ContinuNewsletter of the Department of Mathematics at the University of Michigan 2005

UMAnthony Bloch Named Chair

I feel honored to be succeeding TrevorWooley as Chair of the Department of Math-ematics. I look forward to working with mycolleagues, with the staff in the Department,with Dean TerryMcDonald, and withthe University com-munity at large.

Trevor Wooleywas a strong leaderwho really caredabout the studentsand faculty. He al-ways acted in theirbest interests and inthe best interests ofthe Department. Un-der his guidance theDepartment hasgone from strengthto strength. I wouldlike to thank Trevorfor all he accom-plished and for thehelp he is currentlyproviding to me. Hewill continue to bean extremely valued member of the faculty,and I wish him the very best for the future.

The Mathematics Department here atMichigan, one of the largest in the country,has a well-earned reputation for excellence.The quality and commitment of the facultycombine to create an extraordinarily strongDepartment which was recently called oneof the best in the country by The New YorkTimes. Our faculty are involved in active re-search projects supported by highly com-petitive external funding. They excel notonly in research, but also as teachers andmentors. Our undergraduate, graduate, andpost doctoral programs are exemplary. Weare justly proud of the wide array of course

offerings ranging from basic requiredcourses for non-math majors to highly ad-vanced specialized graduate courses. Also,visiting professors and exciting seminars are

part of an enjoyableand stimulating aca-demic environment.In addition, there is apervasive spirit ofcooperation and col-legiality. This createsa pleasant atmo-sphere in the Depart-ment which aids andenhances research,teaching, and study.

There will be seri-ous issues to con-tend with during mytenure as Chair. Con-tinuing budget chal-lenges form the maincloud on the horizon.I hope the financialproblems will ease,but maintaining ex-cellence in the face

of constraints will be the greatest challenge.Our high-quality faculty members are in de-mand and are continually sought after byour peer departments around the country. Iam sure I can speak for the College when Isay that we will be doing everything in ourpower to retain our coveted faculty and torecruit equally accomplished academics tomaintain our high standard. We will try tobe competitive by creating economic condi-tions which complement the many other ad-vantages of serving our academiccommunity in such a congenial environ-ment.

The strength of our Math Departmentlies not only in the caliber of the faculty, but

In July 2005, Trevor Wooley stepped down as Department Chair after a three-year term.Anthony Bloch assumed the Chair’s role. Tony expresses his hopes for the department

here, while Trevor’s reflections on the past year are on page 2.

also in our healthy undergraduate, gradu-ate, and post doctoral programs. Theseoutstanding programs allow our facultymuch valued personal contact with stu-dents and with emerging young mathema-ticians who contribute to the liveliness ofour research atmosphere. Our facultymembers are dedicated teachers, and weare fortunate that our high-quality graduatestudents who are offered positions asinstructors use their strong teaching skillsin the service of our programs. We areinvolved in various new initiatives inteaching, and we are pursuing joint pro-grams in finance, information sciences andeconomics.

Our graduate program has continued tothrive. We have been fortunate to attractsome of the very best students, who chosethe University of Michigan because of ourreputation, because of the great faculty,and because of the opportunities offeredon campus. The challenge will be to keepthe level of funding in this area highenough to allow us to be competitive sothat we can continue to act as a magnet forthe most talented students.

It is my hope that the Mathematics De-partment will not only continue to be rec-ognized for excellence, but that it willcontinue to grow and to improve. Alreadyit is renowned for both pure and appliedmathematics. It is also on course to de-velop in the applied area through the Ap-plied and Interdisciplinary Mathematics(AIM) program. I hope that the pure andapplied sides of the Department continueto work together in harmony and to inspireeach other to even greater heights.

Our links with other departments oncampus continue to strengthen. Math-ematics plays an ever-increasing role inmany other fields including the tradition-ally mathematics-based scientific fieldssuch as physics, engineering, and com-puter science, as well as subjects such asbiology, economics, and the social sci-ences. Our academic and research

Continued on page 2

View from the Chair’s OfficeTrevor Wooley

See more news of the University of Michigan Department ofMathematics on our website www.math.lsa.umich.edu

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scientific and social environment. The digi-tization of the modern world has deliveredto mathematicians the opportunity andduty to contribute ideas that nowadayshave an essentially immediate impact onour way of life. It has been said that the keyscience for the 21st Century is mathematics.At the same time, it is self-evident in themodern age that no university can consideritself first-class in the absence of premierdepartments in the natural sciences. It is tobe hoped, therefore, that University leaderswill grasp this reality and invest in math-ematics so as to make the most of these op-portunities and educational responsibilities.

In wishing Tony Bloch well on takingover as Chair, I offer him my hopes for goodfortune in dealing with the formidable chal-lenges to come. Despite our currentstrengths, our budgetary position has beenworn thin to the point that our ability to re-tain excellent faculty, and to continue to of-fer a stimulating and flexible environmentfor undergraduate and graduate students,is acutely stressed. Tony will need all of ourhelp to guide the Department through thesedifficult times. With a miracle or two, how-ever, we may yet see the Departmentachieve the potential that it so richly de-serves, and assume a stature of which ouralums may be proud.

Professor Trevor Wooley

Bloch, continued from page 1interaction with these diverse departmentsis stimulating, should have far-reaching re-sults in research, and will be beneficial toall concerned.

As Chair, I will do my utmost to pre-serve the quality of the Department and theexciting educational opportunities pro-vided to students and faculty alike. I will beaided by many of my esteemed colleagues,and I am grateful to all who are serving inadministrative positions.

There will be four Associate Chairs.Joe Conlon has agreed to serve for anotheryear as Associate Chair for Regular Fac-ulty. Juha Heinonen will continue as As-sociate Chair for Graduate Studies. CurtisHuntington will serve as Associate Chairfor Education and head our actuarial pro-gram. Dick Canary is coming on board tofill the newly created position of AssociateChair for Term Faculty. Mel Hochster willserve as Chair of the Personnel Committee,and Peter Scott and Peter Smereka willcontinue on as Doctoral Chair and AIM Di-rector, respectively. Ralf Spatzier is tohead our IBL (inquiry-based learning) ini-tiative, and Jeff Rauch will write our strate-gic plan. Many other faculty membershave agreed to serve on the various keycommittees including the Executive andPersonnel committees. On behalf of ourcolleagues, I would like to thank them allfor their service. I would also like to takethis opportunity to thank our invaluableadministrative staff, led most ably byDoreen Fussman, who work behind thescenes to keep all aspects of the Depart-ment running smoothly.

I first came to the Mathematics Depart-ment twenty-one years ago as a T. H.Hildebrandt Assistant Professor and, withthe exception of a six-year period, I havebeen lucky enough to be here ever since.In my opinion we have a unique and inspir-ing Department which offers a remarkablystimulating environment to faculty and stu-dents alike. I will do my very best to main-tain the first-rate quality as well as thespirit of this extraordinary Department.

Professor & Chair Anthony Bloch

It is a great pleasure to be writing thiscolumn, in part as a means of welcomingour new Department Chair, Tony Bloch, butalso because this marks my departure fromthe Kafkaesque realm of administration tothe saner pastures of teaching and re-search.

One of the sad features of modern (ca-reer) administrators is the focus on estab-lishing a legacy rather than on prudentdecision-making given the circumstances athand and those anticipated ahead. Permitme then to summarize my achievements asChair as simply managing what, for the De-partment, amounted to the best of timesand the worst of times. We have experi-enced three successive years of painfulbudget cuts. At the same time we have re-cruited 11 outstanding faculty members, wehave a thriving postdoctoral program withover 50 members (no fewer than 10 ofwhom next year will be supported by NSFPostdoctoral Fellowships), a graduate pro-gram strong enough to compete with thebest in the nation, and an undergraduateprogram with over 280 Mathematics majors,rebounding to a size unseen by any but ourmore senior colleagues.

Professional mathematicians—as we allare who employ our mathematical trainingin some aspect of our daily work—cannotfail to be struck by the transformation in re-cent decades of the fabric of our economic,

Faculty andgraduatestudents enjoyafternoon teain theDepartment’sCommonRoom.

For the past two years the Departmenthas hosted a special speaker series celebrat-ing the ongoing research of women math-ematicians, focusing on women in appliedmathematics. The series is sponsored bythe National Science Foundation’s AD-VANCE program at the University of Michi-gan, through the Elizabeth C. CrosbyAward. Professor Smadar Karni (picturedbelow) received the award in 2003 and hasorganized and hosted the speaker series inthe Department. The award is named forElizabeth Caroline Crosby (1888-1983), whohad a long and distinguished career at theUniversity of Michigan and became the firstfemale full professor at the Medical School.

The aim of the series is to promote thevisibility of women applied mathematicians,and to highlight the breadth and excellenceof their scientific contributions. Thus farthe speaker series has hosted 10 speakersand has featured truly inspirational visitsby leaders in the field. As part of the visit,the speakers deliver a talk, meet with vari-ous members of the department, and havelunch in an informal setting with womengraduate students, postdocs and faculty.

Karni has received very positive feed-back on the series. “I think we have metsome spectacular women mathematicians,which I find inspiring. The luncheons giveus a chance to hear words of wisdom aboutcareer related issues. I think that the serieshas helped to develop a sense of commu-nity for the women in the Department, andthrough that, I hope that it has made theDepartment a more welcoming place forwomen.”

