spring-semester preparation course, MATH 297S. The Penn State faculty members in charge of the program are Assistant Professors James Brannick and Xiantao Li and Distinguished Professor Jinchao Xu.
11 / 17 / 2008

Linda Fisher receives ECoS Staff Leadership Award.
Linda Fisher, who runs our undergraduate office, has received the Eberly College of Science Staff Leadership Award for 2008. Congratulations, Linda!
11 / 03 / 2008

Eastern Sectional Meeting of the AMS.
On October 24-25, 2009 Penn State will host the Eastern Sectional Meeting of the American Mathematical Society. The local organizer for the meeting is Professor Augustin Banyaga.
11 / 03 / 2008

Terence Tao to deliver Marker Lectures.
On November 17-20, 2008 Professor Terence Tao of UCLA will deliver the Marker Lectures. The schedule of the lectures is: Monday, November 17, 8:00 PM, 101 Thomas. "Long arithmetic progressions of primes." Tuesday, November 18, 4:30 PM, 114 McAllister. "Linear equations in primes." Wednesday, November 19, 4:30 PM, 114 McAllister. "Small gaps between primes." Thursday, November 20, 4:30 PM, 114 McAllister. "Sieving for almost primes, and expander graphs."
11 / 03 / 2008

Kang and Kursungoz receive Pritchard Fellowships.
The Graduate Studies Committee has selected Ming-Hsuan Kang (Professor Winnie Li, thesis adviser) and Kagan Kursungoz (Evan Pugh Professor George Andrews, thesis adviser) as recipients of the Pritchard Dissertation Fellowship for Spring 2009. The Fellowships are awarded in recognition of the very high quality of the recipients' thesis work.
10 / 30 / 2008

Five promotions to Graduate Teaching Associate.
Five of our graduate students have been promoted to the rank of Graduate Teaching Associate: Yanping Ma, Andrey Gogolev, Ming-Hsuan Kang, Jonas Kilbelbek, Vaughn Climenhaga.
10 / 30 / 2008

Dynamical Systems Workshop, October 23-26.
The 19th fall meeting of the Penn State-Maryland Dynamical Systems Workshop will take place this weekend, October 23-26, in our department. We welcome all the participants in this regular event. For more details please visit the conference website.
10 / 20 / 2008

Soto joins department as postdoc.
Dr. Enrique Soto Castruita from Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico has joined our department as a postdoc from 7/15/08 to 7/30/09. His office is 332 McAllister. His host is Associate Professor Andrew Belmonte.
10 / 08 / 2008

Jinchao Xu's research cited by the Department of Energy.
Distinguished Professor Jinchao Xu has been recognized by the Department of Energy in their publication 10 BREAKTHROUGHS IN 2008 for his work on the first provably scalable solver code for Maxwell's equations. According to DOE, this code "is a perfect example of how fundamental mathematical research can lead to important software advances in high-performance computing." Congratulations, Jinchao!
10 / 03 / 2008

Departmental Tea.
This semester the departmental tea will be held Thursdays, 3:30 - 4:00 PM, in the Synergistic Room, 114 McAllister. There will be no tea on other days, except for special occasions to be announced.
08 / 26 / 2008

Visitors.
The Department of Mathematics welcomes these visitors. Prof. Robert Coquereaux from CPT/CNRS, Case 907 is visiting 9/27/08-10/28/08. His office is 232 McAllister. His host is Professor Adrian Ocneanu. Prof. Pingbing Ming from Chinese Academy of Sciences is visiting 9/14/08-11/2/08. His office is 234 McAllister. His host is Assistant Professor Xiantao Li.
08 / 26 / 2008

MASS Fest.
A MASS Fest conference will be held on Thursday and Friday this week to celebrate the end of our summer REU (Research Experience for Undergraduates) program and to inaugurate the MASS program for the coming semester. REU students will present some of their own research results. Professors Adrian Ocneanu and Mark Levi will give plenary talks. The full program is available here.
08 / 11 / 2008

