We are saddened to report that our former colleague Eugene Spiegel passed away earlier this week.

Gene obtained his PhD from MIT in 1965. After a post-doc at Caltech he joined UConn in September 1967 as an Assistant Professor. Gene supervised six doctoral dissertations at UConn and, along with some other colleagues, built up the Mathematics Scholars Program. He served the department and the university for nearly four decades, including as Department Head from 1981 to 1986. He retired in July 2007.

Gene will be missed by family, friends, and all who came to know him.

On Saturday, February 9, the Department of Mathematics will host the Eastern Chapter of the MathCounts competition. For many years this competition took place at the Coast Guard Academy, but the recent government shutdown made it impossible. UConn came to rescue and hope to host up to 230 mathletes this week. One of the teams is from the Mansfield Middle School whose MathCounts club has been helped by Professors Gan, Gordina and Sidney for numerous years. The event will be organized with participation of three student chapters (AMS, AWM and SIAM).

Three undergraduate students presented posters on their math research during the 2018 Spring Frontiers Exhibition sponsored by the Office of Undergraduate Research (OUR).

Sailesh Simhadri presented his SURF-funded project on random processes associated to linear recurrences.

 

Raji Majumdar and Anthony Sisti presented their research from last summer on applications of Central Limit Theorems to the Black-Scholes formula in math finance and to products of random matrices. They were supervised by Masha Gordina, and mentored by graduate students Phanuel Mariano and Hugo Panzo. A grant from the OUR allowed them to travel to and present at the 2018 JMM.

Phanuel Mariano, a graduate student in mathematics, received the 2018 Outstanding Graduate Teaching Award from the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL). This is a university-wide award, including the regional campuses, that honors Teaching Assistants who have gone well beyond the call of duty to affect the student learning and experience for undergraduate students at UConn.

The Outstanding Graduate Teaching Awards were established in 1999 to recognize teaching assistants who demonstrate excellence in the classroom or laboratory. Nominees for this award must demonstrate effective instructional skills, possess excellent interpersonal skills, provide practical feedback, and contribute to the development of the instructional program.

Above, Phanuel Mariano, center, is pictured at the CETL awards reception, with math department head Ambar Sengupta, left, and Phanuel’s advisor and math department associate head, Maria Gordina, right.

Congratulations, Phanuel!