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A special event in the series this yearwas a mini-symposium that featured threerecent University of Michigan Alumnae.The special guests were Monika Nitsche(Ph.D. 1992), pictured above, currently withthe University of New Mexico; Tracy Payne(Ph.D. 1995), pictured below, currently withIdaho State University; and SuzanneWeekes (Ph.D. 1995), pictured at right, cur-

rently with Worcester Polytechnic Institute.They each presented a seminar talk, andparticipated in an informal dinner and paneldiscussion that focused on mentoring.Through the panel discussion the recentgrads were able to address life after Michi-gan, and discuss some challenges theyfaced when pursuing their academic careers.

The evening concluded with a presenta-tion by the CRLT Players. Part of the Cen-ter for Research on Learning and Teaching,the CRLT Players use interactive sketchesto explore sensitive topics such as genderand other biases that might exist in the aca-demic work environment. The CRLT work-shop focused on junior faculty mentoring.It allowed for feedback and audience par-ticipation to address gender biases and

concerns inmentoring.

“I thinkthese work-shops arehighly effectivein exploring is-sues such asgender biasesin the academicwork environ-ment. They putlarge mirrors infront of ourfaces and serve

as real eye-openers,” says Karni. “I amlooking forward to continuing this speakerseries through next year, and possibly be-yond, until the funding runs out.”

Math ProblemShow that n! + 2004 is not aperfect square for any postiveinteger n.

(Answer elsewhere inthe ContinuUM)

Speaker Series HighlightsWomen Mathematicians

New JuniorFaculty

Assistant Professors who joined the de-partment during the past academic year arelisted here with their doctoral institutionsand areas of specialty.

Jorge Balbas - UCLA, Numerical Analy-sis (VIGRE)

Erhan Bayraktar - Princeton, FinancialMathematics (Hildebrandt)

Andrew Booker - Princeton, NumberTheory (NSF Fellow)

Victoria Booth - Northwestern Univer-sity, Mathematical Biology

Charles Cadman - Columbia University,Algebraic Geometry (VIGRE)

Alexey Cheskidov - Indiana University,Partial Differential Equations

Jeffery DiFranco - University of NorthCarolina, Partial Differential Equations

Argus Dunca - University of Pitts-burgh, Numerical Analysis

Kirsten Eisentraeger - University ofCalifornia Berkeley, Number Theory(VIGRE)

Anne-Katrin Herbig - Ohio State, Sev-eral Complex Variables

Zheng Huang - Rice University, Differ-ential Geometry

Christopher Hughes - University ofBristol, Number Theory

Alexei Kolesnikov - Carnegie Mellon,Logic and Foundations

Richard Kollar - University of Mary-land, Partial Differential Equations

Melvin Leok - California Institute ofTechnology, Numerical Analysis(Hildebrandt)

Daniel Meyer - University of Washing-ton, Complex Analysis

Nathan Ng - University of British Co-lumbia, Number Theory

Nicholas Ramsey - Harvard, NumberTheory

Loren Spice - University of Chicago,Fourier Analysis

Joel Tropp - University of Texas, Ap-proximation Theory

Stephanie Yang - Harvard, Algebraic Ge-ometry

Faculty Kudos

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Jinho Baik has been awarded an AlfredP. Sloan Fellowship, an extraordinarily com-petitive award involving nominations of thevery best young scientists from around thecountry.

Alexander Barvinok, Mario Bonk,Bruce Kleiner and Chris Skinner havebeen chosen as speakers for the 2006 Inter-national Congress of Mathematicians.

Brian Conrad was promoted from Asso-ciate Professor to Professor.

William Fulton was named the 2005Henry Russel Lecturer, one of the mostprestigious awards given to UM faculty. Re-cipients are chosen for their outstandingachievements in research and teaching. InMarch he presented the Henry Russel Lec-ture entitled “Do we understand geometryof the 19th century.” The talk concerned themany complex math problems claimed to besolved in the 19th century, but whoseproofs were lacking.

Trachette Jackson has received a JamesS. McDonnell Foundation 21st Century Re-search Award for her project “Combiningcontinuous and discrete approaches tostudy sustained angiogenesis associatedwith vascular tumor growth.” The 21st Cen-tury Research Awards are designed to sup-port research projects with a highprobability of generating new knowledgeand insights. The program supports schol-arship and research directed toward the de-velopment of theories and models that canbe applied to the study of complex, nonlin-ear systems. Jackson’s project will combinemathematical modeling, numerical simula-tion and in vivo tumor vascularization ex-periment to gain deeper understanding of

angiogenesis, tumor growth and vascularstructure. More information is available athttp://www.jsmf.org/grants/cs/essays/2005/jackson.htm.

Lizhen Ji was promoted from AssociateProfessor to Professor.

Mattias Jonsson was promoted from As-sistant Professor to Associate Professorwith tenure.

David Kausch has successfully com-pleted his Fellowship Admissions Courseand has received the designation of Fellow,Society of Actuaries.

Gopal Prasad has been appointed anAssociate Editor of the Annals of Math-ematics for a period of three years.

Joel Smoller has been awarded aHumboldt Research Award for Senior U.S.Scientists. This award is given to research-ers with internationally recognized academicqualifications and honors the academicachievements of the award winner’s lifetime.Award winners are invited to carry out re-search projects of their own choice in Ger-many in cooperation with colleagues.

Kannan Soundararajan was promotedfrom Associate Professor to Professor.

These faculty received funding for sum-mer 2005 through Rackham Faculty Grantsand/or Fellowships for Research:

Alexey CheskidovAnne-Katrin HerbigAlexei KolesnikovMuthukrishnan KrishnamurthyMelvin LeokMonica VanDierenDale WinterStephanie Yang

Another large crowd enjoys the interaction available at afternoon tea in the Department’sCommon Room.

Anna Gilbert joined the Department asan Assistant Professor. She received her

Ph.D. in Mathematics from Princeton Uni-versity in 1997. Her dissertation studiedapplications of multiresolution analysis andwavelets to numerical analysis. Gilbertcomes to Michigan from AT&T ResearchLaboratories, where she was a member ofthe senior technical staff. Her research in-terests cover analysis, probability, compu-tational harmonic analysis, networking andalgorithms, with the emphasis on random-ized algorithms and the study of networktraffic.

Jeffrey Lagarias joined the Departmentas a Professor. He received his Ph.D. in

New Faculty Members

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Mathematics from Massachusetts Instituteof Technology in 1974. In 1975 he joinedAT&T Bell Laboratories as a member of thetechnical staff. Since 1995, he has been aTechnology Consultant at AT&T ResearchLaboratories. While his recent work hasbeen in theoretical computer science, hisoriginal training was in analytic algebraicnumber theory. He has since worked inmany areas, both pure and applied, andconsiders himself a mathematical generalist.

Mircea Mustata joined the Departmentas an Associate Professor. He received hisPh.D. in Mathematics from the Universityof California, Berkeley in 2001. His disserta-

tion concerned singularities and jetschemes. He has since held visiting posi-tions at the Universite de Nice in France,the Isaac Newton Institute in Cambridge,UK, and Harvard University. Most recentlyhe completed three years as a Clay InstituteFellow. Mustata is a specialist in algebraicgeometry and commutative algebra. Moreprecisely, he is interested in singularities(connections between jet schemes of alge-braic varieties and properties of thesingularities, via motivic integration), freeresolutions (especially for general sets ofpoints on projective curves and connec-tions with properties of vector bundles onthese curves) and toric varieties.

Martin Strauss joined the Departmentas an Assistant Professor. He received hisPh.D. in Mathematics from Rutgers Univer-sity in 1995. His dissertation studied fea-sible complexity classes. From 1996 to 2004he was employed at the AT&T Laborato-ries, most recently as a principal technical

staff member. His research lies in the areaof theoretical and applied computer sci-ence, specifically fundamental algorithms,computer security and cryptography, andcomplexity theory. He has a joint appoint-ment with the Department of Electrical Engi-neering and Computer Science.

Dale Winter joined the Department asan Assistant Professor. He received hisPh.D. in Mathematics from the University

of Michigan in 1998. His dissertation in-volved a solution of axially symmetric,SU(2) Einstein Yang-Mills equations. Heheld positions at Duke, Harvard and Bowl-ing Green State University before joiningthe Department. Winter will be active in theDepartment in mathematics education, andwill participate in managing the Introduc-tory Program in Mathematics.

ObituariesGeorge Hay and Frank Harary

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George E. Hay, Professor Emeritus ofMathematics, died January 12, 2005. He wasborn in 1914 in Durham, Ontario. He re-ceived three degrees in mathematics fromthe Univer-sity ofToronto,culminat-ing withhis doctor-ate in 1939.

In 1940,Hay joinedthe Depart-ment ofMathemat-ics at UMas an in-structor.He steadily rose through the ranks, becom-ing a professor in 1956. He worked for theU. S. Navy at Brown University as an asso-ciate in the Office of Scientific Research andDevelopment from 1944-45.

Hay specialized in applied mathematics,specifically the theory of elasticity and me-chanics. He published a book in 1954 en-titled “Vector and Tensor Analysis.” Duringhis tenure, Hay directed the dissertations offour graduate students. He was Chair of theDepartment of Mathematics from 1957-67,and Associate Dean of the Horace H.Rackham School of Graduate Studies from1967-76. He retired from the active faculty in1984.

As Chair, Hay is remembered as havingquiet and capable leadership. He helpedguide the Department through a difficult 10years when financial pressures and a strongdemand for highly trained mathematiciansseriously threatened mathematics at theUniversity.

He was known as a straightforward,honest and kind leader. “Many of the senioror recently retired faculty in the Mathemat-ics Department today were recruited andhired by George Hay,” says Don Lewis, Pro-fessor Emeritus of Mathematics and formerDepartment Chair. “George was very effec-tive in creating a collegial environmentwithin the Department, particularly throughhis own personal consultations with facultyand via social events he and his wifehosted.”

“George’s kind personality and de-meanor was very influential in my decisionto come to Michigan from MIT,” saiys PaulFederbush, Professor Emeritus of Math-ematics.

Colleagues outside the Department ofMathematics also fondly remember Hay.

“As Chair of the Psychology Depart-ment at the time of George’s Chairmanshipof Math, I had many opportunities to ben-efit from his cooperation and good sense,”says Bill McKeachie, Professor Emeritus ofPsychology. “We worked together on sev-eral occasions to develop policies thatwould help us strengthen the Universityand our Departments.”

Hay is survived by his sisters, EllenCannons and Frances Tracy Hay Sawyer,and children Ted, John, and Kathryn. OnDecember 25, 2004, he was preceded indeath by his beloved wife of 61 years,Lillian.

Frank Harary, Professor Emeritus ofMathematics, died January 4, 2005. Hararywas born in New York City on March 11,1921, the oldest child of immigrant parents.He received his bachelor’s and master’s de-grees from Brooklyn College, and his doc-torate fromthe Univer-sity ofCalifornia,Berkeley.

Hararyheld a fac-ulty posi-tion in theUM De-partmentof Math-ematicsfrom 1948-86. He alsowas a member of the Institute for Social Re-search (ISR) from 1950-82. He was a Distin-guished Professor (and later DistinguishedProfessor Emeritus) in the Computer Sci-ence Department at New Mexico State Uni-versity in Las Cruces from 1987 until thetime he passed away.

Harary was widely recognized as the“father” of modern graph theory, a disci-pline of Mathematics he helped found,popularize and revitalize. He wrote numer-ous books and articles, including the 1969book, “Graph Theory,” which has become amodern classic that helped define, develop,direct and shape the field of modern graphtheory. In 1955, Harary taught UM’s firstgraph theory and combinatorial theorycourses.

He was a founder of the Journals ofCombinatorial Theory and of Graph Theoryand served on the editorial boards of manymore.

During his long and productive career,Harary authored/co-authored more than 700scholarly papers—in areas as diverse as an-thropology, biology, chemistry, computerscience, geography, linguistics, music,physics, political science, psychology, so-cial science and mathematics— whichbrought forth the usefulness of graphtheory in scientific thought.

Harary guided 16 doctoral students,many of whom have gone on to be distin-guished scholars themselves. As a memberof the Research Center for Group Dynamicsat ISR, he studied the feasibility of applyingmathematical models to the study of struc-tures in groups of people.

Harary was awarded six honorary doc-torate degrees, and has received numerousother awards and recognition for his work.He had a deep and abiding love for Math-ematics and traveled the globe preachingthe gospel of graph theory. He deliveredspeeches at more than 1,000 conferencesand was invited to lecture in more than 87countries. He particularly was proud of hav-ing given lectures in cities with names be-ginning with every letter of the alphabet. Hefinally got his ‘X’ with a lecture in the exca-vated Roman amphitheater in Xanten, Ger-many.

As a result of his contributions to thefield, colleagues, peers and students fondlyreferred to Harary as Mr. Graph Theory. Heis survived by four children: Mimi, Natalie,Tom and Joel.

Research Experiences for Undergraduates Program

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The Research Experiences for Under-graduates program (REU) is designed toprovide outstanding students with the op-portunity to pursue research under the tute-lage of experienced faculty members.Typically students work with a faculty mem-ber on a project of mutual interest for 6-8weeks during the summer. Students receivea stipend for their research work, with fund-ing usually provided by a faculty member’sNational Science Foundation grant. Thissummer 18 students worked with faculty ona variety of projects in pure and appliedmathematics.

The projects range from math modelingin the sciences and engineering, runningcomputer simulations or computer experi-ments to solving abstract and conceptualproblems, depending on the backgroundand the interests of student and facultymember. Each student is required to write areport about the project, which is due at theproject’s completion. .

Students have the chance to expandtheir knowledge, learn new material, andcombine professional development withclose contact between faculty and studentpeers. REU students meet twice a week forlunch in the summer to discuss their variousprojects, hear faculty lectures, get generalassistance, and socialize.

Teow Lim Goh is an undergraduateworking with Professor Bob Griess. Theirresearch deals with lattices and grouptheory. She finds that “it is interesting toapply the theories that I learned in algebraclass to different mathematical problems.I’ve also come to a greater understanding ofthe power of the algebraic structures; thereare a number of ways to view lattices.”Teow Lim’s REU was supported by theMathematics Alumni/Alumnae Scholarshipfund. She participated in the REU programbecause “I wanted to be involved in theprocess of exploring and creating Math-ematics. I was drawn to the subject by theingenuity that generated so many beautifulmathematical ideas. Taking classes pre-sented only one side of Mathematics, wherethe ideas are already developed, and Iwanted to see the other side.

We have profiled one student’s REU re-search in what follows. Additional informa-tion is available on our website atwww.math.lsa.umich.edu/undergrad/reu.shtml.

Error-correcting codes are used in awide variety of applications from compactdiscs to cell phones. In these applications,there is a digital signal which is encoded asa sequence of 0s and 1s, for example. It isimportant to choose the encoding so thatthe encoded message is protected againsterrors in the transmission of the message(in the case of cell phones) or in the readingof the message from a compact disc. Thereare a number of different types of errors, in-cluding changing a 0 to 1 or vice versa atrandom spots in the encoded message.

A major problem in coding theory is todesign error-correcting codes that havegood properties for communication. Amongother properties, the codes should be resil-ient to a number of errors and easy to de-code and encode. Joel Tropp (postdoc inthe Mathematics Department) and Assis-tant Professor Anna Gilbert proposed amethod for constructing new error-correct-ing codes from existing ones. The proposalis built upon algorithms they have de-signed for compressing or representingdata sparsely. Undergraduate DanielSikora took that proposal and investigatedthe new codes constructed from several ex-amples of existing codes. He proved a num-ber of properties of the new codes andwrote MATLAB functions to compute thenew codes given the existing codes as in-put.

Daniel’s project focused on using m-dimensional sphere packings to create “ex-tended” codebooks from a given basecodebook. He studied how these extendedcodebooks behave, given some specificbase codebooks and lattice packings, andalso analyzed properties of thesecodebooks when constructed from arbitrarybase codebooks and packings. A primaryaccomplishment was using MATLAB towrite three programs: one to construct lat-tice packings, one to input a packing andbase code and output the extended code,and one to measure the above-mentionedproperties of a given code.

“Daniel’s work allows us to investigateour proposal in more detail than we haddone previously,” says Gilbert. “It lookslike a promising avenue for further investi-gation and connects algorithms for data

processing to coding theory. This connec-tion is especially interesting as a number ofthese algorithms are highly efficient; that is,we can decode a message over a new codeby making a few samples of the messageand in time which is proportional to thenumber of samples (and not the muchlonger length of the message).”

Daniel is grateful for having the researchexperience. “Personally, it has helped mewith my Mathematics career in many ways.This was my first actual research experienceas a Mathematics undergraduate, and ithelped to give me a feel of what mathemati-cal research is like (which was very reassur-ing to me since I had no idea what a careeras a mathematician would be like). Also, be-fore my REU experience, I had no experiencewith any mathematics computer programs(MATLAB, Mathematica, Maple, etc.), andthis helped me to get a feel for computingand writing programs with MATLAB.”

The experience has solidified Daniel’sintent to go to graduate school to obtain aPh.D. “Right now I am very interested inCoding Theory and Information Theory,and would like to focus on those fields,” hesays. “Currently, I’m still debating whetherI would like to work as a professor at a uni-versity, or work as a National SecurityAgency mathematician (or work as a math-ematician in private industry; the possibili-ties are endless). In general, I loved my REUexperience. It was great to work one-on-onewith a professor doing actual research; Ihave had ‘research jobs’ in the past at an-other university in which I really didn’t doany research, so this was very exciting forme.”

The experience was rewarding to Gilbertas well. “I had worked with a number ofsummer students (at AT&T Research Labs)before coming to the University of Michi-gan and it was always something I enjoyed.I enjoy watching the ‘research process’ inthe students, how they move from solvinghomework problems to discovering andproving theorems on their own. Daniel wasno exception! He started out computing afew examples by hand and ended up with atheorem about this code construction pro-cess and a computer program to generatethe new codes.”

Recent Ph.D. RecipientsTobias Berger completed his disserta-

tion “An Einstein Ideal for Imaginary Qua-dratic Fields” under the direction of ChrisSkinner. He will spend a year at the MaxPlanck Institute in Germany, then move toQueen’s College at Cambridge as a Re-search Fellow.

Erik Bird completed his dissertation “AProof of Existence of Particle-Like Solu-tions to Einstein-Dirac Equations” underthe direction of Joel Smoller. He is currentlyteaching at Michigan State University.