Welcoming new lecturers and postdoctoral faculty.
The Department of Mathematics welcomes these new lecturers and postdocs. Seunghoon Bang got his Ph.D. from Penn State University in August 2007 under the direction of Professor Yuxi Zheng. His research interests include partial differential equations and conservation laws. Seunghoon will be a lecturer. Robbie Beane got his Ph.D. from Missouri University of Science and Technology in May 2008. His research interests include topology and dynamical systems: in particular continua theory, inverse limit spaces, and hyperspaces. Robbie will be a lecturer. Paul Bendich got his Ph.D. from Duke University in May 2008. His research interests include computational topology, intersection homology and stratified spaces, and applications of topology to the analysis of scientific datasets. Paul will be a lecturer. Zhuo Chen got his Ph.D. from Peking University in July 2004. His research interests include symplectic geometry and mathematics physics (Poisson geometry). Zhuo will be a research associate and will work with Professor Ping Xu. Durkbin Cho got his Ph.D. from Penn State University in May 2008 under the direction of Associate Professor Ludmil Zikatanov. Cho's research interests include numerical analysis, and in particular, in generalized finite element methods and multigrid methods. Cho will be a research associate and will work with Zikatanov and with Assistant Professor James Brannick. John Ethier got his Ph.D. from Penn State University in August 2008 under the direction of Professor Gary Mullen. Ethier's research interests include Latin squares, combinatorics, number theory, and finite fields. He will be a lecturer. Andrey Glubokov got his Ph.D. from the University of New Mexico in May 2005. His research interests include noncommutative geometry, index theory, and Hopf cyclic cohomology. Andrey will be a lecturer. Eric Simring got his Ph.D. from Columbia University in May 2008. His research interests include quantum groups and irreducible representations of quantum subgroups. Eric will be a lecturer. Sherry Teti got her Ph.D. from Bryn Mawr College in May 2008. Her research interests include billiard systems, population and disease modeling, geometrical optics, and analysis. Sherry will be a lecturer. Yi-Jun Yao got his Ph.D. from Ecole Polytechnique in January 2007. His research interests include aspects geometry (differential, symplectic) and number theory (modular forms) that may be considered by the tools of noncommutative geometry. Yi-Jun will be a S. Chowla Research Assistant Professor. Shuo Zhang from Peking University is visiting for the academic year. He will be a postdoctoral scholar and will be working with Distinguished Professor Jinchao Xu.
08 / 11 / 2008

Visitors.
The Department of Mathematics welcomes these visitors. Prof. Michael Hirschhorn from University of New South Wales is visiting 8/25/08-9/25/08. His office is 232 McAllister. His host is Associate Head James Sellers. Prof. Giorgio Mantica from Universita dell Insubria is visiting 8/22/08-9/2/08. His office is 428 McAllister. His host is Distinguished Professor Yakov Pesin.
08 / 04 / 2008

July visitors.
The Department of Mathematics welcomes the following visitors. Dr. Enrique Soto Castruita from Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico is visiting as a postdoc from 7/15/08-7/30/09. His office is 332 McAllister. His host is Associate Professor Andrew Belmonte. Dr. Steffen Roch from Technische Universitat Darmstadt is visiting from 7/14/08-7/21/08. His office is 209 McAllister. His host is Professor John Roe.
07 / 31 / 2008

Professor M. Denker joins the department.
We welcome Professor Manfred Denker, who will arrive in August and will join us on a senior visiting position shared with the Statistics Department. Professor Denker will help us develop an interdepartmental initiative in probability theory and its applications.
07 / 31 / 2008

Tammy Coval rejoins the department.
We welcome Tammy Coval back to the Department of Mathematics. She will join the staff of the undergraduate mathematics office in 104MB starting August 1.
07 / 31 / 2008

Manoharan leaves the department.
Palanivel Manoharan recently left the department to take up a new position as Dean of the Division of Science and Mathematics, Lorain County Community College, Ohio. We wish Mano every success in his new position.
07 / 31 / 2008

