Front Page News

Congratulations are in order to three pending PhD graduates for this year.

Ms. Anna Zemlyanova, who is a student of Prof. Yuri Antipov, has been awarded a postdoctoral fellowship at the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute at Berkeley for the fall of 2010.

Mr. Santiago Fortes, who is a student of Profs. Robert Lipton and Stephen Shipman, has been awarded a postdoctoral research position at the California Institute of Technology. 

Professor Milen Yakimov is the first recipient of the newly established Carruth McGehee Award for Excellent Research in Mathematics by a Junior Faculty Member.

The National Science Foundation has awarded $5 million to LSU to support and develop the Louisiana Math and Science Teacher Institute (LA-MSTI), a partnership that includes the Louisiana State University & Agricultural and Mechanical College (LSU) as Lead Institution, the East Baton Rouge Parish School System and the Iberville Parish School System as Core Partners, and the Louisiana Department of Education and numerous other school districts in the Baton Rouge area as Supporting Partners.

Delong Meng, a 2009 graduate of Baton Rouge High School who just entered MIT, won a Silver Medal and was a member of the USA Team finishing sixth at the 2009 International Mathematical Olympiad, held this year in Bremen, Germany. In previous years, Delong won multiple awards at the High School Math Contest organized by the LSU Mathematics Department. Over the past year, Delong was coached by one of the department faculty, Professor Hongyu He.

As the LSU Office of Public Affairs tells us, "The metaphorical 'Rainmaker,' a term borrowed from the business parlance, is one whose special skills and efforts bring welcome resources or respect to an organization. In the university context, Rainmakers are those who are nationally and internationally recognized for innovative research and creative scholarship, who compete for external funding at the highest levels and who attract and mentor exceptional graduate students."

Professor Susanne Brenner was appointed as Vice President for Publications of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM). As Vice President for Publications, she will have oversight of the SIAM journals, work with the book publishing program as well as other SIAM programs, and serve as a member of the SIAM Council. SIAM is the third largest mathematical society in the US and has a large domestic and international membership of over 12,000.

Professor Brenner will begin her Vice Presidential duties January 1, 2010.

An X-math session (as in eXtreme) on the twisted Alexander polynomial will be held from June 29 to July 10. In the second week Abhijit Champanerkar will visit us and will give some additional talks on the A-polynomial with possible relations to twisting.

Jintao Cui, a doctoral student of Professor Susanne Brenner, received student paper prizes awarded at the 2009 SIAM SEAS Spring Meeting held in Columbia, SC. The selection committee was very impressed with his presentation of his research, as well as the contributions his research has made to mathematics.

Congratulations to Jasson Vindas, doctoral student of Ricardo Estrada, who has been awarded the Costa Rica Young Scientist Award. The prize is rotated among the different scientific areas, and is given to a young mathematician every 4 years. The first math winner, in 1992, also has an LSU connection.

Congratulations to Professor Gestur Olafsson who has been selected to receive the Distinguished Research Master Award. This award is the university's highest research honor. “The career awards are intended to recognize individuals with a long-term record of truly distinguished research and scholarship while at LSU.” Professor Olafsson will receive an salary supplement and the University Medal.

Olafsson joins two other mathematics faculty recipients: