VIGRE

Blair Dowling Awarded Graduate Fellowship

Recent Georgia Tech Graduate Scores a New Homeland Security Fellowship
New Scholarship Proves Extremely Competitive
Atlanta (August 27,2003)-Recent Georgia Tech graduate V. Blair Dowling, who is passionate about mathematics and is a fierce
competitor in Ultimate Frisbee, will soon become part of a much larger team. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has selected her to
receive one of 100 fellowships in the new Homeland Security Scholars and Fellows Program. More than 2,500 students nationwide applied for the
100 openings available to undergraduate and graduate students studying a variety of disciplines related to scientific and technological
innovations that can be applied to the DHS mission. Dowling graduated in May with degrees in applied mathematics and computer science and a
minor in economics. Dowling will use the three-year graduate fellowship, which includes a stipend and full tuition, to pursue her doctoral
degree in mathematics at Princeton University. Her long-term goal is to be a professor of mathematics.


Last spring, Dowling received the Phi Kappa Phi Scholarship Cup, awarded each year to the graduating senior with the most
outstanding scholastic record in the class.
300 dpi JPG = 1.14 MB
"I fell in love with math at a very early age," said Dowling. "Initially my only goal was to make a contribution to theoretical
mathematics - a beautiful result on a pedestal. Over the last four years, my goal has expanded to include the innovation of new applications of
mathematics to societal problems - such as the HIV project I'm working on now. I'm looking forward to learning the foundations of mathematics at
Princeton, and hope to be able to then teach them to the next generation."

Dowling feels this fellowship will give her the freedom to concentrate on her studies. In April when she received an e-mail from one
of her math professors suggesting she apply for the fellowship, she had already been offered a teaching fellowship at Princeton, which covered
all expenses for four years. Dowling felt the Homeland Security Fellowship provided more flexibility. As part of the fellowship, Dowling will be
required to complete an internship with DHS the summer after her first year.

Dowling, an outstanding student who graduated from Tech with a perfect 4.0 GPA, has received many honors. She was a finalist for the
highly prestigious Rhodes Scholarship, which included an intensive application and interview process that she found very thought provoking. She
also received the Phi Kappa Phi Scholarship Cup, awarded each year to the graduating senior with the most outstanding scholastic record in the
class.

As an undergraduate, she pursued several research projects. She worked on a joint Georgia Tech - Emory University research project
with Dr. Dana Randall, associate professor in the College of Computing and adjunct in the School of Mathematics at Georgia Tech and Dr. Guido
Silvestri, assistant professor of medicine at the Emory Vaccine Research Center & Yerkes National Primate Research Center. The project's goal is
to develop a mathematical model of HIV infection in vivo, along with computer software allowing biologists, to visualize the progression of the
disease. For this project, she won first place in the annual UROC (Undergraduate Research Opportunities in Computing) competition. Dowling is
involved in ongoing research with the project, and anticipates publication of their work sometime in the next year. Another project was a
National Science Foundation-sponsored Research Experience for Undergraduates focusing on elliptic curves and quadratic residue tournaments.

"Blair completely embodies the type of student that made me want to become an academic," said Randall. "She demonstrated such
extreme professionalism and scientific integrity in our HIV modeling research project that it is hard to believe that she was still an
undergraduate. For the project, Blair had to comprehend the immunological dynamics involved in HIV infection at the level of a graduate student
in biology, she had to understand partial differential equations used in mathematical modeling and reinterpret them as stochastic equations, and
she had to demonstrate proficiency in programming methodologies. Her enthusiasm and dedication elevated this joint Georgia Tech-Emory project to
a level far beyond our original expectations, and we were incredibly fortunate to have her work with us."

Dowling, from Savannah, Ga., enjoys teaching. At Georgia Tech she worked as a teaching assistant for Calculus II courses. One
summer, she served as head counselor for a math camp for high school students at Boston University called PROMYS - the Program in Mathematics
for Young Scientists.