Donations to the MASS program.
Recently Professor Michael Brin of the University of Maryland and our own Evan Pugh Professor George Andrews pledged substantial donations in support of our MASS program. MASS brings outstanding undergraduate mathematics majors from colleges and universities around the USA for a semester of total immersion in mathematics at Penn State. The Department Head has appealed to departmental alumni and other supporters to build on this foundation and has received many generous responses. Several faculty members have begun to support MASS through payroll donation.
07 / 31 / 2008

International undergraduate class in Beijing.
Soon Professor Chun Liu and Assistant Professor Xiantao Li will be in Beijing teaching an international undergraduate course on Analytical and Numerical Methods for Differential Equations. The class will consist of Penn State and Peking University students. A blog page has been set up where you can read the students' accounts of their experiences in Beijing. The course will begin on June 24.
06 / 16 / 2008

Institute for Mathematics and its Applications
Our Department of Mathematics is an institutional member of the Institute for Mathematics and its Applications, at the University of Minnesota. Professor Chun Liu of our department will soon begin a two-year term as associate director of IMA. The IMA offers a wide variety of programs for graduate students, postdocs, and faculty. Our departmental membership means that we can obtain support from IMA to participate in many of these activities.
06 / 16 / 2008

Stienon to join department as Assistant Professor.
In Fall 2008 Dr. Mathieu Stienon will join the department as an assistant professor. His research is in differential geometry of gerbes and generalized complex and Poisson geometry.
06 / 11 / 2008

Stan Smith is Director of Online Education.
The Department of Mathematics welcomes Stan Smith as our new Director of Online Education. Stan obtained his PhD from the University of Wyoming and has worked in the nuclear industry as well as on the faculty of Black Hills State University, South Dakota, and the South Dakota School of Mines.
06 / 11 / 2008

Visitor from France.
The Department of Mathematics welcomes Louis Gallardo from University of Brest, in France. Dr. Gallardo is visiting us for the month of June. His office is 209 McAllister and his host is Professor Leonid Vaserstein.
06 / 11 / 2008

Brown and Wade promoted to Associate Professor.
Assistant Professors Nate Brown and Aissa Wade have been promoted to the rank of Associate Professor with tenure. Congratulations, Aissa and Nate!
05 / 27 / 2008

Appalachian Set Theory Conference.
On Saturday May 31 our department will host the Appalachian Set Theory Conference featuring an extended tutorial by Justin Moore. The local organizers are Professor Stephen G. Simpson and Assistant Professor John D. Clemens.
05 / 27 / 2008

McNair Scholars Research Conference.
The McNair Scholars Research Conference at Penn State will take place on July 18. Over 200 potential scholars (graduate students) and their advisors will be present and will make presentations on a variety of subjects. Associate Professor Nate Brown is coordinating the involvement of the Department of Mathematics in this conference.
05 / 27 / 2008

May 2008 visitors.
We welcome these visitors to the Department of Mathematics. Dr. Franco Rampazzo from Universita de Padova is visiting 5/8/08-5/22/08. His office is 234 McAllister Building. His host is Eberly Professor Alberto Bressan. Dr. Oliver Dubois from Exxon Mobil Upstream Research Company is visiting 5/15/08-5/31/08. His office is 232 McAllister Building. His host is Associate Professor Ludmil Zikatanov. Dr. Debora Amadori from University of L'Aquila is visiting 5/31/08-6/8/08. Her office is 234 McAllister Building. Her host is Eberly Professor Alberto Bressan. Dr. Rinaldo Colombo from Unversita degli Studi de Brescia is visiting 5/31/08-6/8/08. His office is 232 McAllister Building. His host is Eberly Professor Alberto Bressan. Dr. Graziano Guerra from Unversite of Milano-Bicocca is visiting 5/31/08-6/8/08. His office is 232 McAllister Building. His host is Eberly Professor Alberto Bressan.
05 / 12 / 2008

