Alumni News and Comments

Mark McKinzie [PhD 2000, M. Bleicher] and Curtis Tuckey [PhD 1991, J. Keisler]

received the Carl B. Allendorfer Award from the MAA at its MathFest in Burlington this past summer. The award, consisting of a citation and a cash prize, is presented for articles of expository excellence published in the Mathematics Magazine. Their article ``Higher Trigonometry, Hyperreal Numbers, and Euler's Analysis of Infinities'' was published in volume 74 (2001), pages 339-368. The award citation read in part: ``They describe a modern context, replete with infinite and infinitesimal numbers, in which Euler's methods can be made intelligible, rigorous, and useful to modern readers - namely, the system of hyperreal numbers as described in Keisler's textbook `Calculus: An Infinitesimal Approach'. In a tour-de-force of expository clarity, they describe this system and use it to show how a large number of Euler's manipulations can be turned into rigorous proofs.'' Mark is at Monroe Community College in Rochester, NY; Curt is at Voice Laboratory, Oracle Corporation in the Chicago area.

John Goldwasser [PhD 1983, R. Brualdi]

has been promoted to (full) professor at West Virginia University.

Chung-Chun Yang [PhD 1969, S. Hellerstein]

is at the Hong Kong University of Science & Technology, Hong Kong. He is Vice President of ISAAC (International Society for Analysis, Its Applications and Computation ), series editor of the newly established book series ``Advances in Complex Analysis and Its Applications,'' Kluwer Academic Publishers , and series editor of the book series: ``Asian Math. Series,'' Taylor and Francis.

Jennifer Quinn [PhD 1993, R. Brualdi]

is now Chair of the Department of Mathematics of Occidental College. She was recently named co-editor (with Arthur Benjamin) of the MAA's publication New Horizons.

Mirna Dzamonja [PhD 1993, K. Kunen]

of the University of East Anglia (England) has been awarded an EPSRC Advanced Fellowship from the British Science Foundation (EPSRC), EPSRC is an award for scientists below 35 that allows the recipient to spend five years teaching free. She started her fellowship in February 2002 and spent the semester various universities (University of Paris, Carnegie Mellon University, and the University of Helsinki). Mirna says that it is ``really excellent to be able to have all this time for research only.''

Matthew Boylan [PhD 2002, Ono],

a former Wisconsin undergraduate and NSF VIGRE fellow has a joint paper with Scott Ahlgren (U. Illinois, Urbana) which has been accepted for publication in INVENTIONES MATHEMATICAE. The joint work has its origins in Matt's Wisconsin thesis, and is indeed a wonderful accomplishment for a new PhD. Matt is presently in his first year as a VIGRE Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign.

Ahmad Muchlis [PhD 1991, H. Schneider]

of ITB in Bandung, Indonesia wrote to say how much the newsletter reminds him of the years he spent in Madison. He mentions that he persuaded a talented student, Hendrata Dharmawan Sie, a silver medalist at the International Mathematical Olympiad held in Washington to pursue mathematics study at Madison. Dharmawan Sie is currently an undergraduate honors mathematics major.

Mark Wilson [PhD 1995, D. Passman] and Golbon Zakeri [PhD 1995, R.  Meyer (CS)]

are now tenured faculty members at Auckland University (New Zealand) with Mark in the Computer Science Department and Golbon in the Engineering Science Department. They write that Geoff Pritchard [PhD 1995, J. Kuelbs] and Shayne Waldrom [PhD 1995, C. de Boor] are also at Auckland University (1995 was a good year for New Zealand!), and that Shaun Cooper [PhD 1996, R. Askey] is just a few kilometers away at another university. One of Mark and Golbon's proud accomplishments is a recent baby who was announced by Mark with: After writing two papers together Golbon Zakeri and I have produced our greatest joint work. There are more Madison connections: Mark is currently working on a project with former Madison faculty member Robin Pemantle (now at Ohio State University). James Goodman of the Madison Computer Science Department has taken a position in the Computer Science Department at Auckland, as has Andre Nies a former Madison visitor. They also report that the Auckland Mathematics Department is to host a new government-funded research institute (www.nzima.auckland.ac.nz) which will hold thematic programmes every 6 months, and encourage friends and colleagues from Madison to come and visit.

Argimiro A. Arratia [PhD 1997, D. Joseph]

who, as we reported last year, is editor of the Bulletin of the Venezuelan Mathematics Society, has written to say that one can access the Bulletin on the web for free at its mirror site in the USA:

http://www.math.temple.edu/~gmendoza/boletin_amv/

He also encourages residents at Van Vleck Hall to consider publishing in this Bulletin.

Joe Malkevitch [PhD 1968, D. Crowe]

now writes the Feature Column on the AMS website. This column, part of What's New in Mathematics, contains a series of monthly essays on topics intended for a broad audience.

A correction:

Last year we reported on the MAA MathFest held in Madison, in particular on the 25 year dinner. We said, according to the program prepared for the dinner by the MAA, that Robert L. Wilson [PhD 1947, C. C. MacDuffee] was recognized for his 41 years as an MAA member. Well, it seems that the MAA mixed up father and son. At that time, Robert L. Wilson Jr., current UW-Madison faculty member, had been an MAA member for 41 years; Robert L.  Wilson Sr. had been a member for 55 years.