Welcome Back for 2010-2011
Mathematics Majors
We hope you had a good summer!
Please check your e-mail regularly. It’s the easiest way for us to communicate with you and keep you up to date onannouncements about deadlines, meetings, recruiters who have contacted the department, REU programs, and similar things. If you mostly use an e-mail address other than your address at WUSTL, please send your preferred address to Professor Ron Freiwald ().
Also, please remember to check your mail folder in Room 100 at least every few weeks. If there's not a folder there for you, tell the receptionist.
Visit the Undergraduate Programpage by following the link from the departmental homepage ( It contains “Undergraduate Notes” with up-to-date announcements and events. The link from there to “Majors & Minors” leads to a lot of useful information—including the Math Majors/Minor Handbook. The handbook online always has the most current information about requirements and it should be used as your “definitive” source for information (rather than printed copies which are handy but can get out of date). Hard copies of the Undergraduate Handbook are available in the Undergraduate Lounge, and you can get your own copy from the receptionist in room 100 if you need one.
If you’re not already familiar with all that’s at our web site, then take a quick look at the site map attached at the end of this letter. Let me know if there’s math-related informationyou think should be posted on the web site.
Ron Freiwald, 935-6737
Who’s New, Visiting, Gone,…?
ProfessorsAl Baernstein and Jimin Ding are on leave for 2010-2011, and Professor Stan Sawyer will be away in spring 2011. Professors Rachel Roberts, John Shareshian and John McCarthy, who were away during spring 2010, are all back and, we hope, refreshed.
Professors Gary Jensen and Cleon Yohe have retired and will join the ranks of “faculty emeriti.” However, you might still find Professor Jensen around the Department.
If one of the facultyretiring or going on leave is your major advisor, you should receive an e-mail in August or January reassigning you to another major advisor. When your original advisor returns, let me know if you want to be reassigned back.
Some new faces will be showing up. Professors Matt Kerr and Alvaro Pelayo will have joined us as new assistant professors.
Matt is a 2003 Ph.D. from Princeton who comes here after a time at the University of Durham in the U.K.; he works in algebraic geometry and Hodge theory with applications to number theory and physics.
Alvaro is a 2007 Ph.D. from the University of Michigan, coming here after a time at Berkeley. He works on dynamical systems, symplectic geometry, and geometric aspects of partial differential equations. And a special honor: Alvaro was recently the recipient of the2009 Premio Jose Luis Rubio de Francia. This Prize, which is awarded every year to a young mathematician, is the most prestigious distinction given by the Royal Spanish Mathematical Society: see
The Math Department and the Applied Statistics Program have also jointly hired a new assistant professor in statistics: Minjung Kyung, a 2006 Ph.D. from North CarolinaStateUniversity. She comes here from the Department of Statistics at the University of Florida.
We are sorry to see Professor Raj Mehta leaving the department with the end of his three-year stay here as a post-doctoral Chauvenet Lecturer. However, there is also a new Chauvenet Lecturer: Professor Tejas Kelalkar, a 2010 Ph.D. coming here from the Indian Institute of Mathematical Sciences. Tejas works in low-dimensional topology.
Russ Woodroofe (Ph.D., Cornell 2005, combinatorics, group theory) and Kabe Moen (Ph.D., Kansas 2009, harmonic analysis) continue with us as post-doctoral Chauvenet Lecturers.
Who was William Chauvenet? See the link “Local Interest and Local Trivia” on “Web Pages for Math Students”—accessible from the department’sundergraduate web page.
Changes in Curriculum and Course Highlights
In the fall 2009semester, there will be 2 sections of Math 309 (Matrix Algebra); onlyone section of Math 309 is taught in the spring semester. (The ESE Department in the EngineeringSchool teaches one of the fall sections, using the same textbook as the Math Department-taught section and covering almost exactly the same topics. However, ESE does not teach a second section in the spring.) This is worth noting only because it means the spring section will be larger (maybe say, 80, vs. 45-50 in the fall sections) and because it restricts your scheduling options a bit in the spring.
Undergraduate courses offered only in alternate yearsthat will be offered 2010-2011:
Fall 2010Math 302 Elementary Geometry from an Advanced Point of
View (Chi)
Math 415 Partial Differential Equations (Weaver)
Math 439 Linear Statistical Models (Sawyer)
Spring 2011Math 3351 Elementary Number Theory (Chi)
Math 408Nonparametric Statistics (Lin)
Math 495Stochastic Processes (Wilson)
The Undergraduate Math Majors’ Lounge
Visit the Ross R. Middlemiss Math Majors' Lounge (Room 222) if you haven't done so already.
Who was Ross Middlemiss? See “Web Pages for Math Students” on the department’s
Majors/Minors web page. Or look at the small framed picture and bio on the wall in the Lounge.
If you’ve forgotten the combination for the lock on the Lounge door, see the receptionist in the Math Office (Room 100) or Professor Freiwald. The Lounge is intended for undergraduate math majors, not for general student use, so please don’t pass the combination around to others. If we’re going to have things like the microwave and the computer in there, we want to have some control over who uses the room.