Grigoriy Blekherman completed hisdissertation “Convex Geometry of Orbits”under the direction of Alexander Barvinok.He has a two-year position at MicrosoftTheory Corporation.

Jim Brown completed his dissertation“Saito-Kurokawa Lifts, L-Values for GL2,and Congruences Between Siegel ModularForms” under the direction of Chris Skin-ner. He has accepted a 3-year postdoctoralposition at Ohio State University.

Calin Chindris completed his disserta-tion “The Cone of Effective Weights forQuivers and Horn Type Problems” underthe direction of Harm Derksen. He has ac-cepted a 3-year Assistant Professorship atthe University of Minnesota.

Mihaela Stanca Cuipe completed herdissertation “Development and Applica-tions of Mathematical Tools in Models ofInfectious Diseases and Biological Phe-nomenon” under the direction of PatrickNelson. She will be a postdoctoral fellow atLos Alamos National Lab in New Mexico.

Geoffrey Dietz completed his disserta-tion “Closure Operations in Positive Char-acteristic and Big Cohen-MacaulayAlgebras” under the direction of MelHochster. He will be a postdoctoral fellowat the University of Oklahoma.

Thomas Fiore completed his disserta-tion “Pseudo Limits, Bi-Adjoints, andPseudo Algebras: Categorical Founda-tions of Conformal Field Theory” under thedirection of Igor Kriz. He will be a DicksonInstructor at the University of Chicago.

Tong Liu completed his dissertation“Potentially Good Reduction of Barsotti-Tate Groups” under the direction of BrianConrad. Tong will be an instructor at theUniversity of Pennsylvania.

Constantin Leonardo Mihalcea com-pleted his dissertation “Equivariant Quan-tum Cohomology of Homogeneous Spaces”under the direction of William Fulton. Hewill be a postdoc at Florida State University.

Quang Minh Nguyen completed his dis-sertation “Dualities and Classical Geom-etry of the Moduli Space of Vector Bundlesof Rank 3 on a Curve of Genus 2” under thedirection of Igor Dolgachev. He will teachat a private high school in San Francisco.

Han Peters completed his dissertation“Non-Autonomous Complex DynamicalSystems” under the direction of John ErikFornaess. He will be a postdoc at the Uni-versity of Wisconsin.

Zachariah Teitler completed his disser-tation “Multiplier Ideals of Line Arrange-ments” under the direction of RobertLazarsfeld. He will be a postdoc at South-eastern Louisana State University.

Yan-Chun James Tung completed hisdissertation “Fock Spaces” under the direc-tion of Peter Duren. He is currently teach-ing at Michigan State University.

Alexandre Wolfe completed his disser-tation “Asymptotic Invariants of GradedSystems of Ideals and Linear Systems onProjective Bundles” under the direction ofRobert Lazarsfeld.

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Join us at the Michigan Reception at the joint AMS Meetings in San Antonio,

Friday, January13, 2006Visit our website for details www.math.lsa.umich.edu

The Graduate office had another busyand successful year. The office received479 applications for admittance to thegraduate program for the 2005-06 academicyear. The Department offered 61 studentsadmission to the Ph.D. program, and 24 stu-dents have accepted. The new studentsinclude 10 U.S. citizens and 14 non-U.S.citizens; six of the students are women, andsix of them are part of the Applied and In-terdisciplinary Mathematics program.

In March the Department hosted a Re-cruiting Weekend, bringing 20 potentialgraduate students to campus. They wereable to learn about the Department and theUniversity, and met with faculty and cur-rent graduate students to find out aboutthe opportunities here. The students whoattended the Recruiting Weekend werequite impressed with the program, faculty,and facilities.

The new U.S. students come from Ber-keley, Boston U., Caltech, Chicago, Colum-bia, Iowa State, Michigan State, UCLA (2),and University of Richmond. The interna-tional students are from Brazil, Canada (2),China, Colombia (2), France, Japan, Korea,Mexico, Moldova, Peru, Poland, and SouthAfrica.

Three of the incoming students will re-ceive funding through the Rackham Sci-ence Award for students from under-represented groups. Among those stu-dents accepted are holders of a Fulbrightfellowship, Canadian NCIRC funding, De-partment of Defense fellowship, plus a fel-lowship from the Mexican government.

Professor Juha Heinonen Associate Chair for Graduate Studies

GraduateRecruiting

Graduate Program Fellowships & Awards

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VIGRE FellowsDavid AndersonTrevor ArnoldGrigoriy BlekhermanBryden CaisMichael CarrElizabeth DewittGeoffrey DietzErin EmersonJonathan FordeJasun GongHester GravesSara HeuselGeri IzbickiBrian JenningsAaron MagidRay MalehJessica Metcalf-BurtonIvan MiddletonYogesh MoreCharles MuellerHannah RobbinsCraig SpencerAndrew SteinZachariah TeitlerKevin TuckerEllen VeomettMarshall WilliamsEric Zupunski

A.V. Flint Memorial ScholarshipJohn Mackay

Allen Shields FellowMihaela Ciupe

Arthur Herbert Copeland, Sr.Memorial Scholarship

Tigran AnanyanRussell GolmanWansu Kim

Cameron & John Courtney ScholarshipShin-Yao Jow

Carroll V. Newsom ScholarshipJonathan BoberFelipe Ramirez

Darrow Mathematics Graduate StudentScholarship

Michael Lieberman

Edwin Wilkinson Miller FellowKelli Carlson

Gabrielle & Sophie Rainich FellowBrian Jacobson

Lucent FellowEllen Eischen

Luther Claborn Mathematics FellowJose Gomez-Guerra

Mathematics Alumni/AlumnaeScholarship

Sarah CrownMark Iwen

Mathematics Department GraduateFellows

Leo GoldmakherAfsaneh Mehran (Fall)

National Physical Science ConsortiumFellow

Marie Snipes

National Science Foundation FellowsMargaret BriscoeDennis ClarkDavid ConstantineSamuel Payne

Rackham Merit FellowAdeboye Ilesanmi (Fall)

Rackham One-Term Dissertation FellowsYann Bernard (Winter)Thomas Fiore (Winter)Robert Lonigro (Winter)

Rackham Science AwardJonathan BoberOscar FernandezFelipe Ramirez

Regents’ FellowJohanna Mangahas

Samsung FellowsYungkwon KimJungwoon Park

Wirt and Mary Cornwell PrizeCalin Chindris

Departmental Scholarship Spring 2005Arvind BaskaranHenry BoatengKatarina BodovaElizabeth ChenChristopher HammondKyle HofmannJohnson JiaRizwanur KhanRyan KinserCagatay KutluhanNam-Hoon LeeJoel LepakAfsaneh MehranAlvaro PelayoMatthew SmithAlan StapledonGiancarlo UrzuaDiane VavrichekLei WangKevin WildrickHao XingBo YangHsu-Wen YoungOichi Yuen

2004 Sumner B. Myers Memorial PrizeKevin Woods

In addition to receiving the Department’srecognition for producing the best thesis,Kevin (pictured above) received a Distin-guished Dissertation Award from theRackham Graduate School for his thesisentitled “Rational Generating Functionsand Lattice Point Sets.”

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Young II AanAlexandra AchenMichael AlbertusAmna AliAndres ArauzDavid AristoffChirag BadkarHye-Youn BaekJoseph BaldwinCarly BaynesAdam BendorfBrian BerendsJacob BernsteinShawn BlanchardRyan BonnevilleJacob BourjailyCayna CarnesHaywai ChanCarl ChangMichael ChiuJaehyup ChunNatalie Claes

Andew CollettaJeremy CookSean CorcoranHeather CostelloAaron CumbersAmanda ElliottPatrick EmausAndrew FoleyBrittany GalisdorferPaul GeorgandellisJason GoldstickAllison HaidostianKenneth HarrisRorujorona HarrisChristopher HaywardSarah HewsKin-Yan HoSirui HuangSarah IvesonRishabh JhunjhunwalaChristopher JonesHyung Joon Kim

Alan KleinkeKara KnaufMallika KommareddiCrystal KosebutzkiAlexander KruszChristopher KureckaTristan LaChanceWai Cheong LaiChiaying LeeLucas LopatinJoel LouwsmaGregory MalivukTodd MarshallJames McCannMichael McDermottNicolo MenezScott MihalikKristin NewtonHillary NowakMicah O’KrayMegan OkulyAlan ParkRachel ParzynskiSheree Patmon

Brian PolkAdam PowellJulia PowerAishwerya PuriSyed RazaJoshua ReevesJennifer RemiasBrendon RhoadesAmy RiceRobert RitterJulie SachsShalin SainiRobert SchabingerShannon SchwarbRonit SlyperPaul JungWan SonRahul SuriDowi TengBenjamin WardSamuel WedesJeffrey WingCaleb YipEric ZawackiAngela ZerboniaAnna Zlatkin

Congratulations to our 2004-05Mathematics Undergraduate Degree Recipients

Numerous Mathematics undergraduate students received recognition atthis year’s Awards Ceremony.Above, some of the recipients of the Outstanding Achievement inMathematics Award: Professor Ralf Spatzier, Jennifer Remias, HillaryNowak, Jacob Bourjaily, Ryan Bonneville, Professor Curtis Huntington.At right, Professor Curtis Huntington, Cornwell Prize winner SarahIveson, and Professor Trevor Wooley.