Despite her heavy academic load, Dowling found time for extracurricular activities as well. She played on the Georgia Tech Women's
Ultimate Frisbee team and additionally served as captain of an intramural ultimate team all four years. Dowling served as president of the
Georgia Tech chapter of Pi Mu Epsilon, the National Math Honor Society, and faculty credit her with reviving this organization and transforming
it into a vibrant group that promotes excellence in mathematics and interactions among department faculty and students. Also, Dowling was an
active member of Westminster Christian Fellowship and helped organize and raise funds for the renovation of their on-campus building in the
spring of 2003.

Sigma Xi Conference and Funding Opportunities

Mason Porter points out this opportunity from the national organization Sigma Xi:

GRANTS-IN-AID OF RESEARCH DEADLINE - Awarding research support to undergraduate and graduate students for 80 years. Most grants range from a few
hundred dollars to $1,000. Vision related or astronomy related research projects may be awarded up to $2,500.
Students apply online:
APPLICATION DEADLINE: October 15, 2003.

UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT OPPORTUNITY - 2003 Student Research Conference to be held in Los Angeles November 14 and 15. Students present research,
attend workshops and lectures by leading scientists and network with graduate school and employment recruiters. Information and Registration:
http://www.sigmaxi.org/meetings/student/index.shtml
GRADUATE STUDENTS and DOCTORAL - Special Opportunity for participation at the Student Conference. More Info at:
http://www.sigmaxi.org/meetings/student/phd.shtml

COLLABORATE. COMMUNICATE. WITHOUT BOUNDARIES. - Sigma Xi's 2003 Forum, "Science & Engineering: Keys to International Understanding," will be
held November 12-13 in Los Angeles in conjunction with the Society's Annual Meeting and Student Research Conference. Spearheaded by Sigma Xi
President Peter Raven, this meeting will focus on scientific and engineering communication and collaboration as an enabler for international
understanding. See http://sigmaxi.org/meetings/forum/upcoming.shtml for the latest program information and online registration. Early
registration ends October 16, so register today!

How Do You Survive Grad School?

A panel of three professors, and three graduate students fielded questions from professors, graduate students, and undergraduates. The panelists were

Mason Porter, Postdoc	Evans Harrell, prof	Michael Lacey, Prof
Sam Greenberg, ACO grad	Todd Moeller, grad	Luis Hernandez, grad

It was a full hour of discussion. Your scribe gives an overview, but does not claim to be accurate to all the opinions voiced. Sam Greenberg stressed that the grad students should talk to peers, and profs about research, advisors, and everything else. This is good advice for those of you reading this.

The Advisor An early topic of conversation was the relationship to the advisor. Whatever an advisor is, the average number of advisors on all those on the panel was, I think, more than 2. While the advisor should be entered into a spreadsheet in the Graduate Advisor's computer. Such entries are easy to change.

So what is the point of the advisor? In Professor Harrell's opinion, one should ``fall in love with the problem, not the advisor." The thesis topic w ould ideally be a rich enough topic to sustain your interest for a period of time beyond your thesis. And the advisor can continue to play a helpful role to the PhD student, with postdoctoral positions, conference invitations, and the tenure track position.

There is no hard and fast rule to choosing the advisor. One indication is recent track record of the advisor in terms of students finishing, and being placed in postdoctoral positions. But, to take a local example, Professor Lubinsky has a very strong record of training students in his native South Africa, but has not yet advised a grad student at GT. Likewise, a young professor, with a hot research record, may not have any record at all, but could be an ideal choice.

Getting Research Done You are in the PhD program to do research. Sam Greenberg pushed the idea of getting into research as possible. Take a homework problem, and twist it, and generalize it, to get a new problem, and possibly a research topic. Attend seminars. Ask questions. Attend the Research Horizons talks, which are targeted at newbies.

