Grad News

Congratulations to Dr. Hong Yin on his job at the University of Southern California. Dr. Yin has been offered a 3 year visiting assistant professorship at USC beginning this fall. His dissertation, written under the direction of Prof. P. Sundar, was entitled Backward Stochastic Navier-Stokes Equations in Two Dimensions. He worked this past year at Michigan Technological University, following his 2007 PhD graduation from our department. Hearty congratulations to Hong Yin.

The National Science Foundation has funded the Department's VIGRE (VERTICAL INTEGRATION OF RESEARCH AND EDUCATION) proposal. This is very big news for the whole department. The grant will enhance all aspects of the Department's functioning, including Graduate Student Traineeships, new and stimulating programs for all mathematics graduate students and undergraduate students, and support for Post Doctoral Researchers. Congratulations to the VIGRE Project Director, Prof. Gestur Olafsson, to co-PI, Prof. Mark Davidson, and to co-PI and Department Chair, Prof. Larry Smolinsky! Find out the details about the departmental grant.

Congratulations to graduate student Sean Farley, who is working with Professor Blaise Bourdin. Sean has won a summer internship for 2008 as a Givens Associate at the Argonne National Laboratory. Sean will be working with Dr. Barry Smith and Dr. Hong Zhang (formerly of the LSU Mathematics Department) on PETSc. PETSc, pronounced PET-see (the S is silent), is a suite of data structures and routines for the scalable (parallel) solution of scientific applications modeled by partial differential equations.

Dr. Yu Zhuang (PhD 2000) has been promoted to tenure at Texas Tech University. He is co-PI of a $2,500,000 NSF Partnerships for International Research and Education (PIRE) grant awarded to Texas Tech University to fund a project entitled "Simulations of Electronic Non-Adiabatic Dynamics for Reactions with Organic Macromolecules, Liquids, and Surfaces.

The current graduate students are launching a new program for incoming grads: GEAUXstands for Graduate Education & Acclimation the University eXperience! All are invited to attend. Program highlights include:

A grant from the Louisiana Board of Regents provides three Doctoral Fellowships. The students who receive these Fellowships for studies beginning in fall 2008 will have no teaching duties so they can concentrate on their own studies. The stipends will be $30,000 per year and will run for four years, tuition-free.

The Department graduated its two hundred fiftieth PhD in December, 2006. One hundred seven of these were graduated during the years 1990 - 2006. The remaining one hundred forty three were graduated from 1935 - 1989.

Jean Bureau, PhD December 2006, received the Pasquale Porcelli Award for Graduate Research Excellence. The award was presented in recognition of his dissertation research in Representation Properties of Definite Lattices in Function Fields. The purpose of the Award is to recognize those students who show the greatest promise of making significant contributions to mathematical research, both as graduate students and in their subsequent careers.

A second grant from the US Department of Education provides four Doctoral Fellowships in Areas of National Need. The students who receive these Fellowships will have 50% lower teaching duties to promote their own academic progress. The stipends can be up to $30,000 per year, capped by the level of need of the student, and will run for up to three years. The previous GAANN grant to the Department was awarded two years ago.

A grant from the Louisiana Board of Regents provides three Doctoral Fellowships. The students who receive these Fellowships for studies beginning in fall 2007 will have no teaching duties so they can concentrate on their own studies. The stipends will be $30,000 per year and will run for four years, tuition-free. The Board of Regents Doctoral Fellowships are funded by the Louisiana Educational Quality Support Fund (LEQSF). The Board of Regents manages this fund, which is based on tidelands oil and natural gas royalties paid to the State of Louisiana and constitutionally dedicated by the people of Louisiana to LEQSF. There are many important forms of LEQSF support for Mathematics Department faculty and students for advanced study and research.