Mathematics Department 1996 Newsletter
Editor's Note: In mid or late December, every alumna and alumnus of the
mathematics department should have received a hard copy of this newsletter via the
US Mail. If you did not receive your copy, please send your correct mailing
address to the alumni office.
CHAIRPERSON'S MESSAGE
As I reviewed the past newsletters to prepare this edition, I realized that this is
the 10th Department of Mathematics Newsletter. This year, we decided to move
its publication date to the end of the fall semester, which seems to be easier than
working around summer vacation plans. It may also be a more appropriate time of
the year because of the long tradition of Dr. Schraut s annual Christmas letter.
This month also marks the 40th anniversary of University of Dayton Research
Institute, which has been a source of part-time jobs for many mathematics majors
over the years. Moreover, according to William Dunham, writing in the MAA
student magazine, Math Horizons, 1996 marks three other important anniversaries
for the mathematics community: in 1896 the Prime Number Theorem was finally
proved by Charles Jean de la Vall‚e Poussin and Jaques Hadamard; in 1796, Carl
Friedrich Gauss, who was 18 at the time, discovered the construction of a regular
17 sided polygon using only straightedge and compass; and the first calculus
textbook was published in 1696 by the Marquis de L Hospital, who was tutored by
Johann Bernoulli. We are just beginning to plan for the 18th Biennial Alumni
Seminar on Employment Opportunities in the Mathematical Sciences to be held on
the Saturday afternoon of March 8, 1997. We would invite you to come to meet
with the students and socialize with one another. Looking to the future, we have
invited the Ohio Section of the Mathematical Association of America to hold its
1999 spring meeting on campus, and we will try to host that meeting on the same
weekend as the 19th Biennial Alumni Seminar; the Ohio Section meetings usually
end around noon on Saturdays, so it will not conflict with the normal afternoon
timing of the Biennial Seminar. It will give our returning alumni a chance to
participate in the Section meeting, and it will allow some visiting students to discuss
employment opportunities with our alumni.
In the 1989, 1991, and 1992 editions of this newsletter I talked about the plans for
the construction of a building to connect Sherman and Wohlleben Halls. This on
again, off again, project has apparently been shelved. However, long overdue
piecemeal renovation is taking place in these two science buildings thanks in part to
the entrepreneural activities of the science departments. Our new Macintosh
computer classroom/ laboratory, which was partly paid for by a National Science
Foundation (NSF) grant to Ralph Steinlage, is a very nice facility which is now
regularly used by a variety of mathematics classes; we are now trying to have it
designated as a centrally funded laboratory so that its equipment can be kept up to
date with periodic computer upgrading. Currently, two biology research labs, one
chemistry research lab, and one physics research lab are being renovated partly
through another NSF grant; local funds have been committed to upgrade the
infrastructure in Sherman Hall to make these renovations possible, and to prepare
the building for eventual installation of a climate control system. Next summer, a
third NSF grant will help to install a lab to support the environmental programs in
biology and geology, and renovations of additional space in Sherman Hall
will support the physics lab component of the new science sequence for liberal arts
majors.
However, our largest challenge over the immediate future will not be related to
bricks and mortar, but to people. At this time, all of our ranked faculty are tenured,
and our most recent hire into a tenure-track position was in 1985. Over the next
decade about half of our current faculty will retire, and so we will be steadily
involved not only in the process of recruiting new faculty, but also in making
fundamental decisions concerning the direction the department is to take into the
next generation.
In closing, and on behalf of the entire department, I would like to extend our wishes
to you for a happy holiday season, and a successful 1997.
Tom Gantner
THANKS!
We wish to acknowledge the alumni, friends and faculty who have designated gifts
for use by the Department of Mathematics. These donations are greatly
appreciated because they go into a special fund that exists outside of our normal
operating budget, and they can often be used to leverage additional money for
needed equipment and other projects. For example, we recently used this fund
to provide our share of the cost of a high quality, full color projection panel for
computer generated images, together with a compatible overhead projector.