Todd Moeller encouraged students to take advantage of range of summer programs for grad students. Todd specifically praised he North Carolina State program in applied math. There is also the IMA program, which was held at Georgia Tech this summer, and the the MSRI has another program. Georgia Tech is a member of the IMA and the MSRI, making participation in these programs especially easy. Participation in these kinds of conferences can help you learn quite a bit about a field, it's questions and future.

[Note: The National Science Foundation's programs are not exclusively targeted at US citizens. Any grad student support that comes through an individual grant, CAREER grants, or Focused Research grants, among many other examples, carry no citizenship restrictions. A prof doesn't even have to be a US citizen to get an individual grant from the NSF. Other programs, such as the VIGRE and REU programs do carry citizenship restrictions. These programs were formulated in part to respond to national interests, and congressional will. ]

One stumbling block to getting research done is the difficulty in reading a research paper, say one that your research advisor gave you. Some strategies are:

• The paper might be cutting edge material, that is written at a very specialized audience. You may not yet be part of that audience.
• Flip to the back, and find the key original references. These are more likely to explain the context and importance of the problem at hand. You can also look for recent survey articles, and textbooks and research mongraphs that address that topic.
• Find out what the key motivating examples are. And study those. The advisor probably knows what these examples are.

The fact is that reading research papers is hard. You can also try to identify the unorigonal bits, the parts that are standard aspects of the subject, and the orginal arguments that represent the contribution to knowledge.

But what about the Comps? Sure, you can't just leap into research. You do need to learn more--Real Analysis, Algebra, and the like. And you need to pass the Comps.

This is a conflicting goal with doing research. There isn't a good answer to this one. Not everyone should pass the Comps, since to do well on a thesis, you will need to be a good problem solver, among other things of course. And we all have a range of conflicting demands on our time. Try balance them out as best you can.

There is a specific timetable for passing the Comps. At the same time, there is no expectation that one rule will be fair to all cases.

(Student Run) Graph Theory Seminar

The Graph Theory seminar is about to resume its regular meetings.                                                                                
If you are interested in attending, please e-mail Paul Wollan                                                                                    
 the times when you have other committments.                                                                             
                                                                                                                                                 
As in the past, the speakers (mostly students) will present recent                                                                               
results of interest to current students working in Graph Theory.                                                                                 
 

Editors Comment: Paul Wollan is a 3rd year Grad student.

Putnam Class With Big Enrollment

The William Lowell Putnam Exam
is one of the most challenging of undergraduate math exams. Georgia Tech has a
history of having some individuals score very well on the exam.

The high score of 39 last year was by Yakov Kerzhner, now a grad student at New York University.

This year's preparation for the exam has a new twist, the students are receiving one hour's credit. (I wonder what the grading scale will be? The median score on the Putnam is 1, so will
Professor Wang, who teaches the class, set one point be a pass? )

One thing will be like last year: The Pizza will be free!

Betrand Guenin wins Fulkerson Prize

BertranGuenin has won the 2003 Delbert Ray Fulkerson Prize.
This prize is administered by the Mathematical Programming Society (MPS) and the American Mathematical Society (AMS). He is currently at the University of Waterloo in Canada.

Bertrand's Georgia Tech connection was by way of a Postdoctoral Position at Georgia Tech, in the Southeastern Applied Analysis Center.

The Fulkerson Prize is awarded for outstanding papers in the area of discrete mathematics. And he received for the paper A characterization of weakly bipartite graphs. J. Combin. Theory Ser. B 83 (2001), no. 1, 112--168.

Pass Rates on Qualifying Exams

The qualifying exams are coming up in a little over three weeks.
A very large number of students will be taking the exams on 12, 15 September. These exams cover Analysis and Algebra, at the level of an introductory graduate course.

Over the years 1990-2001, the Qualifying exams have been taken
by about 140 students, and have had a success rate of about 60%.
And in recent years, the exams have been more focused in their subject matter than they have in the past.

