News

Calderer to Chair Material Science Activity Group

Professor Carme Calderer has been appointed as the new chair of the SIAM Activity Group on Mathematical Aspects of Materials Science. The Activity Group fosters activity at the interface between mathematics, computing, and materials science through the organization of conferences and minisymposia, as well as a wiki-style website. Her three year term as chair begins January 1, 2011.

8 U of M Teams at MAA-NCS Competition

Eight teams of undergraduates from the Twin Cities campus of the University of Minnesota competed in the North Central Team Mathematics Competition on Saturday, November 13. There were a total of 85 teams from universities and colleges in the North Central Section of the Math Association of America. All eight University of Minnesota teams placed in the top 50 per cent. The winning team was the Loons, and was the only team to score a perfect 100. Its members are: Peter Lofgren, Xin Jin, and Matt Coudron.

M.S./MathEd Student Nadathur Awarded 2011 Rhodes Scholarship

Prerna Nadathur has been named a 2011 Rhodes Scholar, to attend the University of Oxford in England. While attending Roseville High School, Nadathur participated in MathCEP's UMTYMP program, and was so successful in her courses that she was later hired as a teaching assistant in the program before leaving to attend the University of Chicago. This year, she returned to the University of Minnesota as a first-year graduate student pursuing a masters degree in mathematics with an emphasis in mathematics education. At Oxford, Nadathur plans to pursue an M.Phil. degree in general linguistics and comparative philology. The Rhodes Scholarship is the oldest international scholarship program in the world. Thirty-two Rhodes Scholars are selected each year to represent the United States.

Couldron Awarded Astronaut Scholarship

Matthew Coudron, an undergraduate mathematics and physics major, was one of two University of Minnesota students awarded an Astronaut Scholarship Foundation graduate fellowship. The award was presented on October 28 by space shuttle astronaut Capt. Daniel Brandenstein following a public talk in Coffman Memorial Union. The Astronaut Scholarship is the largest monetary award given in the United States to science and engineering undergraduate students based solely on merit.

Mori Receives McKnight Professorship

Assistant Professor Yoichiro Mori was the recent recipient of a McKnight Land-Grant Professorship, and is the subject of a University of Minnesota profile. Yoichiro is both an M.D. and a Mathematics Ph.D., and the article outlines his career and groundbreaking research program in mathematical biology and medicine.

Ezra Miller Moves to Duke

Associate Professor Ezra Miller has resigned his position at the University of Minnesota to accept a professorship at Duke University. Ezra's research area is combinatorial aspects of geometry and algebra. The Department wishes Ezra the best of luck in this new stage of his career.

International Collaboration for Grad Students and Postdocs Funded

The NSF has funded an international collaboration Science at the Triple Point between Mathematics, Mechanics, and Materials Science, with Professor Mitchell Luskin as the principal investigator within the School of Mathematics. Graduate students and postdocs will spend time abroad at Oxford University, the University of Bonn, the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences in Leipzig, the University of Antwerp, and the International School for Advanced Studies in Trieste, Italy. Courses, summer schools, and conferences will be organized with US partners CMU, Caltech, and NYU.

MCFAM Website Goes Live

The official web page for MCFAM – the Minnesota Center for Financial and Actuarial Mathematics – is now live. The Center, started in July 2010, houses a range of programs, including undergraduate actuarial studies, Master of Financial Mathematics (MFM) and a post baccalaureate certificate – Fundamentals of Quantitative Finance certificate (FQF). MCFAM is administered by Rina Ashkenazi, Academic Director, Laurie Derechin, Executive Director, and Scot Adams, Associate Director.

Mark Feshbach Passed Away

Professor Mark Feshbach passed away in St. Paul on August 26. A full obituary appears in the Star and Tribune. Mark came to the University of Minnesota in 1978, and was promoted to full professor in 1988. Mark's research specialty was algebraic topology. In 2006-8 he served as a mathematics program director at the National Science Foundation. This spring, he signed on to be the next Director of Undergraduate Studies. He will be sorely missed by his colleagues, students, friends, and family.

NIH Grant to Improve Research Computing

A group of NIH grantees, led by Darrin York in Chemistry and including Hans Othmer in Math, was recently awarded a $3.7M NIH grant for high-performance computing equipment. The grant will be used to purchase an SGI Ultraviolet system and thereby significantly enhance the computing facilities at the University of Minnesota.

Spirn Awarded Career Grant

Associate Professor Daniel Spirn has been awarded a five year Career grant award from NSF. The Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program represents "...the National Science Foundation's most prestigious awards in support of junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education and the integration of education and research within the context of the mission of their organizations." Dan's research is in partial differential equations and applied mathematics.

