Dear Friend of the OSU Mathematics Department,
This note is the first of what I plan as brief updates on what has been
happening in the department. These will be sent two or three times a year.
This past year the department was host to two research conferences, one
devoted to partial differential equations and especially to those
governing fluid flows, and a second in geometric topology which also
served to honor Professor William Jaco on the occasion of his 70th
birthday. The first conference, First Oklahoma PDE Workshop,
http://www.math.okstate.edu/ok_pde_workshop, was held November 21-22,
2009 and was organized by Professor Jiahong Wu and was supported by the
National Science Foundation. A second PDE workshop will be held at OU in
the fall. It is hoped that this will become an annual occurrence with
the site alternating between Stillwater and Norman.
The conference on Topology and Geometry in Dimension Three:
Triangulations, Invariants, and Geometric Structures held June 4-6, 2010
drew over 90 participants. NSF and the American Institute of Mathematics
provided support for the conference. In addition to the scientific
program there was a banquet on Saturday evening with reminisces by
colleagues and students of Professor Jaco. Former OSU faculty member and
department head Brian Conrey acted as host and presented Professor Jaco
with a mathematics genealogy of his students and his advisor. A
conference announcement http://www.math.okstate.edu/jacofest/about.html
gives a brief description of the program and biography. More details and
pictures are available on our website,
http://www.math.okstate.edu/jaco_conference_article.
The graduate program has made substantial progress toward the goal of
having an average of two or more doctoral students finish each year.
Three graduated in December and one graduated in May. Another defended
his dissertation in June. Progress toward degree for doctoral students
is less predictable than that for undergraduate degrees. Some years we
have had no students finish with Ph.D.'s, so years like this one help
raise our average.
Dr. David Wright was named the 2009 winner of the Oklahoma-Arkansas MAA
Teaching award. The award was presented in 2010 because an ice storm
forced the 2009 meeting to be ended shortly after it began. OSU was
selected as host of the 2013 meeting of the Oklahoma-Arkansas section
of the MAA.
The website, http://www.math.okstate.edu, underwent a face-lift and
reorganization this spring. There are still additions to be made. Please
have a look. We welcome comments and suggestions for improvements. You
can find 2008 and 2009 online newsletters and other news items under the
menu labelled *About Us*.
Best Wishes,
Dale Alspach
Professor and Head
P.S. You are receiving this email because your address appears either on
the mathematics alumni email address list or on a list provided by the
OSU Foundation. If you do not want to receive future updates, send me a
message and I will remove you from this email list.