On Saturday, February 11th 2023, the Department of Mathematics hosted the Eastern Chapter MATHCOUNTS competition.

The event was sponsored by UConn’s AMS, AWM and SIAM student chapters, UConn’s Department of Mathematics and the CLAS. 109 middle school students from 20 schools participated in the competition, with 12 proceeding to the state competition in March.

In addition to the competition, a trivia on UConn and mathematics was organized by Anthony Rizzie and Katie Hall, and Sarira Motaref, Associate Professor in Residence, Civil and Environmental Engineering, gave a presentation What do engineers do?. The event was coordinated by Anthony Rizzie, with Katie Hall, Masha Gordina and Mihai Fulger participation.

Graduate students Michael Albert,PJ Apruzzese, Rachel Bailey, Da Huo, Ningwei Jiang, Daniel Mourad, Kim Savinon, Caylee Spivey were instrumental to the smooth running of the competition. UConn’s Alpha Phi Omega proctored the competition. The Master of ceremonies was Doug Perkins, the enrichment teacher at the Mansfield Middle School.

We are looking forward to hosting the 2024 MATHCOUNTS competition!

The National Children’s Museum breaks down the science, technology, engineering, art, and math behind everyday mysteries in the second season of their children’s podcast, STEAM Daydream with National Children’s Museum.

Professor Lan-Hsuan Huang recently joined them for an episode called “Bubble Trouble” to help 11-year-old Kid Investigator Kaedence R. and the rest of the cast figure out why bubbles are always round.

You can learn more about the podcast and listen to the episode at www.nationalchildrensmuseum.org/podcast/.

Professor Maria Gordina has been named a Fellow of the American Mathematical Society.

The Fellows of the American Mathematical Society program recognizes members who have made outstanding contributions to the creation, exposition, advancement, communication, and utilization of mathematics.

“It is an honor to welcome a new class of AMS Fellows and to congratulate them for their notable contributions to mathematics research and service to the profession,” said Professor Ruth Charney, President of the American Mathematical Society, on the 2023 Class of Fellows of the AMS. “We extend our thanks to the nominators and members of the selection committee for their help in highlighting the outstanding achievements of their colleagues.”

Professor Gordina is recognized for her contributions to stochastic and geometric analysis, infinite-dimensional analysis, and ergodicity of hypoelliptic diffusions.

She joins 38 other mathematicians to be named Fellow of the AMS for the year 2023. For an alphabetical list of all past Fellows, visit https://www.ams.org/cgi-bin/fellows/fellows.cgi.

Professor Gordina is the fifth member of our department to receive this prestigious distinction. Previous Fellows in our Department are Professor Emeritus Bill Abikoff, Distinguished Professor Emeritus Richard Bass, Professor Guozhen Lu, and Professor Changfeng Gui.

Congratulations, Professor Gordina!

The Fulbright Specialist Program awarded a grant to Professor Alexander Teplyaev to work with Professor Anna Rozanova-Pierrat at the Laboratoire de Mathématiques et Informatique pour la Complexité et les Systèmes (MICS), CentraleSupélec, Université Paris-Saclay, France.

A program of the U.S. Department of State, the Fulbright Specialist Program is an opportunity for U.S. academics and established professionals to engage in two- to six-week, project-based exchanges at host institutions across the globe.

Professor Teplyaev’s award is for 2022. His project involves research and educational components dealing with applied analysis on fractals and networks, including fractal shape optimization.