Ralf Schiffler Awarded Simons Visiting Professorship

September 10, 2016

Professor Ralf Schiffler has been awarded a Simons Visiting Professorship by the Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach in Germany. This program annually supports up to 40 Simons Visiting Professors, distinguished scientists from outside of Europe, who wish to combine an existing invitation to an Oberwolfach Workshop with a research visit to a European university of up to two weeks.

Professor Schiffler will use this award to work on several existing research projects as well as create new research collaborations during a two week visit to Germany. He will stay at the University Bielefeld and participate in the workshop Representation Theory of Quivers and Finite Dimensional Algebras in Oberwolfach.

Fall 2016 Challenge Problem #1

September 1, 2016

A fairly standard problem in the study of sequences is to make rigorous sense of the expression
$$
\sqrt{2+\sqrt{2+\sqrt{2+\sqrt{2+\cdots}}}}
$$
and find its value. In this instance, one looks at the sequence of “partial” expressions obtained by cutting the given expression off after only finitely many radicals and $2$s. It is easy to see that the sequence of these is increasing and bounded above by $2$, so must converge to a limit $L$. It is straightforward that then $L$ must satisfy the equation $L = \sqrt{2+L}$, from which it $L = 2$.

There have been variations of this problem among our past challenge problems, and our current offering is another one.

Problem. Make rigorous sense of the expression
$$
L = \sqrt{1 – \sqrt{2- \sqrt{3-\sqrt{4-\sqrt{5-\cdots}}}}}
$$
and determine whether $L$ has a numerical value. If it does, you are not required to evaluate it.

Remark. Real numbers only!

Solutions are due by email by 3:00 p.m. on Thursday 22 September 2016.

Department moving to new building on August 8

July 27, 2016

The Department of Mathematics will be departing its longtime location in the Gant Science Complex for a new one, in the Henry Ruthven Monteith Building. More information about that building’s renovations is available from the Daily Campus.

The move is scheduled to begin the week of August 8, during which time the elevators and hallways in both buildings will be in heavy use by workers and movers. We ask that individuals not affiliated with the move avoid both MSB and Monteith until the subsequent week, at which point we will be proud to welcome everyone to our new home.

2016 Annual Awards Day

May 8, 2016

This year’s awards ceremony took place on April 21 in IMS 20. The invited address was by Dr. Charles Haddock

Savkar and Cavanaugh received CETL Awards

April 27, 2016

IMG_20160426_171147
Savkar and Cavanaugh (first and second from the right) pose with Professor Lozano-Robledo and Provost Choi (first and second from the left).

Amit Savkar, Associate Professor in Residence, has been named a Teaching Fellow by the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL).

The nominees for this award are limited to full-time faculty with 5 years continuous service at the University. The individuals considered for this recognition show a commitment to teaching, demonstrated knowledge of educational pedagogy, and an interest in fostering innovative teaching practices at the University.

This year, up to two Teaching Fellows will be honored and each will be awarded a stipend of $5,000.

Separately, Marianne Cavanaugh has been awarded this year’s CETL Outstanding Adjunct.

The nominees for this award are limited to adjunct faculty with teaching service to the University. The individuals considered for this recognition show a commitment to teaching, demonstrated knowledge of educational pedagogy, and an interest in fostering innovative teaching practices at the University.

It is intended that up to two such Outstanding Adjuncts will be honored and each awarded a stipend of $2,500.

The awards were presented at the CETL Reception on April 26.

Gan and Valdez receive grant to study variable annuity portfolio valuations

April 11, 2016

Professors [dump script=”PersonLink.php?LastName=Gan&FirstName= Guojun”] and [dump script=”PersonLink.php?LastName=Valdez&FirstName=Emiliano”] have been awarded a one-year grant from the Society of Actuaries to support their project “Regression Modeling for the Valuation of Large Variable Annuity (VA) Portfolios” starting in 2016. They will investigate the potential use of GB2 (generalized beta of the second kind) distributions with four parameters to model the fair market values of VA guarantees. The findings from this project can help insurance companies to reduce significantly the processing time of the Monte Carlo simulation model commonly used in practice for VA valuation.

2016 Annual Awards Day Ceremony

April 5, 2016

Our Annual Awards Day Ceremony took place on Thursday, April 21st.

This year’s Invited Address was given by Dr. Charles Hadlock, professor of Mathematical Sciences at Bentley University. He spoke on “A Mathematicians Perspective on How So Many Things Can Fall Apart in the Blink of an Eye”.

A few photos from the event are on Facebook page. The full list of awardees is on the event program.