In the period of Fall 1997, to Fall 2001, these students have passed the exam:

Kelome, D. Armel		Sep-97
Khlabystova, Milena	Sep-97
Morales, Victor		Sep-97
Renom, Jose Miguel	Sep-97
Sheppardson, Laura	Sep-97
Viveros, Jorge			Sep-97
Hernandez, Luis		Sep-97
Maroofi, Hamed		Sep-97
Day, Sarah			Sep-98
Figueroa, Enrique		Sep-98
Jiang, Jiahui			Sep-98
Li, Xiantao			Sep-98
Moeller, Todd			Sep-98
Okoudjou, Kasso		Sep-98
Wang, Di				Sep-98
Chen, Jian			Aug-99
Lin, Jing				Aug-99
Komandarczyk, Rafal	Sep-99
Hohenegger, Christel	Sep-01
Timar, Adam			Sep-01

This is data for only the Qualifying Exam for the Math PhD. It does not include data for the
Algorithms, Computation and Optimization program.

This selective program has its own set of Qualifying Exams that are at least broader, if not also harder than the Qualifying Exam. Recent math grad students to pass that exam include Rajnessh Hegde, Paul Wollan, and Sam Greenberg.

New International Grad Students

  back row: Guido Kempel, David Jimenez, Cathy Jacobson, Adem Cakmak, Hua Xu,                                                                                                            
front row: Selin Caliskan, Eliana Traldi, Sujin Ahn, Sang-Ho Shim. 
Not pictured:  Xiaozhou Zhou.     
  

International Graduate students are vital to the Graduate program in Math, as they are to most Math departments. This year, the new international grad students went through an extensive introduction to Math, Georgia Tech and life in Atlanta. The students, whose names and faces are above, come from Korea, China, Turkey, Columbia and Argentina, among other places.

These students will also receive extensive training in English and teaching duties by Cathy Jacobson, a specialist in teaching english as a forgein language. Cathy is n the center of the picture.

She, with Rena Brakebill, and Klara Grodinsky, lead the TA Development Seminar, required of all first time Math TAs. This program is at the forefront of TA training at Georgia Tech.

Google is a Calculator too

Google has added a calculator to its search functions. There are some
obvious formulas such as

e^(pi) . Note: use parentheses, not braces! But it won't solve quadratics.

You can find the radius of the earth in furlongs

And then find out furlongs in light years

You can convert liter in teaspoons.

And Google also knows the answer to life, the universe, and everything.

New Faculty Arriving at GT

There are quite a few new track faculty joining the School of Mathematics
this fall. They are:

Igor Belgradek (geometry, topology) was a postdoc at Caltech.

Ernie Croot (number theory) was a postdoc at Berkeley.

Plamen Iliev (math physics) was a postdoc at Berkeley.

Heinrich Matzinger (probability) was a postdoc at Beibelfeld Germany.

Ronghua Pan (non linear pdes) was a postdoc at the University of Michigan.

Anurag Singh (algebra) has held postdoctoral positions at the Univeristy of Utah and MSRI in Berkeley.

Hao Min Zhou (numerical analysis) was a postdoc at Caltech.

In the Postdoc category, w
Thiery Zell (computational algebra) comes from France.

Four new VIGRE postdocs join us:

Dan Fox (geometry/topology) from the University of Seattle.

Jason Metcalfe (non linear pdes) from Johns Hopkins University

Tomasso Pacini (geometry) from University of Pisa.

Mark Demers (dynamics) from Courant Institute.

In other categories, we have several people either visiting short term, or
continuing their stay at Georgia Tech. Among them, Victor Abreu from
CIMAT in Mexico returns for another visit.

Welcome to all.

