I am very happy to report on the recognition received by our outstanding teachers.  March brought news of two notable awards.  First, Toyin Alli received the 2022 MAA-SE Distinguished Teaching Award by a Beginning College or University Mathematics Faculty Member.  The award nomination cited the enthusiastic praise Toyin receives from her students, many of whom describe her as one of the best teachers they have ever had.  Toyin excels in using group work to foster learning; she is an outstanding mentor, exceptionally supportive of students, and is committed to continual improvement.  Her flipped precalculus materials have had a major impact on that important course.

Also in March, Paul Pollack was awarded the Richard B. Russell Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching. Paul is a world-class researcher who uses his expertise and breadth of knowledge to inform and enhance his teaching. He challenges students while keeping his courses interesting and fun, and helps his students build analytical skills. His students excel in subsequent courses. In addition, Paul has written several well-regarded textbooks, and is highly active in educational outreach.

This year’s Mathematics Department Faculty Teaching Award was focused on Graduate Student Advising. The award committee was honored to present this award to Prof. Ming-Jun Lai. Prof. Lai earned his PhD in 1989 from Texas A&M University; he joined the UGA faculty in 1992 and has been an active member of the Applied Research Group. He’s co-authored over 100 research articles and three books. In his personal life, Prof. Lai loves gardening and has planted at least 100 trees and bushes. 

In addition to these notable statistics, Prof. Lai has advised the doctoral dissertation research of 20 PhD students as well as several Master theses. For those of you doing the math, that amounts to two students graduated every three years! The award committee reached out to seven of Prof. Lai’s graduated students, and all seven of them replied with admiration for their time working with Prof. Lai. Many of these students emphasized Prof. Lai’s enthusiasm and calm, but fun attitude that carried them through the more stressful times of mathematics research!

Jennifer Royal launched a new PIC Math (Preparing for Industrial Careers in Mathematics) course this spring. Twenty-one  students completed the course, working in groups on industry problems from the Food Bank of Northeast Georgia, Rubicon Crypto, and UGA Women’s Golf. Students also heard from UGA mathematics alumni working in industry, and students developed their coding skills through self-paced learning in DataCamp. PIC Math is being offered again in Fall 2022 and Spring 2023. If you are interested in contributing to this exciting new program as an industry partner or as an alumni speaker, please reach out to Dr. Royal. You can read more online.

There are other new opportunities for our students. Our new Area of Emphasis in Financial Mathematics begins officially this fall. You can see some of the details of this and other math pathways here online.

In addition, our Math Peer Mentor Program completed its first full year. All the participants seemed pleased, and we'll be continuing the program this coming year.

Our faculty continue to inspire students: In his TEDxUGA talk in April, Sudhan Chitgopkar spoke on the power and evidence of math in nature. You can read more here. In the article, Sudhan credits his ‘love and minor for math’ to his UGA calculus teacher Gerasim Iliev, because he has a ‘genuine and unadulterated love for math.’ 

Our Cantrell Lectures resumed this May after a pandemic hiatus. Professor Akshay Venkatesh of the Institute for Advanced Study spoke on the relations between number theory and geometry. Dr. Venkatesh’s highly engaging lectures managed to bridge undergraduate level mathematics with cutting edge research, and were much appreciated.  I’m very pleased to report that Dr. James Cantrell, in whose honor the lectures were created, was able to attend. 

Also in May, we hosted a "Meet & Greet" with Kerry Miller, who was one of the first three Black students admitted to UGA as freshmen, and who graduated in 1966 with a degree in Mathematics. It was great to be able to meet Kerry and her husband Sam, and hear about Kerry's experience as a pioneering student at UGA. Despite the challenges she faced, I was proud that Kerry said she had a positive experience with the Mathematics Department, and glad that we were able to give Kerry and Sam a warm welcome.

This spring saw the resumption of our departmental hike, organized by Neil Lyall.  Neil led our intrepid department members on an 8.6 mile hike to Pinnacle Knob starting from Warwoman Dell, followed by a much-needed stop at Oinkers BBQ.

Some alumni news: Dean Hartley, who received his PhD from UGA in 1973 under the supervision of Richard Sher, was presented with the prestigious Clayton J. Thomas award.

This award, established in 1999, recognizes an individual who has made sustained, positive, and meaningful contributions to the field of military and national security operations research. Dr. Hartley shared these notes about his career journey: “I was on delay in reporting to active duty in the Army while I was in grad school. So, when I graduated, I went in to the Army. They didn’t send me to Vietnam, the sent me to the Pentagon, where I spent four years supporting the combat modeling of the Joint Staff. Following that, I spent nine years doing operations research in private industry. Then I spent 15 years doing operations research at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The last 21 years I’ve been running my own business as a consultant in operations research.” Congratulations to Dr. Hartley!

In August, Neil Lyall will be taking on the role of Department Head. Neil has done an outstanding job with all aspects of our graduate program -- indeed, no fewer than thirty-one graduate students endorsed a letter attesting to this. I am confident that Neil will continue to do a great job in the new role of Head.

David Gay and Laura Rider will be sharing the role of Graduate Coordinator, with Dave taking on the administration of the graduate program, and Laura in charge of admissions. Toyin Alli is taking on the role of Calculus Coordinator, from Jennifer Royal, who is stepping down after doing an outstanding job with this course over the past five years. Our department is fortunate to have Dave, Laura and Toyin taking on these important roles.

Alexander Petukhov retired from our faculty this spring, and at the end of July, Malcolm Adams is retiring from the position of Josiah Meigs Distinguished Teaching Professor. During Malcolm’s 37 years of distinguished service to our department, including six years as Head, he played a key role in the development of our departmental teaching culture, helping build a culture of active learning which has become a model for the university.

Finally, at the end of July, I am returning to my regular faculty role after six years as Head. During these six years, it has been a great pleasure to get to know so many members of our departmental community. I am very proud of how our department has served our students, and of the positive impact this has had throughout UGA. I’ve enjoyed trying to encourage and support initiatives to improve our department, and writing these newsletters has been a satisfying reminder of how much our department members have achieved -- outstanding research, exceptional success in gateway courses, new opportunities for math majors, and growth towards an inclusive and supportive departmental culture. I look forward to seeing many more significant accomplishments in the coming years.

In closing, I would like to ask that you consider supporting the Mathematics Department. We are very grateful to the generous donors who have helped provide funds for awards and support of our students. Our general math fund supports a variety of educational and research activities in the department. Our Math Club fund supports events and speakers for our majors throughout the academic year. As those who participated in the Meet and Greet with Kerry Miller learned, the scholarship fund established in her honor is very meaningful to her. The fund is currently at the stage where funds need to be raised to obtain a matching contribution from the Franklin College. Please consider making a contribution to the Kerry Rushin Miller Scholarship Fund. Contributions of any size will help the fund reach the threshold to receive a match.

Best wishes,

Bill Graham
Head, Department of Mathematics

P.S. I would like to thank Mo Hendon, Tyler Genao, Neil Lyall, Paul Pollack, and Jennifer Royal, for their contributions to this newsletter.