Staff Appreciation Tea.
In honor of Professionals Day and our wonderful staff, the Department of Mathematics Climate and Diversity Committee has organized a special Staff Appreciation Tea. It will be held 3:15-3:45, Wednesday April 23, in 114 McAllister Building.
04 / 23 / 2008

Bressan to direct graduate program, with assistance of Belmonte and W. Li.
Beginning July 1 Eberly Professor Alberto Bressan will direct our Mathematics graduate program. Supporting him will be Professor Winnie Li who will be in charge of graduate student mentoring, and Associate Professor Andrew Belmonte who will be in charge of recruitment and admissions.
04 / 22 / 2008

Luncheon and seminar on Learning Outcomes Assessment.
On Tuesday April 29 at 12:30 pm the Department of Mathematics will hold its Teaching Seminar for this semester. There will be a lunch beforehand from 12:00 noon in 114 McAllister. Professor Tanya Furman will speak on the subject of "Learning Outcomes Assessment: what is it and why should I care?"
04 / 22 / 2008

William Perry to give lecture on Energy and Security.
Dr. William Perry, a former PhD student in our Department of Mathematics who was Secretary of Defense during 1994-1997, will give a lecture in the HUB Auditorium on Monday, April 28, at 4 PM. His title is "Energy and Security: Grand Engineering Challenges." The talk is preceded by a reception at 3:30 PM.
04 / 22 / 2008

Raymond completes 25 years of service.
Mary Anne Raymond, administative assistent to the head of the Department of Mathematics, recently completed 25 years of service to the University. Congratulations, Mary Anne!
04 / 16 / 2008

Graduate Student Awards.
Among the award winners to be honored at this year's departmental award ceremony on April 15 are: Juan Reyes and Vivek Sirkrishnan: Spring 2008 Departmental Graduate Assistant Teaching Awards. The value of each award is $250. Heiko Todt: Charles H. Hoover Memorial Award for excellence in undergraduate teaching. John Ethier and Hengguang Li: ZZRQ Award for doctoral candidates who have contributed to a sense of community within the Department of Mathematics.
04 / 15 / 2008

Awards ceremony April 15 at 6:00 PM.
The annual Department of Mathematics award ceremony will be held on Tuesday April 15, 6-7:30 PM. Scholarships for outstanding undergraduates and teaching awards for graduate TAs and faculty members will be presented.
03 / 31 / 2008

Brown and W. Li receive teaching awards.
Two departmental teaching awards have been made: The Mary Lister McCammon Award for Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching in Mathematics has been made to Professor Winnie Li. The Don Rung Award for Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching has been made to Assistant Professor Nate Brown.
03 / 31 / 2008

Visitors.
The Department of Mathematics welcomes the following visitors for April: Professor Sergei Ivanov from Steklov Institute of Mathematics, Russia, is visiting 4/5/08-5/1/08. His office is 234 McAllister. His host is Professor Dmitri Burago. Professor Yuri Kifer from Hebrew University, Israel, is visiting 4/4/08-5/2/08. His office is 316 McAllister. His host is Distinguished Professor Yakov Pesin. Professor Blanca Ayuso from Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, Spain, is visiting 4/1/08-5/31/08. Her office is 209 McAllister. Her host is Associate Professor Ludmil Zikatanov. Professor Stefano Luzzatto from Imperial College, United Kingdom, is visiting 4/15/08-4/22/08. His office is 308 McAllister. His host is Distinguished Professor Yakov Pesin.
03 / 31 / 2008

Rosemary Frank receives award.
Our long-time staff member Rosemary Frank has received the Achieving Women Award from the Penn State Commission for Women. Congratulations, Rosemary!
03 / 17 / 2008

Forsha and Hager promoted.
Two of our fixed-term instructors, Darla Forsha and James Hager, were recently promoted to the position of Senior Instructor/Lecturer. Congratulations, Darla and James!
03 / 17 / 2008