2005 Undergraduate Award RecipientsThe Department’s team for the William

Lowell Putnam Mathematics Competitionplaced 16th out of 411 teams in the event.This year’s team was comprised of Christo-pher Cunningham, Fernando DelgadoSalas and Anna Maltseva. The individualcompetition included 3733 students fromacross North America. Fernando DelgadoSalas received an honorable mention, plac-ing the highest of UM students at 38.Christopher Cunningham finished at 89.

The winner of the 22nd Annual Univer-sity of Michigan Undergraduate Mathemat-ics Competition was Nathan Stiennon.Fernando Delgado Salas came in secondplace and Christopher Cunningham wasthird.

The following students received M.S.Keeler Scholarships for the 2004-05 aca-demic year:

Alexandra AchenJacob BernsteinHaywai ChanJeremy CookSpencer DowdallMatthew ElseyAnn HuangMelinda KleczynskiNicole KleverAnna MaltsevaJames McCannJason MillerRandy PistorKathryn RoederPaul SiegelRonit SlyperNathan StiennonCameron ThomasKarl WeintraubAllen WeissAmanda WilkeHuanan Zhang

The following students received EvelynO. Bychinsky Awards, which recognizeunderclass students who show exceptionalpromise in mathematics:

Michael MillerPaul SiegelNathan StiennonEthan Street

The following students receivedMargaret S. Huntington Awards inActuarial Outreach:

Michael DrobDavid C. FloodJennifer MacdonaldNicholas ParsonsAjay PatelLindsay PushiesSagar ShahMichael TaddonioRichard TurnerPaige WarmkerBernard Yin Lung Yiu

Brian Baker received the Leon P.Zukowski Prize for outstanding service inthe Math Lab.

The William LeVeque Award in Number Theory was presented toFernando Delgado Salas. The award rec-ognizes a student who is at most a juniorand excels in the study of number theory.

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Outstanding Achievement in Math-ematics Awards went to the following se-niors:

David AristoffRyan BonnevilleJacob BourjailyJames McCannHillary NowakJennifer RemiasRobert SchabingerRonit Slyper

The Otto Richter Memorial Prize inActuarial Science was presented to CalebYip.

The CIGNA Award in Actuarial Sci-ence was presented to Keith Kwiatkowski.

The Irving Wolfson Award in ActuarialScience was presented to Jeffrey Zheng.

The Lois Zook Levy Memorial Awardwas presented to Brian Polk. The awardrecognizes an outstanding Mathematicsstudent who plans to pursue a career in K-12 Mathematics education.

Jacob Bernstein was named the Out-standing Graduating Senior.

Sarah Iveson received the Wirt andMary Cornwell Prize, recognizing a stu-dent who has demonstrated the greatest in-tellectual curiosity, given the most promiseof original study and creative work in math,and also shows an interest in music.

Professor Dan Burns with Brian Baker

ProfessorCurtisHuntingtonwith some of theMargaret S.HuntingtonAwardrecipients.

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Over the past few years, the number ofstudents declaring Actuarial Mathematicsfor their major has been steadily increasing.For the 2005-06 academic year, for the firsttime in many years, we will be running twoSections of both the Theory of Interestclass (Mathematics 424) and the ActuarialMathematics class (Mathematics 520).

At the same time, there has been signifi-cant growth in the Financial Mathematicsprograms, including the related graduateprogram in Financial Engineering hosted bythe Industrial & Operations Engineering De-partment in the School of Engineering.

Our next goal is to revitalize theMaster’s degree program in Actuarial Sci-ence. Next year, we will be hosting our firstFulbright Scholar in the program, who iscoming from Lebanon.

To accommodate all of this growth, weare pleased to welcome two new facultymembers this fall. Masahiko Egami andMichael Ludkovski will be joining the Fi-nancial Mathematics faculty, both comingto Michigan from Princeton University.They will be joining the other FinancialMathematics faculty members ErhanBayraktar (also from Princeton) andMattias Jonsson.

The Actuarial Mathematics faculty con-tinues to be at full strength, with 4 full timemembers, all of them with professional actu-arial credentials (ASA or FSA) and all ofthem holding doctorates. For the 2004-2006academic years, Curtis Huntington alsoholds the additional position of AssociateChair for Education.

Elsewhere in this issue, you will readabout the new Michigan Pension Educationand Training (MPET) program that has re-cently been established jointly with theAmerican Society of Pension Professionals& Actuaries (ASPPA). In addition, we arecurrently exploring ways to fund and estab-lish an interdisciplinary Risk Analysis Cen-ter.

Our April 2005 Cecil J. Nesbitt Com-mencement Lecturer was Fazli M. Datoo(MA 1971), Executive Vice President ofSwiss Re Life and Health America. He gavean inspiring presentation to this year’sgraduates (and their families) tracing his lifefrom his start in Tanzania through his timeat Michigan to the current. This was thethird event in this series and is rapidly be-coming a highlight of the actuarial academicyear.

Once again, UM was pleased to host ameeting of the Michigan Actuarial Societywhere the topic explored was “BuildingCommunication Skills Through Improvisa-tion.” This event is proving to be popularwith both the UM students and the local ac-tuaries and we plan to continue doing thisannually.

The Student Organization of Actuariesmaintains an active schedule of academic,sporting and social events. With almost 100members, this group is rapidly becomingone of the more active academically-fo-cused groups on campus. While theirsporting prowess is somewhat lacking, theenthusiasm they bring to sports carries overto their other activities.

The faculty and students look forwardto hearing from you with any comments,questions or suggestions you might have.And, if your travels bring you though AnnArbor, please let us know so that we canhost a visit with us in our East Hall home.

Curtis E. Huntington (BA 1964), FSA,FCA, MAAA, APM

Director, Financial & ActuarialMathematics Programs,

Director MPET Program

The undergraduate Mathematics pro-gram continues to thrive and grow. The2004-05 academic year saw the number ofdeclared Mathematics majors rise to 289, anincrease of 10% over the previous year. An-other 170 students declared minors in math-ematics. An interesting reason for theincrease in majors is the phenomenon ofstudents taking a minor in math and thenexpanding it to a second major. The math-ematics graduating classes for this year in-cluded 98 majors and 77 minors.

There was more course developmentthis year, associated with the Inquiry BasedLearning initiative (IBL), with the Honorsprogram, and with Visiting ProfessorMichael Artin’s course on problem solvingand student projects.

Another reason for growth is the socialsetting in the Department, which is verymuch appreciated by the students. Therewas a significant increase of activity for thein-house advising program, along with afriendly undergraduate office atmosphere,and stimulating social/educational eventslike the weekly meeting of the Math Cluband daily Department tea. Opportunitieslike the annual career day, internships withvarious companies, and the Research Expe-rience for Undergraduates program helpstudents to prepare for utilizing their math-ematics knowledge after graduation. Theundergraduate program is prepared to keepgrowing while continually improving thequality of education and service to stu-dents.

Professor Dan Burns Director of Undergraduate Programs

Financial & ActuarialMathematics Update

UndergraduateProgram News

The Department’s MathLab allows students tostudy together andreceive assistance fromtrained tutors to helpin their math studies.

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The American Society of Pension Pro-fessionals & Actuaries (ASPPA) recentlyannounced that it is partnering with theUniversity of Michigan Department ofMathematics to oversee the academic con-tent and examination standards for ASPPA’scredentialing programs. The partnershipwill couple the University of Michigan’sacademic expertise with ASPPA’s industryand 401(k) plan expertise. The partnershiphas initially adopted the name MichiganPension Education and Training Program(MPET).

ASPPA’s Board of Directors recently setan organizational goal that “ASPPA shall beacknowledged as the primary education andcredential-issuing organization for all pen-sion professionals.”

“This partnership will create definitesynergies as the University of Michiganbrings academic and scholarly researchstrengths to ASPPA’s credentialing pro-gram. Given the demand for highly compe-tent pension professionals, it is critical thatour educational materials provide technicalcontent that has real world application,”

Department Partners withPension Professionals

said ASPPA Executive Director/CEO, BrianGraff, Esq., APM.

Currently the University of MichiganDepartment of Mathematics operates theoldest actuarial program within the U.S.,founded in 1903, and boasts the largestnumber of credentialed actuarial sciencefaculty within its mathematics department.ASPPA offers education and professionalcredentials for actuaries (FSPA, MSPA) andfor non-actuarial professionals, such as401(k) administrators (QKA), pension con-sultants (CPC), and other benefits profes-sionals (APM). ASPPA members, over 5,400strong, provide consulting and administra-tive support to more than half of the privateretirement plans in the country.

“Given the huge demand on the U.S.pension system, it’s vitally important tocontinue to foster excellence in pensioneducation. This MPET partnership betweenthe university and ASPPA is an excellentopportunity to continue to raise the compe-tency of U.S. pension professionals,” saidCurtis E. Huntington, APM, FSA, FCA,

MAAA, Professor of Mathematics and Di-rector of Actuarial/Financial MathematicsPrograms.

ASPPA is a national organization of re-tirement plan professionals dedicated to thepreservation and enhancement of the pri-vate pension system in the United States.ASPPA offers educational opportunities inthe form of conferences, web courses,webcasts and credentialing exams. Over5,000 candidates take an ASPPAcredentialing exam each year. For more in-formation, visit www.asppa.org.

