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Milen Yakimov is the recipient of the LSU Foundation Distinguished Faculty Teaching Award for 2020. Annually, the award recognizes one LSU faculty member with superior graduate-level teaching and related activities.

Milen Yakimov came to LSU Mathematics from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 2008 during which time he was a Sloan Research Fellow. He was elected Fellow of the American Mathematical Society in 2018. Currently, he is the Michael F. and Roberta Nesbit McDonald Professor of Mathematics.

LSU Nicholson Professor of Mathematics Robert Lipton was named Fellow of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) for the Class of 2020. The Fellows program of the SIAM began in 2008 “to honor SIAM members who are recognized by their peers as distinguished for their contributions to the discipline” and “to support the advancement of SIAM members to leadership positions in their own institutions and in the broader society”.

The LSU Department of Mathematics Actuarial Science program recently received Advanced Curriculum (UCAP-AC) recognition from the Society of Actuaries (SOA). This advancement in the status of the Actuarial Science program has been a long-term goal for the LSU Department of Mathematics, and to receive UCAP-AC status, the Actuarial program was restructured with the cooperation of the LSU Department of Experimental Statistics to alter available coursework to better prepare students for additional SOA exams.

Scores were recently released for the 2019 Putnam Mathematical Competition, which was held on Dec. 7, 2019. This competition includes 570 colleges and universities in the U.S. and Canada, and consists of a lengthy 6-hour written exam with 12 challenging problems. Although the maximum possible score is 120 points, the median is typically 0 or 1 point!

The creation of the Peg and Tom Madden Mathematics Research Scholarship was made possible by a gift from Dr. James Madden, Patricia Hewlett Bodin Distinguished Professor of Mathematics. This new scholarship is intended to encourage and support LSU Mathematics Undergraduates who are actively engaged in research experiences in the department.

Soula O'Bannon received a 2019 LSU Foundation Staff Outstanding Service Award. The LSU Foundation Staff Outstanding Service Award is an annual award established to recognize the superior work performance and outstanding contributions of full-time, non-academic staff employees of the LSU A&M campus and the LSU AgCenter.

(Photo: Soula O'Bannon with Saundra McGuire)

LSU students performed very well on the 41st. Annual Virginia Tech Regional Math Contest (VTRMC). This annual competition consists of a challenging two and half hour written exam, and there were 758 participants from 98 colleges and universities from 29 states. Out of a maximum possible score of 70 points, the national median was 1 point.,

LSU Boyd Professor of Mathematics Susanne C. Brenner has been named President-Elect of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) for 2020. Dr. Brenner previously served on the SIAM Fellows Selection Committee from 2014-2016 (and as Chair from 2015-2016), and presently serves on the editorial board of SIAM Journal on Numerical Analysis, and was named Editor-In-Chief of SIAM Classics in Applied Mathematics in 2018.

Blaise Bourdin and Gilles Francfort (Department of Mathematics, Université Paris 13) were invited to contribute an article on their research on Past and Present of Variational Fracture to the November 2019 issue of SIAM News.