Sellers elected to MAA Board of Governors.
Our Director of Undergraduate Mathematics James Sellers was recently elected to the Board of Governors of the Mathematical Association of America.
03 / 17 / 2008

Liu to serve as IMA Associate Director.
Our Director of Graduate Studies, Professor Chun Liu, will spend the next two academic years as an Associate Director of the Institute for Mathematics and its Applications in Minnesota. . During 2009-10 the IMA will run a special year on complex fluids, which is one of Professor Liu's areas of expertise. Penn State and the mathematical community will benefit greatly from Professor Liu's service in this nationally prominent position.
03 / 17 / 2008

Brannick hired as tenure-track Assistant Professor.
S. Chowla Research Assistant Professor James Brannick has just accepted a position as a tenure-track Assistant Professor in our department. James works in computational and applied mathematics. His name is especially associated with computational methods to solve the equations of quantum chromodynamics (QCD).
03 / 03 / 2008

New Chowla Assistant Professor.
Yi-Jun Yao from Vanderbilt University has accepted our offer of an S. Chowla Research Assistant Professorship. He works in noncommutative geometry, with connections to combinatorics and number theory.
03 / 03 / 2008

Dunne accepts position as Computer Systems Administrator.
Mike Dunne has accepted the position of Computer Systems Administrator in our department.
03 / 03 / 2008

Visitors.
The Department of Mathematics welcomes the following visitors: Dr. Bing-Long Chen from Sun Yat-Sen University (Zhongshan University) is visiting 3/1/08-3/31/08. His office is 234 McAllister. His host is Professor Dmitri Burago. Ms. Dalia Terhesu from University of New South Wales is visiting 3/2/08-3/8/08. Her office is 308 McAllister. Her host is Associate Professor Omri Sarig. Prof. Gilles Halbout from Universite Montpellier 2 is visiting 3/30/08-4/26/08. His office is 209 McAllister. His host is Assistant Professor Aissa Wade. Dr. Volodymyr Rybalko from B. Verkin Institute for Low Temperature Physics and Engineering is visiting 3/15/08-5/15/08. His office is 232 McAllister. His hosts are Professor Leonid Berlyand and Eberly Professor Alberto Bressan. Prof. Federico Rodriguez Hertz from IMERL is visiting 3/18/08-3/24/08. His office is 419A McAllister. His host is Shibley Professor Anatole Katok. Dr. Carlotta Donadello from SISSA is visiting 3/19/08-6/15/08. Her office is 234 McAllister. Her host is Eberly Professor Alberto Bressan. Dr. Mahesh Bandi from Los Alamos National Laboratory is visiting 3/31/08-4/12/08. His office is 209 McAllister. His host is Associate Professor Andrew Belmonte.
03 / 03 / 2008

Eisentraeger receives grant from the Templeton Foundation.
Assistant Professor Kirsten Eisentraeger has received a research grant from the Templeton Foundation. Her project title is "Extensions of Hilbert's Tenth Problem" and this is part of the foundation's initiative "Exploring the Infinite".
02 / 28 / 2008

Eisentraeger wins Sloan Fellowship.
Assistant Professor Kirsten Eisentraeger has been awarded a prestigious Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship. These fellowships are intended to enhance the careers of the very best young researchers in science and technology. Among recent Sloan Fellows in our department are Associate Professor Omri Sarig (2006) and Assistant Professors Xiantao Li (2007) and Ae Ja Yee (2004).
02 / 26 / 2008

Graduate Open House and Alumni Conference.
On March 29-30 the Department of Mathematics will hold a Graduate Open House and Alumni Conference. The open house is for prospective graduate students to visit our department before they make their final decisions as to where to attend graduate school. The Alumni Conference will showcase the achievements of recent graduates of our Ph.D. program. Invited speakers are Dr. Clifford Reiter (1989, advisor Professor Winnie Li), Professor, Lafayette College; Dr. Danijela Damjanovic (2004, advisor Shibley Professor Anatole Katok), Benjamin Pierce Instructor, Harvard University; and Dr. Maria Emelianenko (2005, advisor Willaman Professor Qiang Du), Assistant Professor, George Mason University. Further details can be obtained from Becky Halpenny.
02 / 26 / 2008

WIM Awards for Undergraduate Research.
Women in Mathematics (WIM) is proud to announce this year's recipients of the WIM Awards for Undergraduate Research. Paige Elizabeth Pfeffer, junior, is working with Associate Professor Jenny Li on "Optimization problems arising from economics and finance". Amber L. Reardon, junior, will begin working with Assistant Professor Alexei Novikov this summer on "Front propagation in reaction-diffusion equations".
02 / 26 / 2008

Current NSF-DMS Research Grants.
Currently 41 Penn State faculty members are Principal Investigators in research projects funded by the National Science Foundation's Division of Mathematical Sciences. They are: Andrews, Barlow, Baum, Berlyand, Bressan, Brown, Du, Fricks, Haran, Henderson, Higson, Jenssen, A. Katok, Levi, B. Li, W. Li, X. Li, Lindsay, C. Liu, Mazzucato, Nabutovsky, Nistor, Novikov, Ocneanu, Pesin, Previte, Richards, Roe, Rotman, Sarig, Simpson, Tabachnikov, Viswanath, Wade, C. Wu, Wysocki, J. Xu, P. Xu, Yee, Y. Zheng, Zikatanov.
02 / 05 / 2008

Visitors
The Department of Mathematics welcomes the following visitors: Professor Samuel Senti from Federal University of Rio de Janeiro is visiting 2/16/08-3/20/08. His office is 308 McAllister. His host is Associate Professor Omri Sarig. Dr. Hao Wu from Fudan University is visiting 2/1/08-5/1/08. His office is 332 McAllister. His host is Professor Chun Liu. Dr. Eveyth Deligero from University of Southeastern Philippines is visiting 2/16/08-5/15/08. Her office is 308 McAllister. Her host is Professor Svetlana Katok. Feliks Przytycki from Polish Academy of Sciences is visiting 2/17/08-3/5/08. His office is 316 McAllister. His host is Shibley Professor Anatole Katok.
02 / 04 / 2008

Bressan wins Bocher Prize.
On January 7 the American Mathematical Society awarded Eberly Professor Alberto Bressan the Maxime Bôcher Memorial Prize for 2008. This $5000 prize is being shared by Charles Fefferman and Carlos Kenig. Awarded every three years, the Bôcher Prize is one of the highest distinctions in the field of analysis.
01 / 15 / 2008

Visitors.
The Department of Mathematics welcomes the following visitors: Professor Mahesh Nerurkar from Rutgers University is visiting for the spring semester. His host is Shibley Professor Anatole Katok. Dean Jiping Zhang from Peking University is visiting 1/9/08-3/31/08. His office is 204 McAllister. His host is Distinguished Professor Jinchao Xu. Professor Dmitry Fuchs from the University of California, Davis, is visiting 1/27/08-3/23/08. His office is 428 McAllister. His host is Professor Sergei Tabachnikov. Professor Yuriy Burago from the Steklov Institute for Mathematics, St. Petersburg, is visiting 1/15/08-3/20/08. His office is 332 McAllister. His host is Professor Anton Petrunin. Professor Xiangao Liu from Fudan University is visiting 1/14/08-3/14/08. His office is 234 McAllister. His host is Professor Chun Liu. Professor Zhuo Chen from Peking University is visiting 1/15/08-4/15/08. His office is 232 McAllister. His host is Professor Ping Xu.
01 / 07 / 2008

Andrews publishes article in Notices of the AMS.
Evan Pugh Professor George Andrews and his coauthor Bruce Berndt have published an article, Your hit parade: The top ten most fascinating formulas from Ramanujan's Lost Notebook, in the January 2008 issue of Notices of the American Mathematical Society.
01 / 02 / 2008