2006 Personal News

• Don Allen's History of Mathematics has been selected as one of the best educational resources on the Web by StudySphere, June 20, 2006.

• Amy Austin has been awarded an Association of Former Students College Level Teaching Award. She is very well known for her superb classroom teaching and her weekly evening calculus review sessions (weeks in review) which routinely get standing room only crowds in the largest lecture hall we can find (and the web-version is now viewed by many thousands of students). Amy will formally receive her award at the College of Science Fall Faculty meeting next September.

• G. Chen, Z. Diao and M.S. Zubairy were officially awarded U.S. patent (#7,028,275) on Certain Quantum Circuit Design, April 11, 2006.

  Dr. Chen was on development leave for the Fall Semester 2006 at the National Center for Theoretical Sciences, Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan.

• Richard Ewing Award for Excellence in Science, Technology, and Economic Development, established by Texas A&M University, 2006.

  Magnus Distinguished Lecturer, Colorado State University, 2006.

• Rhonda Faust (Brian) are the proud parents of Piper Renea Faust, born on December 16, 2006, she weighed 8 pounds, 6 ounces and 20 inches long.

• David Larson has been awarded the Association of Former Students Distinguished Achievement Award - University Level - in Teaching. Professor Larson has been very active in mentoring undergraduate and graduate research projects. He has been a leader in running Research Experience for Undergraduate as well as VIGRE seminars. He has also developed many new courses in analysis through his former role as Associate Head for Undergraduate Programs.

  Professor Larson will receive his award during the end of the year awards ceremony, scheduled for May 2nd.

• Raytcho Lazarov has been awarded Doctor Honoris Causa of Sofia University "St. Kl. Ohridski" , July 2006.

• Ruvane Marvit, a lecturer in the Mathematics Department passed away on July 3, 2006 after a lengthy battle with cancer. Ruvane was a graduate student in mathematics and statistics since the 1970s and he had been employed as a full-time lecturer here in our department since the mid 1990s.

• Professor Emeritus Hwang-Wen Pu passed away on February 20, 2006, a memorial service was held February 23, 2006 at St. Joseph Catholic Church. He is survived by his wife, Huay-Min Pu; and a daughter, Frances Pu. Before retiring Professor Pu served 30 years with the department in the research area of Classical Analysis.

• Jane Schielack has accepted the position of Associate Dean for Assessment and PreK-12 Education in the College of Science, effective July 1, 2006. In this position, she will be responsible for facilitating, coordinating and enhancing our activities in these two very important areas. In addition, she will become a co-director of the Center for Mathematics and Science Education, replacing Dr. Larry Peck who recently retired.

• Vince Schielack was awarded for service to the U.S. Department of Energy National Science Bowl given by Under Secretary for Science Raymond L. Orbach.

  Grants/Contracts Awarded:

  Marcelo Aguiar, NSF Grant DMS-0600973, awarded in May 2006 for the proposal "Algebra and combinatorics of free structures," submitted to the Algebra, Number Theory, and Combinatorics Program at the National Science Foundation. This is a three year grant in the amount of $110,000.

  G. Donald Allen, NSF Grant: "Continuing GK-12 fellows integrate science/math in rural middle schools," (PI and Co-PIs: Larry Johnson, James Kracht, W. R. Klemm, G. Donald Allen, Rajesh Miranda, and James Lindner) (P. Yasskin, Co-Inves.) $1,547,601, Award No. DGE-0638738, Proposal No. DGE-0638738, February 1 , 2007 to January 31, 2010.

  G. Donald Allen, THECB/Dana Center, Teacher Quality Grant - Algebra II, TAMU Account 02-421104 $84,990, May 1, 2006 to May 31, 2007.

  G. Donald Allen, TEA (Texas Education Agency), 21st Century Community Learning Centers Program, Department of Education through the Texas Education Agency, with Covington ISD, $200,000, June 1, 2006 to May 31, 2008.

  Gregory Berkolaiko, PI, NSF Grant: "Spectral properties of quantum graphs and related systems," DMS-0604859, (J.Harrison, B.Winn, Co-PI), $260,506, August 2006 to August 2009.

  Al Boggess, Co-PI, and Paulo Lima-Filho, PI, GAANN (Graduate Assistantships in Areas of National Need), Department of Education, approximately $120,000 per year, 2006-2011.

  Al Boggess, Renewal on REU Grant, (with Dave Larson, Jay Walton), June 2006-2009, $360,000.

  Andrew Comech, PI, NSF Grant: "Nonlinear dispersive Hamiltonian systems: solitary waves and global attractors," DMS-0600863, $115,000, May 2006 to May 2009.

  Ronald Douglas, NSF Grant: "Invariants for multivariate operator theory," $116K, July 2006 to June 2008.

  Kenneth Dykema, PI, NSF Grant: "Free probability theory and applications to free group factors," DMS-0600814, $178,350, July 1, 2006 to June 30, 2009.

  Stephen A. Fulling, Co-PI, NSF Grant: Physics Program, "Collaborative research: quantum vacuum energy," June 2006 - May 2008, $178,474 with a comparable amount to the linked project at University of Oklahoma (K. A. Milton, PI, Physics Dept.).

  J.-L. Guermond, J.R. Walton, J.H. Ross, D.M. Ford, and D.C. Lagoudas, Co-PIs, NSF-IGERT: "New mathematical tools for next generation materials," #DGE-0549487, $2,817,299, June 1, 2006 to May 31, 2011.

  Rostislav Grigorchuk, PI and Zoran Sunik, Co-PI, NSF Grant: "Algebraic, combinatorial, spectral and algorithmic properties of groups generated by finite automata", DMS-0600975, $192,390, June 2006 to May 2008.

  William Johnson and G. Schechtman, PIs, US-Israel Binational Science Foundation: "Topics in the Geometry of Banach Spaces," BSF-2006027, ($148,352 for four years through the Weizmann Institute of Science).

  David Kerr, PI, NSF Grant: "Dynamics, geometry, and operator algebras", DMS-0600907, $99,199, June 1, 2006 to May 31, 2009.

  Peter Kuchment, PI, NSF Grant: "Analysis on graphs and its applications to nanotechnology, chemistry, photonics, and other areas", DMS-0603361, $70,000, 2006-2007.

  Peter Kuchment, PI and Wolfgang Bangerth, Co-PI, NSF Grant: "Mathematical methods for novel modalities of medical imaging", DMS-0604778, $340,000, July 2006 to June 2009.

  Paulo Lima-Filho, PI, Co-PI's: Al Boggess, S. Geller, J. Zinn, andM. Rojas, Dept. of Education GAAN Proposal: "Fellowships for students of need in mathematics at Texas A&M University," September 1, 2006 to August 31, 2009.

  Volodymyr Nekrashevych, PI, NSF Grant: "Iterated monodromy groups," DMS-0605019, $96,155, September 1, 2006 to August 31, 2009.

  Matthew Papanikolas, NSF Grant: "Special functions and transcendence," DMS-0600826, $147,000, August 2006 to August 2009.

  Matthew Papanikolas, NSF Grant: "Southwest Center for Arithmetic Geometry," DMS-0602287, $416,400, (one of 5 co-PI's: Rodriguez-Villegas (Texas), Savitt (Arizona), Stein (UC-San Diego), Thakur (Arizona)), July 2006 to July 2009.

  Joseph Pasciak, LLNL-DOE, "Algebraic multigrid for Problems on h-curl," Contract with the University of California, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, $19,115, June 1, 2006 to September 30, 2006.

  Joseph Pasciak and James Bramble , NSF, "New approximation techniques for Maxwells equations," $199,429, September 15, 2006 to August 31, 2009.

  Guergana Petrova, Travel Grant: WavE 2006 Conference, CHF 500, July 10, 2006-July 14, 2006.

  Mike Pilant, Office of Computing and Information Services (CIS) , $20,000 operation expenses for the College of Science Information Technology Laboratory Fall 2006.

  Jon Pitts, PI and Joseph Landsberg NSF Grant: "Texas Geometry and Topology Conference," DMS-0605082, $36,408, July 2006 to June 2009.

  Colleen Robles, Travel Grant: Association for Women in Mathematics, $1500, July 2006.

  J. Maurice Rojas, Senior Personnel on State of Texas MCTP Grant: Redesigning Geometry Curriculum for the TAKS, $10000, 2006.

  J. Maurice Rojas, Senior Personnel on REU Site: Undergraduate Research in Mathematical Sciences and its Applications (Texas A&M University), $398,400, June 1, 2006 to May 31, 2009.

  Henry Schenck, NSA Grant : "TAGS--Texas algebraic geometry seminar," MSPF-06IC-017, May 1, 2006 to May 1, 2007, $15,000.

  Jane Schielack NSF Grant: "Instructional materials development: Engaging middle school students in student-directed inquiry through virtual environments for learning," (collaborative project/shared grant with S. Pedersen (EPSY), S. Slough (TLAC), and D. Williams (University of Louisiana), Account No. 492291-00001, September 1, 2006 to August 31, 2010, ($1,269,064 direct; $416,435 indirect).

  Jane Schielack NSF Grant: "Track 1, GK 12: Building understanding through research partnerships and IT" (collaborative project/shared grant with E. Simanek (CHEM), S. Pedersen (EPSY), and C. Stuessy (TLAC), Account No. (400070-00000), February 1, 2006 to January 31, 2009 ($1,788,533 direct; $185,882 indirect).

  Thomas Schlumprecht, PI, NSF Grant: "Banach spaces: Theory and applications," DMS-0556013, $110,000, June 2006 to June 2009.

  Jay Walton and J.C. Slattery, PIs, AFOSR Grant: "Modeling interfaces through an extension of continuum mechanics to the nanoscale with application to fracture and debonding," AFOSR#FA9550-06-1-0242; $272,009, April 1, 2006 to November 30, 2007.

• The Texas A&M University Board of Regents approved the promotion of Alexei Poltoratski and Frank Sottile to Professor and Guergana Petrova and Sarah Witherspoon to Associate Professor with tenure.

• Fall 2006 recipients of the Department of Mathematics awards for

  Outstanding Staff

  Robert Wheeler

  Outstanding Service

  Mila Mogilevsky

  Hal Schenck

  Outstanding Teaching

  Peter Howard

  Guergana Petrova