Recently, all ASPPA education courseswere awarded college credit recommenda-tion by the American Council on Education(ACE). Founded in 1918, ACE is the majorcoordinating body for all of the nation’shigher education institutions representing1,800 accredited, degree granting colleges/universities and higher education-relatedassociations, organizations and corpora-tions.

MPET’s first full-time professional,Bunny Wing Fernhall, ASPPA’s Chief ofPension Education, will work out ofASPPA’s national headquarters in Arling-ton, Virginia. She will be assisted by a num-ber of Technical Educational Consultantswho will be working at various locationsaround the country.

The Department’s development andfundraising efforts this year experienced thecompletion of one initiative, the continua-tion of others, and planning for the future.

In 2002, Chair Trevor Wooley set thegoal of funding the Sumner B. Myers Me-morial Prize endowment to the level of$45,000 within five years. The SumnerMyers prize, given to a Ph.D. recipientwhose thesis is judged to be the most out-standing for that calendar year, was estab-lished as a memorial upon the death offaculty member Sumner Myers in 1955 at theage of 45. The original funding for the prizehad been depleted. Wooley challenged thefaculty to give to the fund and agreed tomatch any their gifts by 50% from Depart-mental funds. Emeritus faculty, friends ofthe Department, and former Sumner MyersPrize recipients were also asked to help withthe funding of the prize. At the 2005 Emeri-

tus Faculty and Friends luncheon, Wooleyannounced that the goal for this fundinghad been met, with over $45,000 havingbeen collected or pledged. This is a signifi-cant achievement for the development ef-forts of the Department. Many thanks to allwho participated in this initiative.

The Mathematics Alumni/AlumnaeScholarship fund continues to prosper.The annual mailing to all alumni/alumnaeasks them to contribute to an expendablefund to support undergraduate and gradu-ate students. In 2004-05, the funds wereused to support undergraduate Teow LimGoh in her REU experience, and providedmuch needed funding to graduate studentsSarah Crown and Mark Iwen as they con-tinued with their studies. The 2005 fundinginitiative is well underway, and as funds arecollected, they will be distributed to deserv-ing students.

As the new Chair develops his prioritiesand seeks support, new initiatives will beput forth and funding sought. A currentlyavailable funding priority is to grow the en-dowments that were established to honortwo emeriti professors. The Professor Max-well Reade fund is intended to support theDepartment’s student recruiting effort, andthe Professor Thomas Storer fund will pro-vide funding support to a deserving under-graduate mathematics major who is also inthe honors program. For information ongiving to these funds, please emailmath.mich@umich.edu, or call 734-647-4462.

Additional information on funding op-portunities, as well as other information thatmight be of interest to alumni, is availableon our website www.math.lsa.umich.edu/alumni. Many thanks to all donors who par-ticipate in supporting Mathematics atMichigan.

New Fundraising Initiatives Successful

Many Thanks to ourGenerous Supporters

The following individuals and companies made contributions to the Mathematics De-partment between June 1, 2004 and June 1, 2005

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Actuarial Mathematics Development FundAlan W. FinkelsteinMr. Alan P. HuddyWalter and Barbara MacGinnitieJohn L. MarakasGregg A. SchwabStanley H. Tannenbaum

Margaret S. Huntington First YearActuarial ScholarshipsCurtis E. HuntingtonDr. Jian Yu

Professor Maxwell Reade FundLeon P. Zukowski

Professor Thomas Storer FundLeon P. Zukowski

Mathematics Department Strategic FundTimothy and Teri BuchowskiBrian E. ChamberlainMr. Craig M. EvansDr. C. Allan Foy, Jr.Denise Yee FriedrichElizabeth King-Sloan and B.P. SloanDr. George A. Kozlowski, Jr.Mr. and Mrs. James S. LombardMr. Michael L. QuinnDr. Cris T. RoosenraadSusan S. RoosenraadMr. and Mrs. Mark R. SandstromDr. Donald E. SarasonAnne and Mitchell SaywitzKathleen and Gary Trock

Mathematics Department Special FundR. James BennettSteven J. BowmanProfessor Daniel M. Burns, Jr.Douglas and Pamela CenzerMrs. Pamela CenzerDr. Alan K. Cline and Elaine RichMs. Diane M. De SantisMr. Robert V. DeVoreHenry Albert Dihm, Jr.Dr. Barbara B. FlinnMr. Dennis P. GrahamThomas J. HansenCharles and Susan HolmesDr. William E. LakeyLorraine D. Lavallee, Ph.D.Mr. Matthew A. PosthumaDr. G. Robina Quale-LeachJohn J. and Kim M. Rinn

Kenneth H. RosenMrs. Gretchen S. RyanDr. Michael J. SattingerMr. Mark P. SchairbaumMr. David A. ScottBenjamin and Durga SingerVictor L. SmithCharles and Marianne SnyggMr. Thomas E. StolperDrs. Emil and Judith SunleyProfessor B. Alan TaylorDr. Gerald L. ThompsonJohn C. and Sally WengerPhilip M. and Nancy L. WolfLee Lynn Zia

Mathematics Alumni/AlumnaeScholarship FundDr. Ian M. AberbachMs. Megan I. AlbertsonMarc N. Altschull, F.S.A., M.A.A.A.Barbara and Jerry AmosRichard D. ArmstrongMs. Dorothy E. BambachFelice D. Bateman, Ph.D.Michael L. BeesonSanford A. BellMr. and Mrs. James E. BesanconMr. Craig J. BlumenfeldDrs. Amy and Brian BoonstraDr. and Mrs. Denis L. BourkeDr. and Mrs. Alfred J. BownDr. and Mrs. Laurence R. BoxerThomas L. BoyntonDr. and Mrs. Robert F. BrammerRuth and Stanley BriggsMr. Richard F. BrownBooker T. Byrd, Jr., Ph.D.Mr. and Mrs. Richard A. CabotMs. JJ Lane CarrollJames and Patricia CaseMrs. Stephen ChanMrs. Roberta J. ChappellMiss Lorraine A. ChorkeyMiss Lynn Joy CohenDr. Michael L. CohenCraig P. ColbyDavid G. CrandallDan and Gail Dall’OlmoMr. Bruce Campbell DaneJames G. and Mary S. DanforthSusan J. DevencenziHenry Albert Dihm, Jr.

Jean S. and Jeffery T. DukesMr. Paul G. EitnerMaureen Evans FujimoriDr. Vincent J. FerliniAlan W. FinkelsteinDavid and Susan FlesnerShari M. FogelDr. Robert L. FooteDr. Robert Samuel FortusDr. C. Allan Foy, Jr.Richard and Doreen FrankelDr. and Mrs. H. Howard Frisinger IIMrs. Jennifer L. Furst HittingerDr. and Mrs. David M. GayRoberta and Thomas GlassmanKaren and Lewis GoldDr. Angela C. GomezJose A. GomezSusan D. and Raymond F. GoodrichMs. Carolyn Fowle GreenThomas J. HainesThomas J. HansenWilliam Albert HarperKalynn and Matthew HaubertMrs. Judith F. HeatonMs. Deborah J. HigginsDr. Jeffrey A. Furst HittingerEllen M. HopkinsRita Y. Hopkins-ByrdDr. Cay S. HorstmannMr. and Mrs. Brian J. HowardHerald H. Hughes, Jr.Gudmund R. and Roberta R. IversenMs. Shaili JainMary A. KellyDr. Yonggu KimEdward and Martha KimballMelanie and Phillip KraftDavid L. KunianskyMichael and Linda KurpinskiMr. Todd A. LanskiStephen and Jeanne LewisKaren and Brian MacDonaldMrs. Maureen S. MaddenJohn L. MarakasDavid and Marcy J. MarcusLydia and Pedro MarroneGeorge and margaret MartinMr. and Mrs. Terence B. MartinMr. David C. MartyDonald E. MastersEdmund B. McCueVirginia D. McCullohMr. Charles D. McLaughlinMr. Kelly K. MillerMr. Kurt M. MillerDiane and W. Reynolds MonachProf. M. Susan MontgomeryJanice Swanson MooreMr. and Mrs. Leonard J. Nemerovski

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Charles and Sharon NewmanRogers J. Newman, Ph.D.Dr. Eric Albert NordgrenMs. Daleen Sly OlsonJeffrey S. PacieroMr. Adam E. ParkerMrs. Mary G. PeltoAlex PerelMrs. Judith Nickel PetermanMr. Michael L. QuinnJohn G. and Susan K. RatcliffeMs. Melanie J. ReinekeDr. James T. RenfrowGladys and Larry RockindJane and Patrick RodgersRobert B. RosalskyMr. Jeffrey W. RosbergMr. and Mrs. Peter RothmalerDenise Rose RoyThomas and Carrie RuehleDr. Betty J. SalzbergMr. Joseph M. SaundersMs. Mary A. SavasMr. Mark P. SchairbaumDr. Cynthia J. SchmeichelDr. Lawrence R. SchoenhalsDr. Maria Elena SchonbekDr. and Mrs. Norman L. SchryerDr. Timothy M. SchwiderRobert Bruce ScottDr. Demetrios SerakosProf. Alan ShuchatGayle D. SidlerMr. Lawrence C. SiltonMr. Jason B. SindlerMr. Daniel D. SlosbergJudith R. SmutekDr. Stan StahlMr. Elliott M. SteinerNancy Lynn StellaDr. Clarence F. StephensMelbourne and Nancy StewartWen-Kuan SunDr. E. Ramnath SuryanarayanSally and William SutcliffeDr. Craig J. SuttonProf. Bart M. TaubMr. Michael A. TaylorMrs. Jean McLarty TidballKaren Sands TinucciMrs. Ching-Shung TuMr. Hoi-Yi K. TungMr. and Mrs. Edward T. VeachMr. James A. VerhanovitzPhuong Nguyen Vinh, M.D.Dr. Mei WangDr. Hugh Eugene WarrenDr. James O. WatsonMrs. Janet E. WeaverMr. and Mrs. Robert J. Williams