The Lounge has a wireless transmitter, so you should be able to use connect to the Artsci network if you have a wireless card in your laptop.
If there are any maintenance problems (e.g., burned-out light bulbs, AC not working, …), please report them to Leslie Smith-Moreland () in the Math Office (Leslie should be back when classes start.) She can also get you any needed suppliesfor the Lounge (printer paper, chalk, …). Please pass along other comments or problems about the Lounge to Professor Ron Freiwald.
The housekeeping staff is supposed to clean up the Lounge regularly. If it needs cleaning badly, then notify the Math Office. But please help keep the Lounge neat by reshelving books in the appropriate placesand using the wastebaskets. A wastebasket that is full or contains discarded food items can be placed in the hallway just outside the Lounge door and the housekeeping staff should empty it overnight or the next morning. Whoever comes in first the next day can put the wastebasket back in the Lounge. Please don’t leave food items (like leftover pizza and half empty soda bottles)sitting in the Lounge. Take what you want home with you and put the rest in a wastebasket in the hallway for pickup.
Please be sure to remove any food that you put in the refrigerator.
We recently disconnected and removed the “land-line” phone in the UG Lounge disconnected and removed. Since nearly everyone is carrying a cell phone now, it seemed like an unnecessary expense. An e-mail mentioning the possibility of removing the phone was sent out to majors a few weeks ago and there was no negative feedback about the proposal.
A copy of the current list of majors/advisors is posted on the bulletin board in the Lounge. The list is also posted on the bulletin board above your mail folders in the Math Office. This list reflects the advisor changes in August because of faculty members going on leave during the fall semester. Contact Professor Freiwald if you spot any errors or problems.
We hope the Lounge can be a friendly place to study or just take a break during the day. As an extra inducement to visit the lounge, we will have some free food (bagels, donuts, or cookies) available there on a few randomly chosen days during the first semester. On these days, a sign will be posted on the Lounge door in the morning. The food will appear no later than 10am and leftovers, if any, will be removed at around 3pm to be distributed to hungry graduate students. The supply of food is finite, so “get it while it lasts.”
Earning Money
Each year, the department usually needshelp with grading and sometimes other jobs.
If you're interested in being a grader, please contact Dr. Blake Thornton (room 204A, 935-6301, ) as soon as possible. He can tell you if we still need graders or have other positions available. He can also talk to you about work in the spring semester. If there’s a favorite faculty member teaching a course you’d like to grade, feel free to contact him/her and offer your grading services: you don’t have to wait to be asked! If the faculty member agrees, then contact Dr. Thornton to be sure he hasn’t already assigned a grader for the course.
You should also contact Dr. Thornton if you might be interested in other jobs (like the Calculus Help Desk at Cornerstone).
If you are interested in tutoring, you should stop by the Cornerstone Office (in Gregg Hall on the South 40) to complete an application. The department has to recommend you if you haven’t done it before. Generally, for a recommendation to tutor Calculus I (or Calculus II), you should have completed Calculus II (or Calculus III) with at least a grade of A-. For tutoring beyond the Calculus II level, we’ll make individual judgments about recommendations, but you should probably have better than a 3.0 average in math courses and preferably an A in courses you want to work with.
If you’re interested in working in the future with a PLTL group for calculus, you should contact Lisa Kuehne in Cupples I, room 108D ().
Miscellaneous
LATIN HONORS and GRADUATION WITH DISTINCTION in MATH
Seniors thinking about an honors projectshould review the requirements for graduation with honors to be sure about eligibility, and get started immediately if they haven’t already.
See
Talk with faculty in your area of interest about possible projects and then fill out a departmental Honors Proposal Form (available on the Latin Honors web page or from Professor Freiwald).
Honors work (written thesis and oral presentation) needs to be completed by about mid-March for those graduating in May. The College of Arts & Sciences sets the exact deadline.
Students with records similar to those who are candidates for Latin Honors, but who are not doing an honors thesis, might be eligible instead for the award of Distinction in Mathematics at graduation. This award goes on your permanent university record.
See
JUNIOR MEETING
Not too long after classes start you’ll get an e-mail about an upcoming meeting especially targeting junior majors (although anybody’s welcome). The purpose is to talk about longer term plans: senior projects, grad school, jobs, internships, etc. We’ll chatover pizza about the possibilities and try to have a representative from the CareerCenter there as well.
PLANNING FORGRADUATESCHOOL
Talk with your advisor about planning and a timetable (a few deadlines, particularly for certain fellowship applications like NSF, may be as early as November). Professor Mohan Kumar, the Chair of our Graduate Committee, might also be a good source for general information—for example, how does our department decide whether to admit someone as a graduate student? What are the most important considerations—course work? GREs? letters of recommendation? … Also, former Graduate Committee chair Prof. Rachel Roberts mightbe a good resource for general information.
LOOKING FOR JOBS OR INTERNSHIPS
Be sure to check out the CareerCenter. I’ll forward to majors any information I receive about job opportunities, recruiters, …, but such information is much more likely to be sent to the CareerCenter than directly to the Math Department. The best time to check for internship information is in September or January. The CareerCenter can also help you with preparing a resume, information about the GRE’s and applying to graduate schools, etc. Also look at the sites on the Undergraduate Web Page.