Three Geometry Seminars

This fall there will be the following seminars with geometric themes:
- the Geometry/Topology Seminar meeting on Mondays, time to be
specified (run jointly by Professsor Stavros Garoufalidis and VIGRE post-doc Tommaso Pacini)
- a working seminar (run jointly by Professor Landsberg and VIGRE post-doc Daniel Fox) on G-structures in algebraic geometry. Meeting day and time to be determined.

- The Informal Geometry Seminar Professor Landsberg will continue to meet at Fridays at 3pm

Every effort will be made to have the first 45 minutes of the talk (before the break) accesible to graduate students, after which those bored and/or
lost can leave gracefully. Already booked are E. Lerman (symplectic geometry, UIUC) 8/22, L. Garcia 8/29 (Virgina Tech, Bayesian networks - this talk may
be of interest to those in graph theory, computer science and bioinformatics), and X. Rong (Rutgers, Riemannian geometry). Additional suggestions for
speakers are most welcome. Abstracts of talks are at the web site above.


Email Professor Landsberg to get on the distribution lists for these seminars.

GT Library Subscriptions, the ArXiv, and the PLoS

The Georgia Tech Library, like all academic libraries, has seen yearly subscription prices to journals continue to increase by on order 10% per year, even as costs of production and dissemination have fallen dramatically. With the recent state budget difficulties, the Library is proceding with a round of Journal Reviews, with the intention of cutting a large percentage of the journal subscription.

The cost of journal prices has long been an issue, with the American Math Society keeping an up to date survey of prices . The disparities can be very striking. And this is an issue that will continue to effect the sciences until some proactive steps are taken. This is a significant issue for mathematics, which is a discipline that can be done very well with a relatively low level of technology, provided the most recent results are freely availible. Other members of the Math community, like Rob Kirby of UC Berkeley has long championed the more open access to math publications.

This has been easier with the rise of the ArXiv the free math preprint database. (Some will prefer the Front at UC Davis .)

Putting papers here is great way to communicate your results, free to a world wide audience. You can subscribe to get email notification in your areas of interest. And a few journals are overlays, meaning that all of their published papers appear there. The most well known of the overlay journals is the Annals of Mathematics. All of this has made it a very important--even indespensable--research tool in a number of areas, most famously String Theory.

The trend towards free publication of journals will undoubtably increase, with some more recent momentum and press going to the iniative known as Public Libary of Science which will publish its first freely availble journals PLOS Biology and PLOS Medicine in October of this year.

An editorial in the NYT reads in part "The aim is to create a freer flow of data about research and results. The journals will pay for themselves by charging a small fee to the organizations and institutions that support the research." (Registration required. Use the login "gtmath" with pass "Atlanta")

The PLOS has an open letter which begins "We support the establishment of an online public library that would provide the full contents of the published record of research and scholarly discourse in medicine and the life sciences in a freely accessible, fully searchable, interlinked form."

While the gist of the open letter is very much towards the biosciences, the letter has attracted the signature of many people who list Mathematics as their primary home. Most prominent in the list of names is Rob Kirby, Greg Kuperberg, associated with the ArXiv, Dylan Thurston, the well known topologist, and a math biologist Michael Waterman, among others. The list of mathematicians that I extracted from all US signers is below.