According to the University Advancement Office, the following people have made
designated gifts to our department since July 1, 1995:
Paul Campbell (67) Cheryl Cooley (93)
Paul Eloe John Feck (91)
Tom Gantner (62) Joan Giardina (70)
Robert Halsted (87) Michael Hartke (66)
Aparna Higgins William Huster (78)
Jane Pendergast (74) Ted Renneker (94)
Ralph Steinlage (62) Dorothy (Como) Hafertepen (81)
In addition, corporate gifts were received from the Arthur Anderson Foundation
(for Ted Renneker), Chicago Title Trust (for Joan Giardina), Cytology Pathology
Services (for Pieter Wiersema), the Eli Lilly Foundation (for William Huster), and
Principal Mutual Life (for Paul Judd). Finally, Paul Campbell donated about 75
new mathematics books for our departmental library.
FACULTY UPDATE
Full Time Faculty
Stan Back, 1959 Jack McCloskey, 1965
Paul Eloe, 1980 Harry Mushenheim, 1965
Bill Friel, 1963 Jerry Neff, 1990
Tom Gantner, 1966 Dick Peterson, 1957
Bob Gorton, 1969 Ben Rice, 1960
Aparna Higgins, 1984 Paula Saintignon, 1983
Muhammad Islam, 1985 Gerry Shaughnessy, 1967
John Kauflin, 1966 Joe Stander, SM, 1959
Joe Mashburn, 1981 Ralph Steinlage, 1966
Part Time Faculty
Eric Cheney, 1989 Shirley Ober, 1977
Bob Finnegan, 1985 Betty Schneider, 1989
Don Jurick, 1991 Les Steinlage, 1969
Karen Mickel, 1992
ANNOUNCEMENTS
1. We would like to extend a general invitation for you to attend the 18th Biennial
Alumni Seminar on Employment Opportunities in the Mathematical Sciences
which will be held on Saturday March 8, 1997. In an effort to increase the
numbers of students at this event, we will advertise it in the senior mathematics
classes in the area high schools. We hope that enough of you will return so
that all career areas in the mathematical sciences are represented. Please let us
know if you would like to receive additional information concerning the details of
the program as it evolves: drop us a note by mail, call us at (937)-229-2511 (note
the new area code for the Dayton area), FAX us at (937)-229-2566, or send us an
e-mail at .
2. The Mathematics Department now has its own home page on the World Wide
Web. You can check us out at http://www.udayton.edu/~mathdept. In fact, we
will post information concerning details of the above event on our home page.
SABBATICALS
Jack McCloskey is on sabbatical leave during the current Fall of 1996 term. He is
spending his time in developing the computer related component of a graduate
statistics course on linear models that he will offer next semester.
Ralph Steinlage was on sabbatical leave during the Spring of 96. A good part of
that time was spent at the Fuzzy Logic Laboratorium at the Johannes Kepler
University in Linz, Austria.
VISITING PROFESSOR
During the Winter term, 1996, Professor Alexander Yastrebov of Yaroslavl State
Pedagogical University (Russia) visited the Department of Mathematics.
Alexander is trained as a differential geometer; however, his interests have turned
to mathematics education in the undergraduate curriculum. Alexander taught MTH
370, Introduction to Higher Geometry, to mathematics and mathematics education
majors, finished his book, entitled "Teaching As A Model Of Research," was the
primary speaker in seminar, delivered colloquia at Wright State University and
Ohio State University, and delivered a presentation at the Ohio Section meeting of
the MAA. This summer, UD student Carol Lijek studied at Yaroslavl State
Pedagogical University and Alexander served as her mentor.
COLLOQUIUM
Professor Nikolay V. Azbelev of Perm State Technical University (Russia) visited
the department for several days and delivered a colloquium entitled, "Stability and
Asymptotic Behaviour of Solutions of Equations with Aftereffect."
PUBLICATIONS
Paul Eloe (with N. Kuprowicz and J. Petrykowski), "A generalization of concavity
for finite differences", Computers and Mathematics with Applications
.....(with D. Reuster and G. Thiele), "Growth and propagation of acoustic waves of
nonuniform sound speed within a plane-walled enclosure", Proceedings of the
International ME '96 Congress & Exposition
.....(with K.M. Iftekharuddin, M.A. Karim and A.A.S. Awwal), "A magnetic field
iterative technique for improving high frequency prediction methods", Applied
Computational Electronics Society Journal
.....(with Johnny Henderson, et. al.), "Discretized amplitude-modulated phase-only
filter", Optics and Laser Technology
.....(with Tarique Khan, MS 95), "Right focal boundary value problems with
impulse effects", Dynamic Systems and Applications
.....(with Janet McKelvey), "Positive solutions and conjugate points for a class of
linear functional differential equations", Boundary Value Problems For Functional
Differential Equations
....."On the convergence of iterative solutions to the electric field equation",
Applied Mathematical Letters
....."Inequalities based on a generalization of concavity", Proceedings of the
American Mathematical Society
....."Singular nonlinear (n-1,1) conjugate boundary value problems", Georgian Math. Journal
....."Positive solutions for two-point boundary value problems", Dynamic Systems
and Applications
....."Positive solutions for (n-1,1) conjugate boundary value problems", Nonlinear
Analysis, T,M&A.
....."Positive solutions of three point boundary value problems", Communications
On Applied Analysis
Aparna Higgins has an article entitled "What is the lowest position of the center of
mass of a soda can" accepted for publication by PRIMUS.
Mohammed Islam (with Y A Fiagbedzi of KFUPM, Saudi Arabia) published
"Periodic solutions and almost periodic solutions of non-linear integral equations"
in Annals of Differential Equations II (1995) 255-259.
Joe Mashburn had a paper entitled "A note on reordering ordered topological
spaces and the existence of continuous, strictly increasing functions" accepted for
publication by the Topology Proceedings. He also became the conference and
seminar editor for the Topology Atlas (http://www.unipissing.ca/topology).
Ben Rice (with Jerry Strange) Plane Trigonometry(7th Ed) Copyright Jan 1996
PROFESSIONAL MEETINGS AND SERVICE
Bill Friel, Aparna Higgins, and Ralph Steinlage attended the Ohio Section MAA
meeting at Denison University in October 96. Bill also attended the Section
meeting at Akron University last April.
Bill Friel, Tom Gantner, Aparna Higgins and Ralph Steinlage attended the MAA
short course on "Symmetry and Group Theory" held here last June and conducted
by Doris Schattschneider of Moravian College.
Aparna Higgins was an invited panelest in April '96 at the Allegheny Mountain
Section of MAA. The panel's question was "What are graduate schools looking for?"
Aparna Higgins gave the invited address "Pebbling, demonic graphs and military
strategy" at St Louis University('95), at Cedarville College ('96), and at Wittenberg
University('95). She also gave a talk to the Discrete Math Seminar at Wright State
University entitled "Pebbling number of C5xC5". Aparna also presented the
following workshops: "But undergraduates can't do research, can they?" at the
Allegheny Mountain Section of MAA('96) "Undergraduate Research: How to
make it work", for Project NeXT for which she is a mentor. She also directed the
Undergraduate Honors Thesis for Sara Miner, ( '96), entitled "Pebbling on Line
Graphs." Aparna serves on the College Promotions Committee, the University
Honors Committee, and the Faculty Awards Committee, and on many national
MAA committees including the Committee on Student Chapters of which she is the chairperson.
Mohammed Islam presented a 45-minute talk as an invited speaker at the World
Congress of Non-linear Analysts, held in Athens, Greece, July '96.
Joe Mashburn gave an invited talk entitled "Pliable subsets of ordered topological
spaces", at the Special Session in Set-theoretic Topology at the AMS meeting in
Greensboro NC in November '95.
Harry Mushenheim attended the Oberlin College Differential Equations workshop in June '96.
Gerry Shaughnessy gave a talk on "Orthogonal Experimental Design Matrices with
Application to Aircraft Engine Nacelle Fire Tests" at the JTCG/AS Vulnerability
Reduction Subgroup Meeting with Industry in West Lebanon, NH in August '96.
UNDERGRADUATE ACTIVITIES
Once again, the University of Dayton entry in the annual Mathematical Contest in
Modeling finished with a ranking of Meritorious. This year's team consisted of
three sophomores: Andy Hetzel ('98), Joe Huelsman ('98), and Jon Johnson ('98).
They subsequently presented their work in a spring departmental seminar. Their
report was entitled "Selection Schemes for Judging Essay Contests."
Stephen Hartke ('99), Andy Hetzel (98) , Carol Lijek ('97), Sara Miner ('96), Ryan
Rinehart('98), and Sean Tunning ('96), attended the Ohio Section MAA meeting at
Akron University last April. Andy, Carol & Sara gave talks in the Student Paper
Session on "Selection Schemes for Judging Essay Contests", "Olymmpic Medal
Winnings", and "Pebbling and Line Graphs" respectively. Sara Miner also gave a
talk at the Pi Mu Epsilon meeting at Miami University in September 1995 and
she received the Senior of the Year award.
Andrew Hetzel and Joe Huelsman were awarded the Sophomore of the Year last
year. Andy also gave a talk in Seattle at the national PME/MAA Meeting in August '96.
GRADUATE ACTIVITIES
Three students, Nick Kuprowicz, Suresh Maryala, and Janet McKelvey, obtained
Master of Science degrees in applied mathematics. Nick, under the supervision of
Paul Eloe and Professor John Petrykowski, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Department, studied "Growth and propagation of acoustic waves of nonuniform
sound speed within a plane-walled enclosure" for his mathematics clinic project.
Nick will present this paper at the 1996 International Mechanical Engineering
Congress and Exposition in Atlanta in November, 1996. The paper has been
accepted to appear in the Proceedings of the Congress. Nick is currently a graduate
student in the Dayton Area Graduate Studies Institute (DAGSI). DAGSI is a
partnership between the high technology programs at University of Dayton, Wright
State University and the Air Force Institute of Technology. Suresh wrote a
tracking program in Foxpro for his mathematics clinic project. This program will
be invaluable to the department as we track students through the calculus sequence,
or majors through the mathematics program. Suresh is employed as a systems
analyst with Reynolds and Reynolds and is pursuing a Ph.D. in computer science at
Wright State University. Janet studied "A generalization of concavity to higher
order differential inequalities;" this work was incorporated into a joint paper with
Paul Eloe entitled "Positive solutions of three point boundary value problems" and
will appear in the refereed journal, Communications On Applied Nonlinear
Analysis. Janet is currently employed by the Defense Supply Center in Columbus, Ohio.
SENIOR PLANS
Amy Askins (BS 96) plans to go to Chicago to be an actress.
Tereza Buzdon (BA 95) took a teaching position at Fairmont High School in Kettering.
Matthew Cordonnier (BS 96) had several interviews for high school teaching.
Amie Gill (BA 96) plans to do substitute teaching in the Akron area before looking
for a more permanent teaching position.
Brian Hettrich (BS 96) began working last May as an actuarial analyst with
Cincinnati Financial Ins Co.
Melissa Humeston (BS 96) accepted a position doing statistical analysis for
American Express in Pittsburgh.
Julie McCarthy (BA 95) took a teaching position at Fairborn High School.
Erich Morman (BA 96) is enrolled in the MBA program here at UD.
Daniel Parker (BS 96) plans to complete the requirements for a teaching certificate
in Florida, and then find a tteaching position at the secondary level.
Traci Riley (BS 96) hoped to find work in the a museum in the Cincinnati area.
Nancy Slicker (BS 96) plans to do a year of volunteer work before going into high
school teaching.
Sean Tunning (BS 96) will pursue an MS in Statistics at the University of Cincinnati.
Elaine Tuschong (BS 95) is an analyst for Anderson Consulting in Cincinnati.
Julie VanSchaik (BS 96) planned to be a management trainee at 5th/3rd in Cincinnati.
