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GREGORY GALPERIN
Gregory Galperin, mathematics and computer science, recently traveled to Washington D.C., where he graded the 37th annual USA Mathematical Olympiad. This event, sponsored by the Mathematical Association of America, is the most difficult and prestigious mathematical competition for high school students in the country. In addition to his service in grading, Galperin suggested "Problem 4" for the Olympiad.
"Suggesting an appropriate problem for the USAMO is very noteworthy, because it requires problem elegance, accessibility to high school students, a combination of mathematical skills and topics, and great originality," said Steven Dunbar, competition director. "I believe that creating a problem used for the USAMO is similar to have a short, but elegant, paper published."
PHYSICS ADVISERS, UNDERGRAD RESEARCH STUDENTS ATTEND SYMPOSIUM, BRING BACK AWARD
The Illinois State American Association of Physics Teachers (ISAAPT) held its spring meeting in Champaign at UIUC on April 4 and 5. There was an Undergraduate Research Symposium at which undergraduates present their research. EIU had two presentations -- a joint one from Michael Stachyra and Kara Lovelace titled “Angular Dependence of the Efficiency of Polarizers” (faculty adviser -- Steven Daniels), and one from Daniel Rolando titled “Application of Molecular Dynamics to the Simulation and Visualization of the Motions of Gas Atoms” (faculty adviser -- Jie Zou). There were 15 student presentations in competition from across the state, and EIU is proud to announce that Stachyra and Lovelace earned an award (check and plaque) for a third-place finish. Awards have been given at this event since 1996, and this is the second award that has gone to EIU during that time.
Those attending the conference were Doug Brandt, Steven Daniels and Jie Zou, faculty; and Michael Stachyra, Kara Lovelace, Daniel Rolando, Ross Lindberg and Bradley Sliz, undergraduate students.
Andrew M. White, mathematics and computer sciences, presented a workshop to educators attending the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics' annual meeting in Salt Lake City, Utah, on Friday, April 11, 2008. His workshop was titled "The Conceptual Teaching of Fractions, Decimals and Percents." The session was attended by educators from throughout the United States and Canada.
James Glazebrook, professor of mathematics and computer science, has just returned from a visit to India where he gave five lectures across the country: "Soliton Waves and Baker Functions" at the Department of Mathematics, University of Delhi (South Campus), Jan. 25; "Perspectives on Groupoids" at the Department of Mathematics, Banaras Hindu University, Feb. 2; "Some Descriptive Methods in Bio-informatics and Neuroscience" at the Department of Mathematics, Indian Institute of Technology-Kanpur, Feb. 4; "Solitons and Geometry of Certain Banach Homogeneous Spaces" at the Department of Mathematics, Indian Institute of Technology-Kanpur, Feb. 5; and "Homotopy and Harmonic Maps" at the Department of Mathematics, University of Delhi (North Campus), Feb. 11. Glazebrook is on sabbatical leave for Spring 2008.
Betty E. Smith, geology and geography, was chair and discussant of a session on Latin American history, ethnicity and identity at the Joint Conference of the International Studies Association Midwest and the Midwest Association of Latin American Studies in St. Louis, Mo. (Nov. 2-4, 2007).
Betty E. Smith, geology and geography, published the paper, "Urban Population Density Analysis of Central City Morphology of a City in the Andes Mountains of Ecuador" in the peer-reviewed Papers of the Applied Geography Conferences (2007) 30: 135-146.
Andrew M. White, mathematics and computer science, presented two workshops on collecting and analyzing data at a fall conference held Oct. 5 at Charleston High School. The workshops gave data-collecting activities to participants that would interest middle grade students and help them understand how to analyze and categorize collected data.
Andrew M. White, mathematics and computer science, was one of two presenters at the MERIT Workshop held July 24 through Aug. 1 at the Regional Office of Education in Rantoul. The workshop is sponsored by the University of Illinois, and White presented seven lessons to 34 middle school teachers from around Illinois. Lessons centered around Illinois Teaching Standards, and were presented in the MERIT format, a program at the U. of I.
Andrew M. White, mathematics and computer science, presented a workshop to teachers at the ROE Mathematics Conference in Carlinville, Ill., on Nov. 20, 2006. White used dominoes to instruct teachers how to use them to teach fractional concepts in the middle grades.
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