Bringmann Moves to University of Cologne

Assistant Professor Kathrin Bringmann has resigned her position at the University of Minnesota to accept a professorship at the University of Cologne in Germany. Kathrin's research area is in number theory and combinatorics. The Department wishes Kathrin the best of luck in this new stage of her career.

Lerman Awarded NSF Career Grant

Assistant Professor Gilad Lerman has been awarded a five year Career grant award from NSF. The Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program represents "...the National Science Foundation's most prestigious awards in support of junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education and the integration of education and research within the context of the mission of their organizations." Gilad's research is in computational harmonic analysis, analysis of large data sets and statistical learning, and bio-informatics.

Amy DeCelles and Lu Li Awarded Fellowships

Congratulations to School of Mathematics graduate assistants receiving a 2010-2011 Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship:

Amy DeCelles (Paul Garrett, Adviser) "Automorphic Partial Differential Equations and Spectral Theory with Applications to Number Theory"

Lu Li (Vladimir Sverak, Adviser) "Backward Uniqueness of the Heat Equation"

Lewicka, Spirn and Ciocan-Fontanine Promoted

Assistant Professors Marta Lewicka and Daniel Spirn have been promoted to Associate Professor with tenure, while Associate Professor Ionut Ciocan-Fontanine has been promoted to Professor.

Marta Lewicka - Partial differential equations, hyperbolic systems of conservation laws, traveling waves in reaction-diffusion equations.

Daniel Spirn - Partial differential equations, applied mathematics.

Ionut Ciocan-Fontanine - Algebraic geometry, moduli spaces, Gromov-Witten theory.

Ericksen Awarded ISIMM Prize

Emeritus Professor Jerald L. Ericksen has been awarded the first ISIMM prize by the International Society for the Interaction of Mechanics and Mathematics. The prize is given every two years for exceptional contributions towards building new bridges between Mathematics and Mechanics, and will be awarded during the XVII STAMM Meeting in Berlin, August 30 - September 2, 2010.

Othmer's Math-Biology Research Highlighted

Professor Hans Othmer's research on embryonic development and cell differentiation, done in collaboration with Professor Michael O'Connor, of the Department of Genetics, Cell Biology, is the subject of a featured article on the College of Biological Sciences' news page.

Santosa Named SIAM Fellow

Professor Fadil Santosa has been named a SIAM Fellow "for contributions to the mathematics of inverse problems and for advancing the application of mathematics in industry". The Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) is the premier international organization devoted to applied mathematics and computational science.

Professor Yousef Saad from Computer Science & Engineering was also named a SIAM Fellow this year.

New Certificate for Financial Mathematics Program

A new 12-credit post-baccalaureate Certificate in Fundamentals of Quantitative Finance (FQF) was approved by the Board of Regents at their February 11 meeting. The certificate can be taken either on campus or through distance education. The certificate courses coincide with the Masters in Financial Mathematics (MFM) distance courses FM 5001, 5002, 5091 and 5092.

Lawson Awarded Sloan Research Fellowship

Assistant Professor Tyler Lawson, has been awarded a prestigious Sloan Research Fellowship for 2010-2012. The Sloan award is "... to stimulate fundamental research by early-career scientists and scholars of outstanding promise." Tyler's research specialty is algebraic topology and K-theory.

Top Honors in Actuarial Case Competition

On October 16, 2009, a team of students from the University of Minnesota took top honors in Second Annual Travelers Actuarial Case Competition. The members of the team were Matthew Jahnke, Madison Vermette, Helen Muller, William Dickson, David Socha, Danielle Hilson. The team was sponsored by Larry O'Brien, and competed against teams from top universities across the country. The University of Minnesota team was awarded a $1000 prize and a commemorative plaque.

Warren Loud Passed Away

Emeritus Professor Warren Loud has passed away in Minneapolis on January 15. As an undergraduate at M.I.T., Warren was a Putnam Exam winner in 1942. Warren came to the University of Minnesota in 1947, was promoted to full professor in 1959, and retired in 1992. Warren's research specialty was nonlinear ordinary differential equations. In addition, for almost 30 years, he sang and acted in many productions of the Gilbert & Sullivan Very Light Opera Company in Minneapolis. He will be missed by his colleagues, students, friends and family.

Mori Receives McKnight Award

Assistant Professor Yoichiro Mori has been awarded a McKnight Land-Grant Professorship during 2010-12. This University of Minnesota award is in recognition of a junior faculty member's outstanding contributions to research and potential for future achievements. The award provides a research grant over two years, summer support, and a research leave during the second year. Yoichiro's research project is in mathematical biology, and titled "A Three-Dimensional Model of Cellular Electrical Activity with Applications to Heart and Brain Physiology".