Dr. Joel M. WisdomMs. Katherine L. WisdomValerie F. and Edward Zablocki

The Susan Meredith Smith FundSusan Smith Gray and Robert Gray

The Leon P. Zukowski Award FundMs. Ethel M. Rathbun

Cecil J. and Ethel M. Nesbitt ProfessorshipMrs. Norma L. EdwardsMr. Ralph Ernest EdwardsHoward and Marjorie FoslerAmy and Marc GouldSam and Peggy GuttermanMr. and Mrs. David G. HartmanJames R. LannenWalter and Barbara MacGinnitieMr. and Mrs. Jerome M. PowellRichard & Doris RoederMr. Jeffrey Carroll RoseJack E. Seigel, Jr.Clifford R. SimmsDonald R. SondergeldJohn R. TaylorWendell C. TrueMr. Douglas S. VanDamWilliam D. WardLouis M. Weisz

Irving S. Wolfson FundMr. James S. WolfsonDr. Lester M. Wolfson

Carl Hahn Fischer FundJane and Dan Arnold

William F. Poorman FundDr. Michael J. Plantholt

Mathematics Department Special EndowmentJames H. Ellis, M.D.Mrs. Gloria M. LaPontneyJean A. Lawton, M.D.

Sumner B. Myers Memorial Prize FundDr. Stephen B. AgardDr. and Mrs. Robert C. F. BartelsDavid and Betty BrydgesProfessor Daniel M. Burns, Jr.Professor Joseph G. ConlonProfessor Brian D. ConradProfessor Stephen M. DeBackerProfessor Igor V. DolgachevProfessor Peter L. DurenDr. Allan and Ann EdmondsDr. Donald E. FreemanProfessor William E. FultonFrederick W. and Lois B. GehringProfessor Donald G. HigmanProfessor Peter G. HinmanProfessor Melvin Hochster

Professor Curtis E. HuntingtonProfessor Bogdan IonProfessor Wilfred KaplanProfessor Wilfred M. KincaidProfessor Robert KrasnyProfessor Jeffrey C. LagariasDr. David Benjamin LeepMrs. Ethel M. NesbittProfessor Gopal PrasadProfessor and Mrs. M.S. RamanujanProfessor and Mrs. Maxwell O. ReadeDr. Daniel S. RogalskiProfessor Peter ScottProfessor Chung-Tuo ShihProfessor Joel A. SmollerProfessor Ralf SpatzierProfessor John T. StaffordProfessor John StembridgeProf. B. Alan TaylorDr. Mary L. ThompsonDr. Barbara E. UllmanProfessor Divakar ViswanathProfessor David J. WinterProfessor Trevor WooleyProfessor Sijue WuDr. H. Peyton YoungMr. Leon P. Zukowski

Allen L. Shields Memorial FellowshipProf. Peter L. Duren

Corporate and Foundation SupportersAetna Foundation, Inc.ASPA Pension Education and Research Fund, Inc.AT&T FoundationThe Burroughs Wellcome FundAlfred P. Sloan FoundationCIGNA FoundationDaimlerChrysler Corporation FundDavid and Lucile Packard FoundationThe Educational Advancement FoundationErnst & Young FoundationFord Motor Company FundThe Hartford .ING Community & Volunteer ProgramLincoln Financial Group Foundation Inc.Lockheed Martin CorporationMetropolitan Life FoundationMSC Systems, Inc.Nationwide FoundationPNM Foundation, Inc.PricewaterhouseCoopers FoundationRaytheon Matching at Boston FoundationThe Sapoff FoundationSt. Paul Travelers FoundationSwiss Re Life & Health America Inc.Towers PerrinWachovia FoundationWatson Wyatt & CompanyWorld Reach, Inc.

life. His career is highlighted by ground-breaking work in applying informationtechnology to higher education.

Brown is a member of the NationalAcademy of Education and a fellow of the

American Associa-tion for ArtificialIntelligence andthe American As-sociation for theAdvancement ofScience. He is aco-founder of theInstitute for Re-search and Learn-ing, a non-profitinstitute for ad-dressing the prob-lems of lifelonglearning.

In his address,Brown wascheered by students for hisrole in the invention of

spellcheck. “You are the first class of the‘net’ generation,” he told them. Brown

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UM Honorary Degree RecipientsTwo alumni of the Department of Math-

ematics were recognized with honorary de-grees at the University of MichiganCommencement activities in April 2005.Henry W. Bloch (BS 1944), co-founder andhonorary chairman ofthe board of H&RBlock, Inc., receivedan honorary Doctorof Laws Degree.John Seely Brown(MS 1964, PhD Com-puter and Communi-cation Science 1970)was the keynotespeaker at the com-mencement and re-ceived an honoraryDoctor of Sciencedegree.

A former chiefscientist of XeroxCorporation, Brownheaded the XeroxPalo Alto Research Center (PARC) for tenyears. He is a leading contemporary thinkeron the influence of technology on modern

called the graduates natives of the digitalage, and said that they could “do thingsnow that most of us never dreamed of justa few years ago.”

Bloch and his older brother, Leon,started the United Business Company inKansas City, MO, shortly after World WarII, offering bookkeeping and tax services.

When Leon left to prac-tice law, Bloch and hisyounger brother, Rich-ard, continued the busi-ness. In 1955, theInternal Revenue Ser-vice in Kansas City dis-continued its freetax-preparation assis-tance service. The com-pany seized thisopportunity to focussolely on tax preparationand was renamed H&RBlock, Inc.

The Department ofMathematics hosted areception for Bloch and

his wife. Students and faculty were able toinformally meet with Bloch and discuss hisinsights on business and education.

John Seely Brown speaks at the UMSpring Commencement Ceremony.

Henry W. Bloch

Emeritus Faculty Honored at LuncheonFor the past several years, the Department hasbeen holding an annual event honoring emeritusfaculty and friends of the department. Here aresome images from recent events.Left: Marjorie Reade, Professor Emeritus FredGehring, Lois Gehring, Professor Emeritus WilfredKincaid and Professor Emeritus Maxwell Reade.Below left: Retired Mathematics staff member LeeZukowski talks with Professors Emeritus DonLewis, Wilfred Kaplan and Paul Federbush.Below right: Professor Emeritus Wilfred Kincaid,Faye Kincaid, Lillian Hay and Lois Gehring.

Alumni/aeUpdates

Want to get involved with the UM Department of Mathematics?Here are some areas where alumni participation is vital. Let us know

if you are interested in working with us on these initiatives.

Recommend the UM mathematics program to students interested inundergraduate or graduate studiesParticipate in our annual Career Day, November 11, 2005Visit the department for afternoon tea (3:45 sharp) if you are in townfor the weekend, including Homecoming, Parent’s weekend, or thePresidential Society weekendBe a mentor (in person or via email) to a current studentSet up a recruiting program with your company for graduatingstudentsOffer internships in your company to mathematics studentsAllow groups of mathematics students to visit your company

Email math.mich@umich.edu or call 734-647-4462

Donald Davenport (BS 1965) retired fromthe Almont Community Schools (50 milesnorth of Detroit) three years ago after 35years of secondary mathematics teaching.He founded the Lapeer County Mathemat-ics Competition ten years ago. Also, in 1997he became affiliated with the Park CityMathematics Institute program for highschool math teachers. Although retired, heis still active with the outreach group of thisorganization and its leader, Prof. RogerVerhey of UM Dearborn. But more recentlyDonald has become interested in MiddleEast issues. He just completed first yearArabic and has traveled to Egypt and Jor-dan. He soon plans to spend three weeks inMorocco studying second year Arabic in-tensively.

Constance C. Kelly (BA 1965, MA Edu-cation 1966) recently retired from a 29-yearcareer as a middle school mathematicsteacher in the Bloomfield Hills, MI, publicschools. She served on the NAEP Math-ematics Committee from 1998 to 2005, was aPAEMST state finalist in 2003 (applicant2005), and received the District Distin-guished Service Award in 2005.

Michael J. Sattinger (BS 1965, PhD1973 Carnegie-Mellon) presented “LaborQueues,” an application of queueing theoryto labor markets, at a meeting of the Societyof Labor Economists in San Francisco inJune 2005.

Carl de Boor (PhD 1966) received the2003 National Medal of Science during aWhite House ceremony in March, 2005. ThePresident’s appointed committee of scien-tists at the National Science Foundationawards the National Medal of Science eachyear. Carl de Boor specializes in numericalanalysis and is recognized for his innova-tive work in spline functions, which haspractical applications in aircraft and auto-motive construction and design. Born inEast Germany, de Boor joined the Universityof Wisconsin, Madison faculty in 1972,where he is currently a Professor Emeritus.

Charles R. MacCluer (PhD 1966) is aProfessor of Mathematics and Coordinatorof the professional Masters program in in-dustrial mathematics at Michigan State Uni-versity. He has recently published thefollowing books: “Boundary Value Prob-lems and Fourier Expansions” (Dover,

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2004), “Calculus of Variations” (PrenticeHall, 2005), “Honors Calculus” (PrincetonUniv. Press, 2006).