Vasilios Alexiades	Professor, Mathematics, University of Tennessee, United States
Alexandra Athanassiou	Faculty, Mathematics, University of Missouri, United States
Laurent Bartholdi	Associate Professor, Mathematics, U.C. Berkeley, United States
Rachid Benkhalti	Professor, Mathematics, Pacific Lutheran University, United States
Mathew Bowersox	graduate student/ NIH fellow, Toxicology, university of rochester, United States
Dieter Braun	Postdoc, Center for Mathematics and Biology, Rockefeller University, United States
Peter Casazza	Professor, Mathematics, University of Missouri, United States
Stephen Clark	Associate Professor, Mathematics and Statistics, University of Missouri-Rolla, United States
William Edwin Clark	Professor, Mathematics Department, University of South Florida, United States
Mohamed Elhamdadi	Mathematics, University of South Florida, United States
Russell Francis	Research Assistant, Mathematics, Ohio University, United States
Fritz Gesztesy	Professor, Mathematics, University of Missouri, United States
Loukas Grafakos	Professor, Mathematics, University of Missouri, United States
Vahan Grigoryan	Mathematics, University of Pittsburgh, United States
James Hefferon	Associate Professor of Mathematics, Mathematics, Saint Michael's College, United States
Jan Hlavacek	Assistant Professor, Mathematics, Univ. of Saint Francis, United States
Michael Jury	Research Assistant Professor, Mathematics, Purdue University, United States
Rinat Kedem	Assistant Professor, Mathematics, U. Massachusetts, United States
Robion Kirby	Professor, Mathematics, Univ. ofCalifornia, Berkeley, United States
R. Kit Kittappa	Professor, Mathematics, Millersville University, United States
Mile Krajcevski	Instructor, Mathematics, University of South Florida, United States
Vijay Krishnamoorthy	Senior Consultant, Mathematics, computer, United States
Greg Kuperberg	Mathematics, University of California, Davis, United States
Boris Kupershmidt	Professor of Mathematics, Space Institute, University of Tennessee, United States
Matilde Lalin	Graduate Student, Mathematics, Princeton University, United States
David Lerner	Professor, Mathematics, University of Kansas, United States
Irakli Loladze	Research Assosiate, Mathematics, Arizona State University, United States
Juan Manfredi	Professor, Mathematics, University of Pittsburgh, United States
Florin Manolache	Mathematical Sciences, Carnegie Mellon University, United States
Lawrence Mathes	Professor, Center for Retrovirus Research, Ohio State University, United States
Bernard Mathey-Prevot	Associate professor, Pediatric Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, United States
Raymond Mejia	Mathematician, Nhlbi, National Institutes of Health, United States
Lucas Monzon	Research Associate, Applied Mathematics, University of Colorado at Boulder, United States
Claudio Morales	Professor of Mathematics, Department of Mathematics, University of Albama in Huntsville, United States
Paul Myers	Professor, Division of Science and Mathematics, University of Minnesota, Morris, United States
Mark Olah	Student, Mathematics, Carnegie Mellon University, United States
Marvin Ortel	Professor of Mathematics, Department of Mathematics, University of Hawaii, United States
Jim Pitman	Professor, Mathematics and Statistics, Unoversity of California, United States
Steve Prehoda	Professor Mathematics, Mathematics, Frederick Community College, United States
Lee Rudolph	Professor, Mathematics, Clark University, United States
Daniil Sarkissian	Instructor, Mathematics and Statistics, Mississippi State University, United States
John Sullivan	Associate Professor, Department of Mathematics, University of Illinois, United States
Juergen Symanzik	Assistant Professor, Mathematics and Statistics, Utah State University, United States
Dylan Thurston	NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Mathematics, Harvard University, United States
Marie Vitulli	Professor, Mathematics, University of Oregon, United States
Wei-hong Wang	Full Professor, Mathematics and Statistics, The College of New Jersey, United States
Daniel Warner	Professor, Mathematical Sciences, Clemson University, United States
Michael Waterman	Professor, Biological Sciences AND Mathematics, University of Southern California, United States

Erin Terwilliger Leaves GT

Erin Terwilleger has left her VIGRE postdoc position to take up
a tenure track position at the University of Conneticut at Storrs.

Her report on the year's activities is in the extended entry.

2002-2003 ANNUAL REPORT
ERIN TERWILLEGER

1. Introduction
I was a VIGRE Postdoctoral Associate at Georgia Tech for the 2002-2003 school
year. I received my PhD from the University of Missouri-Columbia in May 2002
under the direction of Professor Loukas Grafakos. My research interests are Harmonic
Analysis with emphasis on Fourier Analysis and Singular Integeral Operators. While
at Georgia Tech, Professor Michael Lacey was my mentor. In the fall of 2003, I will be
starting a tenure-track assistant professor position at the University of Connecticut
in Storrs.