MATH COMPETITIONS
PUTNAM If you’re interested in the Putnam Exam Competition, please watch for signs about the Putnam Practice Sessions which will begin shortly after classes start. The exam itself is held on the first Saturday in December. (Students are welcome at the practice sessions even if they don’t expect to actually take the exam in December.) Contact Professor Carl Bender () if you have questions. Any number of students can participate in this competition. More details are on the Undergraduate Web Page.
MISSOURIMAACOMPETITION The 16th annualMissouri MAA Collegiate Mathematics Competition will be held Thursday evening/Friday morning March 31-April 1, 2011 on the campus of ColumbiaCollege in Columbia, MO. One of our two teams last spring took 1stplace, and it would be nice to keep the “traveling trophy” (now on display in the case at the east end of Cupples I) for another year. But the most important thing is to go, enjoy the experience and the time together.
It is possible for us to take two teams (a total of 6 students) to the statewide competition; if more than that are interested in going, then we’ll have to make some choices based on class, courses taken, grades, …
This is an overnight trip and the Department will cover the expenses. We will leave in the early afternoon on Thursday, March 31. Some students would start back to W.U. after lunch on Friday, probably arriving back around 3-4 p.m. but we’d also like to have one or two students stay for the Friday night banquet and awards presentation and return to St. Louis on Saturday morning. Mark your calendars if you’re interested.
The spring meeting of the MAAMissouri Section is on the same weekend (Friday April 1-Saturday April 2) at ColumbiaCollege. At the meeting, there are usually students making presentations at some of the sessions. We’d like to encourage any students who have been working on an honors project to consider making a short presentation of their work at the meeting. It’s good experience to talk about what you’ve done in front of strangers.
UNDERGRADUATE MATH CLUB Shubho Sadhu, a senior undergraduate, will be working again this yearas coordinator to organize things. He’d really like student suggestions about the
kind of activities the math club should have: talks (by whom, what topics), more math-related films, sessions working together on problems/puzzles,…??? Please send suggestions to Shubho () and watch for more information about the first meeting.
MATH CIRCLES Thisis an outreach activity for middle and high school students. Math Circles is a nationwide program in which our department participates. Dr. Blake Thornton is the local coordinator. Some majors, especially those interested in education, might be interested in making a presentation or helping out at one of the Math Circles meetings during 2010-2011. Near the bottom of the Undergraduate Web Page, you’ll find a link to anarticle fromthe W.U.Record about Math Circles. Contact Dr. Thornton (, Cupples I 204A, 935-6301) if you'd like to participate or to talk about the program. It may also be possible to earn 1-2 credits for 200-level independent study working with Math Circles on a regular basis.
LOEB UNDERGRADUATE LECTURE IN MATHEMATICS A well-known mathematician is featured in this annual lecture for undergraduates. This year, it will be Professor Ruth Charney (BrandeisUniversity) on Thursday afternoon, March 10. Mark your calendar and plan to come.
More details later.
The department wants to encourage a sense of community among majors, faculty and grad students. If you have an idea that would help promote interactions among some of the majors, please send suggestions to Professor Freiwald. We’re open to all sorts of things if students are willing to join in and participate. Here are some suggestions of opportunities to get more involved.
Ways to Socialize with People in the Department
(and sometimes have a snack)
- Spend time in the Undergraduate Lounge when others are there
- Attend some Math Club meetings
- Form a study group with a few others from one of your classes
- Come to one of the department “teas” which precede colloquium talks. These talks are usually research level and beyond the reach of most undergraduates (and a lot of graduate students too) but undergraduate majors are welcome just to attend the tea and not the talk.
Teas are most often at4 p.m.on Thursdays in the Department Lounge (room 200).
Usually, there are some drinks and light snacks like chips and salsa or cookies. Sometimes
the food is a little more elaborate. You can always check the schedule by looking at the
“Talk List” (under “Links” on the Department’s home page at
Most people there will be faculty and grad students. So if you’re shy, be sure to bring
another UG major along with you.
- Therewill be a Departmental holiday party for undergraduate math majors, grad students and faculty just before Winter Break. The tentative date is Tuesday, December 14 around lunchtime. This is just before finals begin. There’s always a ton of great food. Mark your calendar and watch for announcements later with more details.
- There will bea “Departmental Awards Ceremony” near the end of the spring semester. This is an occasion to presentteaching awards to faculty and graduate students, present undergraduate prizes, and recognize other achievements. And again, there’s lots of good food. We’ll let you know when it’s happening.
- For graduating seniors and their families, there will be a Math Department Open House on Thursday, May 19, 2011 as part of the Commencement festivities.
The department is always open tosuggestions about curriculum or comments about other issues. Please feel free to stop by to talk to the Department Chair (David Wright), the Director of Undergraduate Studies (Ron Freiwald), or the Coordinator for Lower Division Teaching (Blake Thornton). Or, if you prefer, you can use “anonymous e-mail” link to Professor Wrightat the bottom of the Undergraduate Web Page.