Laurence R. Boxer (BS 1970, PhD 1976Univ. Illinois) is a Professor of Computerand Information Sciences at Niagara Uni-versity. He recently co-authored the bookAlgorithms Sequential and Parallel: AUnified Approach, 2nd ed. (Charles RiverMedia, 2005).

John A. Cameron, Jr. (BA 1970, JD 1973George Washington) is a partner in the lawfirm Davis, Wright, Tremaine in Portland,OR.

Dost Mohammad Khan (PhD 1970) hasrecently been named Rector of NorthernUniversity in Nowshera, Pakistan.

Ayse Soysal (PhD 1976) has recentlybeen named Rector of Bogaçizi Universityin Istanbul, Turkey.

Bruce C. Dane, FSA (BS 1980) is Direc-tor of Human Capital at Deloitte Consultingin San Diego, CA.

Benjamin M. Schultz (BS 1980, DDS1985 Georgetown) practices functional es-thetic dentistry in Connecticut. He indicatesthat “scientists and engineers are the mostfun for me in the dental chair, because theyare actually interested in the techniques,materials and high-tech methods that weuse.”

David Calkins (BS 1985) has beennamed Associate Professor of Ophthalmol-ogy and Visual Sciences at the Vanderbilt

University Medical Center in Nashville, TN.Calkins’ research focuses on genetic controlof protective mechanisms in neuro-degenerative diseases of the visual system.

Steven Goldfarb (BS 1985, PhD Physics1991) is currently an Assistant ResearchScientist for the University of Michigan/AT-LAS program in Switzerland.

Melissa C. Chiu (BS 1995) is currently agraduate student in Sociology at UCLA.Since leaving UM, she has received a MS inStatistics from the Univ. of Washington anda MA in Sociology from UCLA.

Adam Parker (BS 1999) received hisPh.D. from the University of Texas at Austinin May 2005. His thesis in algebraic geom-etry under the direction of Professor SeanKeel, is titled “An Elementary Constructionof M0,0 (

r,d).” Adam will be joining the fac-ulty of Wittenberg University in Springfield,Ohio as an Assistant Professor in the fall.

Mirhan Papikian (PhD 2003) has re-ceived the 2005 Emil Artin Junior Prize inMathematics. Papikian, who is currently atStanford University, was chosen for his pa-per “On the degree of modularparametrizations over function fields.” Es-tablished in 2001, the Emil Artin Junior Prizein Mathematics is presented to a student orformer student of an Armenian universitywho is under the age of 35, and recognizesoutstanding contributions to algebra, geom-etry, topology, and number theory—thefields in which Emil Artin made major contri-butions.

In Memorium

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Walter Feit (PhD 1955) passed away inJuly, 2004. He was born in Vienna in 1930and left for England in 1939. He moved tothe United States in 1946 where he becamean undergraduate at the University of Chi-cago. He received his Ph.D. from the Uni-versity of Michigan, and became aprofessor at Cornell in 1952, and at Yale in1964.

Feit was a mathematician who worked infinite group theory and representationtheory. His most famous result is his jointproof of the Feit-Thompson theorem that allfinite groups of odd order are solvable. Atthe time it was written, it was probably themost complicated and difficult proof evercompleted. He wrote almost a hundred otherpapers, mostly on finite group theory andmodular character theory.

He also wrote the books “The Represen-tation Theory of Finite Groups” and“Characters of Finite Groups” which arenow standard references on modular char-acter theory.

Feit was awarded the Cole Prize by theAmerican Mathematical Society and waselected to the National Academy of Sci-ences and the American Academy of Artsand Sciences; and was Vice-President of theInternational Mathematical Union.

Norberto Salinas (PhD 1970) passedaway in March, 2005. He was born January26, 1940 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. At theage of ten, he lost his sight in both eyes. Heexcelled in math and science, and he re-ceived his Licentiate in Mathematics andPhysics from the Universidad de BuenosAires. He came to the U.S. in 1968, with afellowship to study Mathematics at UM.

Salinas was a Professor of Mathematicsat University of Kansas for over 30 years.He published over 70 research articles inhigh-level Mathematics, developed newvariations of Braille code for Mathematics,mentored many undergraduate and gradu-ate students, and traveled to over 50 coun-tries. He retired in 2002 and moved back toAnn Arbor to be close to his son, Daniel.

He was an avid reader and music con-noisseur, enjoyed lively debates, and lovedspending time with his children, Daniel andSilvia; and his caretaker, Penny. He has

been and will always be an inspiration tothe many people that he touched across theworld.

Memorial contributions may be made toNorberto Salinas Fund at the College of Lit-erature, Science, and the Arts, 524 S. Main,Ann Arbor, MI 48104-2921. The goal of thefund is to establish an endowed scholarshipat the UM to support students who are vi-sually impaired and have an interest in pur-suing a mathematics-related course ofstudy.

Ida Roettinger (Heidi) Kaplan (PhD1944) passed away in January, 2005. She issurvived by her beloved husband of 66years, UM Professor Emeritus of Mathemat-ics Wilfred Kaplan. She was born in Zurich,Switzerland on August 20, 1913. In 1938, shereceived a diploma in Mathematics from theSwiss Federal Institute of Technology(ETH), the only female graduate in Math-ematics that year. The same year, two yearsafter meeting at the ETH, she and ProfessorKaplan married and immediately moved tothe United States.

She was a resident of Ann Arbor since1940. Her creative touch was visible every-where in Wilfred’s and her home of 61 years.She received her Ph.D. in Mathematics fromthe University of Michigan in 1944, andlater proofread Professor Kaplan’s mathtextbooks. She was an energetic musicianand scholar throughout her life. A talentedpianist from her childhood, beginning in herlate thirties, she became an advanced cellistand even wrote a guide for cellists. In hersixties, she began an intensive study of Ital-ian and later Greek, which continued untilthe past year.

Her friends and family have many won-derful memories of her sharing her intereststhrough chamber music, literature and arts,language study, or poetry reading. Over theyears she and her husband traveled exten-sively in Europe. In addition to her hus-band, Wilfred, she is survived by herchildren: Roland (Becky) Kaplan of SanJose, CA and Muriel Kaplan (Felix) Zwiebelof Minneapolis; four grandchildren and twogreat-granddaughters. Wilfred is in the pro-cess of writing and publishing a lovingmemoir of their life together.

Solution toMath Problem

The number 2004 is divisible by3 but not by 9. For n > 6, n! isdivisible by 9, so n! + 2004 isdivisible by 3 but not by 9. Itfollows that n! + 2004 cannotbe a square for n > 6. Oneeasily checks that n! + 2004 isnot a square for n = 1,2,3,4,5either.

(1! + 2004 = 2005, 2! + 2004= 2006, 3! + 2004 = 2010,4! + 2004 = 2028, 5! + 2004 =2124 and 442 = 1936, 452 =2025, 462 = 2116, 472 = 2209.)

Considering aDonation to UM?

If you are contacted by the Universityof Michigan for a donation, you can ear-mark your gift to the Department of Math-ematics. Simply tell the caller to designateyour gift to mathematics or write Mathemat-ics Department on the pledge card you aresent. We greatly appreciate all of your sup-port, and we hope we can count on you tosupport future fundraising projects.

Estate GiftsYou may include the Department of

Mathematics in your estate plan. Please callus at 734-647-4462 for information on chari-table trusts and bequests to the department,or contact:

University of MichiganDevelopment/Planned Giving

734-647-6000

What Are You Doing?We’d like to hear from you! Please complete and return this form for our alumni/ae files. You may mail it to the address below,

fax it to 734-763-0937, or email the information to math.mich@umich.edu.

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Doreen FussmanCurtis E. Huntington

Donald J. LewisB. Alan TaylorTrevor Wooley

Photos by UM Photo Services andthe Mathematics Department

The Regents of theUniversity of Michigan:

David A. Brandon, Laurence B. Deitch,Olivia P. Maynard, Rebecca McGowan,

Andrea Fischer Newman, AndrewC. Richner, S. Martin Taylor,

Katherine E. White;Ex officio: Mary Sue Coleman

The University of Michigan, as an equal opportunity/af-firmative action employer, complies with all applicablefederal and state laws regarding nondiscrimination andaffirmative action, including Title IX of the EducationAmendments of 1972 and Section 504 of the Rehabilita-tion Act of 1973. The University of Michigan is commit-ted to a policy of nondiscrimination and equal opportu-nity for all persons regardless of race, sex, color, reli-gion, creed, national origin or ancestry, age, marital sta-tus, sexual orientation, disability, or Vietnam-era veteranstatus in employment, educational programs and activi-ties, and admissions. Inquiries or complaints may be ad-dressed to the Senior Director for Institutional Equityand Title IX/Section 504 Coordinator, Office for Institu-tional Equity, 2072 Administrative Services, Ann Ar-bor, MI 48109-1432, 734-763-0235, TTY 734-647-1388. For other UM information call 734-764-1817.

Please mail to Alumni Updates, University of Michigan, Department of Mathematics, 530 Church Street, 2074 East Hall, Ann Arbor,MI 48109-1043; math.mich@umich.edu; fax 734-763-0937; www.math.lsa.umich.edu/alumni/

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