2. Research
I have completed and/or worked on the following papers over the academic year
2002-2003.
* Lp bounds for a maximal dyadic sum operator, with L. Grafakos and T. Tao,
Math. Zeit., to appear, (2003).
* Remarks on product VMO, with M. Lacey, in preparation, (2003).
* Third order commutators and product BMO, in preparation, (2003).

Through the VIGRE travel grant, I was able to attend the following conferences
while at Georgia Tech.
* Second Annual Prairie Analysis Conference, University of Kansas, Lawrence
KS.
* Quasiconvexity and its Applicationa, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ.
* Riviere-Fabes Symposium, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN.
* Park City Mathematics Institute/Institute for Advanced Study summer pro-
ram in Harmonic Analysis and PDE's.

I also regularly attended the Analysis Seminar at Georgia Tech where I gave the
talk
* Lp bounds for a maximal dyadic sum operator, joint work with L. Grafakos
and T. Tao, February 2003.

I also regularly attended an informal time-frequency seminar organized by Professor
Chris Heil. There I presented a series of two talks over the following paper.
* S. Ferguson and M. Lacey, Second order commutators and product BMO,

This informal seminar gave me the chance to interact with some graduate students,
other postdocs, and even a professor at a nearby university.

3. Teaching

I taught two courses at Georgia Tech: Math 2401 (Calculus III), Section B1 in
Fall 2002, and Math 2602 (Linear and Discrete Mathematics), Sections B1 and B2
in Spring 2003. These courses gave me a good oppurtunity to interact with stu-
dents. One of my students from 2602 asked me to write letters of recommendation
to graduate schools on his behalf.

Mason Porter Takes Over Research Horizons

The Research Horizons/Pre Colloquium talks were initiated by Professor Erdos
two years ago. These are talks by GT faculty or visitors that are a survey of
a research interest of the faculty, or an introduction to that week's colloquium.

Professor Symington has been running the seminar for three semesters, and
now Mason Porter, in his second year as a VIGRE postdoc, will take over the duties. Mason has experience running a similar seminar at Cornell, where he was a grad student.

See the
most recent schedule.

This is a fine idea, and has been used at many places before it was taken up at Georgia Tech. The process of running one is much harder than it looks, as Professor Symington found out. The talks given in the seminar over the past three semesters are mostly GT faculty. Margaret Symington writes:

Overall I was pleased with the seminar last year: the talks were
typically great
and the attendence was reasonable -- typically between 3
and 7 students with a couple of washouts (no students) and a couple of
watersheds (many students), occasional undergraduates, and ususally
several postdocs and faculty.

As a postdoc, Mason may be in a better position than I was to
- take the "seminar pulse" of the students and figure out how best to
tailor the seminar to meet their needs and interests
- serve as a role model for asking questions in a talk
- keep the speaker at the appropriate level.

Thanks to all who offered to speak last year. Please keep volunteering
and please do talk with students about what seminars they should attend
given their interests -- both on a general level as well as letting them
know when there is a particular speaker that might be of particular
interest. This is crucial information that they really need to hear from
us.

best,
Margaret

IMA Combinatorics Pics

The IMA program in Combinatorics program, held at Georgia Tech, concluded last friday. Over a three week period, five projfessors gave courses on reserach topics in combinatorics to graduate students from all over the US. The principal lecturers were

• Graham Brightwell
• András Gyárfás
• Prasad Tetali
• Robin Thomas
• William T. Trotter

  There are some fun pics of the program up at different sites

  
  
  

  A tagged version of the Group Photo above has been put together by Frank Fiedler of University of Deleware. He also has plenty of captioned photos of the Workshop, participants, and some of the sites of Atlanta. And yet more photos here.

  Posted by lacey at 11:48 AM | Comments (0)