Math major awarded Fulbright Fellowship

August 6, 2010

Joseph Pomianowski, a 2009 graduate with a double major in Mathematics and Molecular and Cell
Biology, has been awarded a 2010-2011 Fulbright Fellowship to Poland, where he will study the life of Stefan Banach. Joseph has just completed an MA in the History of Science at Harvard.

Math majors selected for Phi Beta Kappa membership

Sixteen undergraduate math majors were elected to membership in Phi Beta Kappa, the nation’s oldest honor society. The students are Antoni Brzoska, Levi Benjamin DeValve, Christopher D. Hickey, Cheryl Ann Holowienko, Lindsay Rose King, Kathleen Li, Dominick James Major, Tracy Anne Margiott, Christine Elizabeth McMeekin, Ashley Nicole Ruegg, Joshua Ryan Strupcewski, Acacia Lauren Wagner, Michelle Nevine Wahab, Cheri Lynn Wiggin, Besmir Xhurxhi and Yi Zhang.

Miki Neumann named Stuart and Joan Sidney Professor of Mathematics

February 6, 2010

Miki Neumann has been selected as the first Stuart and Joan Sidney Professor of Mathematics. The professorship was established with a gift from the four children of Stuart, a recently retired professor in the Mathematics Department, and Joan, a poet, writer-in-residence and special research associate at UConn’s Center for Judaic Studies and Contemporary Jewish Life.

Society of Actuaries recognizes Actuarial Science Program as Center of Actuarial Excellence

November 6, 2009

The Society of Actuaries, the top professional organization of life actuaries in the US, has recognized the department’s Actuarial Science Program as a Center of Actuarial Excellence. The recognition is initially for 5 years, ending on December 31, 2014.

The recognition makes the department eligible to compete for substantial education and research grants to enhance the program, research in actuarial science and the profession. It also means the department will be promoted on the SOA’s web site.

This recognition will make the department’s already strong actuarial science program even stronger and allow it to become a magnet for attracting even better students for both its undergraduate and graduate components.

Department Head Miki Neumann has expressed his appreciation to the present actuarial science program faculty, Michael Braunstein, Jim Bridgeman, Jim Trimble, Jay Vadiveloo, and Emil Valdez, for bringing bringing the department this honor, as well as former, now retired faculty Louis Lombardi, Richard London, Walt Lowerie and Chuck Vinsonhaler whose hard work for many years brought the department to this point.

Neumann has also thanked Dean Jeremy Teitelbaum and Frank Gifford, Director of Development at CLAS, for their strong support of the program and their help during the visitation of the CAE Evaluation Committee, along with the faculty and graduate and undergraduate students who participated in the visitation and helped demonstrate the vibrancy of the program.

Graduate student Oscar Levin wins ITL Outstanding Graduate Teaching Award

Oscar Levin has won the Institute of Teaching and Learning (ITL) Outstanding Graduate Teaching Award for 2009 in recognition of his deep commitment and wide range activities in the service of the Mathematics Department’s teaching mission.
The ITL Outstanding TA Award, established in 1999, is the highest teaching award conferred by the university on a graduate student. Oscar Levin is the third mathematics TA to receive this honor. The previous winners from our department were Regina Speicher in 2004, and Jason Molitierno in 2000.