Georgia Institute of Technology

Prasad Tetali has been appointed Editor-in-Chief of the SIAM Journal on Discrete Mathematics, informally known as SIDMA.  The journal publishes research articles on a broad range of topics from pure and applied mathematics including combinatorics and graph theory, discrete optimization and operations research, theoretical computer science, and coding and communication theory.

While maintaining very high standards, SIDMA is also very broad, perhaps the broadest among discrete mathematics journals. Tetali's appointment was announced following the reports of two SIAM committees charged with charting future direction of the Journal. The committees recommended that "in choosing the next Editor-In-Chief for SIDMA, SIAM should search for a researcher whose own work displays the breadth sought for the journal."

Originally from Connecticut, Arthur J. "AJ" Friend started at Georgia Tech in the fall of 2005 ready to study mathematics. Why did he choose Georgia Tech? "It was the warmest school I got into," he jokes.

Why math? He liked math in high school and saw math as the most challenging subject one could study in college. While enjoying balmy Atlanta weather, AJ has kept busy academically with classes, undergraduate research, and independent study (topology).

His accomplishments have not gone unnoticed. AJ received the Goldwater Award in 2006 and was chosen Outstanding Junior math major in the spring of 2007.    more...

The 2009 High School Mathematics Competition (HSMC) at Georgia Tech will be held on 28 February 2009, on the Georgia Tech campus. The HSMC is open to students enrolled in grades 8-12 and combines challenging examinations in mathematical problem solving and reasoning with the opportunity for a fun day at Georgia Tech.

Our current financial manager, Christy Dalton, came to the School of Mathematics as an accountant in 2004. Prior to that, Ms. Dalton held the position of assistant business manager at the Rialto Center for the Arts. Her degree in communications from Georgia State University in 1998 led to employment for a few years in theater management and then to the Rialto.

Because she proved to be such a valuable staff member, Christy was promoted to the position of financial manager for the SOM in 2005. Together with our efficient accountant, Inetta Worthy, Christy deals with all aspects of funding for the School of Mathematics. In fact, the financial office processes payrolls for faculty, staff, and students; reimburses travel expenses, and supply purchases; manages state, grant, and foundation budgets and retains files for auditing.   more...

Some people view mathematics as a lonely discipline, but Associate Professor Matthew Baker’s vision of mathematics is highly people-oriented. What he finds most exciting about mathematics is sharing it with others—and share it he does in a wide range of courses for undergraduates and graduate students alike.

Since arriving at Georgia Tech in Fall 2004, Dr. Baker has taught Math 1512: Honors CalculusII at the freshman level, Math 3012: Applied Combinatorics at the sophomore level, and Math 4150: Number Theory for juniors and seniors. He’s also taught the graduate algebra sequence (Math 6121/2: Algebra I/II), which serves as a gateway for PhD level study in mathematics, and Math 8803: Algebraic Number Theory, a graduate-level topics course.   more...

Mathematics major A.J. Friend has won the prestigious Phi Kappa Phi cup. This is the top academic honor for graduating seniors on the GT campus. The minimum requirement for the award is a 4.0 GPA, and there were 39 students that met the minimum. The selection of the winner depended upon a record of high scholarly achievement, intellectual sophistication, and research accomplishments. Congratulations A.J.!

Other recent winners of the Phi Kappa Phi cup who were from the School of Mathematics are: David Vener (2001 BS) who went on to get a Ph.D. at MIT (2006) and Vida Blair Dowling (2002 BS) who went on to get a Ph.D. at Princeton (2007).

For further information about A.J., see his recent spotlight.

Prasad Tetali and his collaborator Ravi Montenegro (University of Massachussetts, Lowell) recently had their work on Pollard's Kangaroo algorithm profiled in the French journal La Recherche (a French "Scientific American").   The paper, which is titled "How long does it take to catch a wild kangaroo?" gives a tight analysis of Pollard's Kangaroo algorithm (from 1978) to solve the discrete logarithm problem in cyclic groups. The paper appears in this year's ACM Symposium on Theory of Computing and it is available on the arxiv at http://arxiv.org/abs/0812.0789.

The Graduate Committee announced the winners of the School of Mathematics graduate awards. "We received several outstanding nominations, in all categories, which attest to the high level of achievement of our graduate students" said Luca Dieci, Graduate Coordinator. Congratulations to:

• Shannon Bishop and Ian Palmer - Outstanding TA Awards
• Carl Yerger - Festa Fellowship Award
• Alex Grigo and Hwakil Kim - Top Graduate Student Awards
• John Pearson and Alessandro Pugliese - Best PhD thesis Awards