From the Colleges
Bridgewater State College (reporter Tom Moore) Robert Sutherland
just retired from the Mathematics and Computer Science department here at BSC.
He was very helpful to the MAA/NES when we hosted the Fall,2001
meeting. I have been teaching a new course on Mathematical Games and Puzzles
for current teachers, K to 8.
Fairfield University (reporter Matthew
Coleman) Steve Sawin was granted promotion to Full Professor. Ben Fine's book "Number Theory: An
Introduction via the Distribution of Primes" (with Gerhard Rosenberger) was published by Birkhäuser . The sad news to report is that George Lang passed away suddenly this past
May. He had been at the University since 1970.
See his obit below.
Fitchburg State College (reporter Claire McAndrew) On October 2, 2007 Fitchburg State held
an installation ceremony for our new Massachusetts Eta Chapter of Pi Mu Epsilon
at which nine of our mathematics majors and four faculty members were inducted
as charter members of the FSC Pi Mu Epsilon chapter. The installing
officer was Dr. Brigitte Servatius, Pi Mu Epsilon journal editor and councilor
and professor of mathematics at WPI.
Framingham State College (reporter Sarah Mabrouk) Sonja Sandberg
became Chair of the Mathematics Department effective July 1, 2007. Walter
Czarnec completed his term as Chair of the Mathematics Department on June
30, 2007. Dr. Thomas Koshy was selected as the 2007 Distinguished
Faculty Member. He was awarded his medallion during Commencement on May
27, 2007, and he gave an address to graduating students during the 2007
Commencement as well as to incoming students during the New Student Convocation
on September 4, 2007. In his announcement of the award to the faculty,
Dr. Robert Martin, Vice President of Academic Affairs stated, "Tom’s
teaching reflects a passion and love for mathematics and skill in furthering
students’ abilities to apply their mathematical knowledge to the real
world. He is also a successful and prolific scholar, producing 84
publications of various sorts since 1972, including six books."
Additional recognitions of Tom include his listing in the 2007 edition of the
Great Minds of the 21st Century, published by the American Biographical
Institute, Inc. and the 2008 edition of 2000 Outstanding Intellectuals of the
21st Century by the International Biographical Centre, Cambridge, England.
Lyndon State College (reporter Kevin Farrell) Ms.
Victoria Green, Assistant Professor, Mathematics, joins us as a one-year
replacement for Dr. Daisy McCoy who is on sabbatical. Ms. Green
recently completed her M.S. in Mathematics from the University of Vermont.
Ms. Debbie Hughes, Assistant Professor, Mathematics / Computer Science,
has joined the faculty. She holds a M.S.
in Computer Science from the New Jersey Institute of Technology. She
comes with many years of corporate information technology experience having
worked at both AT&T and Verizon Wireless; most recently, she has been
employed by the St. Johnsbury School and St.
Johnsbury Academy.
UMass-Boston (reporter John Lutts) John Lutts has retired
as of May 31,
2007.
University of New Haven (reporter Thurman Whitley)
The University of New
Haven Department of Mathematics welcomes Dr. Maryam Vulis as a Lecturer
in Mathematics. Dr. Vulis has a Ph.D. from CCNY and Master’s degrees from
CCNY in Computer Science and in Mathematics. Her B.A. degree is from Drogobych
State Pedagogical Institute, Ukraine.
Her research interests are in the History of Cryptography. In addition to
teaching and research, she is helping UNH develop our new Mathematics Education
concentration. When not working, she enjoys chess (her son is an
accomplished competitive chess player) and practicing her digital photography
skills.
Salem State College (reporter Mary Platt) Reva Kasman joins us as an assistant
professor after several years at Grand
Valley State
University. Her mathematical interests include
computational geometry (with a focus on paper folding) and geometric group
theory. Martha L. Hunt received funding
to continue Project Salem, a comprehensive
three-year professional development plan at Salem State College partnered with
Lynn, Salem, Everett, Malden, Gloucester, Danvers, Haverhill and
Hamilton-Wenham public schools to respond to the increasing demands in North
Shore communities for well-trained and licensed Mathematics teachers at the
middle school level.
Saint Michael’s College (reporter George Ashline) Saint Michael’s College is hosting the
Spring 2008 NES-MAA meeting on F May 30 and S May 31st. Please
save the date and be on the look out for more information about the conference
later. We hope to see many section members in Vermont at the end of May! We have hired Alex Rogalski, PhD from University
of Connecticut, as a
full-time instructor for the current year. Zsu Kadas was recently recognized with the college’s top faculty
service honor, the Norbert A. Kuntz Service Award, in appreciation of her many
years of tireless service to the college community as teacher, department
chair, committee participant and leader, and moderator of the Faculty Assembly.
Jo
Ellis-Monaghan is on sabbatical for the current academic year, and she has
been awarded a funded visiting fellowship from the Isaac Newton Institute in Cambridge, England
for the Spring 2008 semester. George Ashline was recently promoted to full professor.