ALUMNI ACTIVITIES
A portion of the following information was obtained from the U.D. Quarterly.
William Chewning S.M. (BS 44) teaches chemistry and administers the guest house
at St. Mary's University in San Antonio, TX.
James Flynn (BS 47) obtained a doctorate in American history in 1993 from
Northern Illinois University and resides with his wife, Anne, in Wheaton, IL.
Joe Diestel (BS 64) co-authored the monograph, Absolutely Summing Operators,
with Hans Jarchow and Andrew Tonge (Cambridge University Press, 1995).
Robert Papajcik (BS 64) is vice president of sales and marketing for Auto-Valve in Dayton.
Lester Steinlage (BS 65) has retired after 30 years of teaching high school
mathematics. He teaches part-time in the mathematics department at UD.
Michael Peters (BS 68) is employed by Blue Cross - Blue Shield of North Carolina
and resides in Durham, NC.
Brother Gary Eck, S.M. (BA 69) teaches physics and mathematics at Kellenberg
Memorial High School in Uniondale, NY.
Greg Campbell (BS 70) recently maade a career change from the National
Institutes of Health to the position Director of Biostatistics at the Center for
Devices and Radiological Health in the Food and Drug Administration.
Frank Lad (BS 70) recently published the book, Operational Subjective Statistical
Methods (John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1996).
Daniel Riehle (BS 70) is employed by NCR and lives with his family in West Harrison, IN.
Christine Mitchell (BA 72) is a professor at Georgia Tech.
Rick Schoen (BS 72) has published three recent monographs, Lectures on
Differential Geometry, with S. -T. Yau (International Press, 1994), Geometries in
Interaction, with Y. Eliashberg, V. Milman, and L. Polterovich (Springer, 1995),
and Lectures on Geometric Variational Problems, with S. Nishikawa (Springer, 1996).
Michael Infanger (BS 77) is a geologist for the New Jersey Department of
Enviromental Protection in Trenton, NJ.
Harry Petty III (BS 77) is vice president of NEC Technologies' Advanced Media
Division and resides with his family in Chicago.
Teresa Trimbach Dean (BS 79) and her husband, James, announce the birth of
their fourth child, Amy. The family lives in Hamilton. OH.
Jonathan Baniak (BS 81) is employed by Lockheed Martin in Gaithersburg , MD.
Jonathan remains very active in athletics and in the church. Recently while he was
visiting UD, Jonathan delivered two coloquia talks, one for the students, and one for the faculty.
Dorothy Como Hafertepen (BS 81) is a system analyst for Cincinnati Bell Information Systems.
Paul Judd (BA 82) is a senior actuarial associate at the Principal Financial Group in Des Moines, IA.
Thomas Filloon (BS 83) is a statistician with Proctor & Gamble in Cincinnati, OH.
Sean Donahue (BS 84) has finished his training in pediatric and
neuro-ophthalmology. Sean is an assistant professor in ophthalmology at
Vanderbilt University, in Knoxville, TN.
Anne (Schmid) Wiles (BA 85) is the mother of three children, lives in Centerville,
OH with her husband, Jim, and she is a member of the Society of Actuaries exam
committee. Anne recently gave a talk to the members of the Mathematics Club.
Edward Sisolak (BS 85) complelted the Maryknoll Mission Association of the
Faithful orientation and has been assigned to work in Thailand.
Greg Bishop (BS 86) resigned his academic position at Mount St. Joseph College
in Cincinnati and is currently employed as a software engineer for PyroTechnix in Cincinnati,OH.
Eric Cheney (BS 87) teaches mathematics for the Centerville OH City Schools and
teaches part-time for UD.
Rafe Donahue (BS 87) relocated to Raleigh N.C. where he is a statistician with
GlaxoWellcome. Rafe loves to be reached at rafedonahue@glaxo.com.
Youssef Raffoul (BS 87) obtained a Ph.D. in mathematics from Southern Illinois
University and has accepted a faculty position with Tougoloo College in Jackson,
MS. Youssef visited the University of Dayton in March and presented the
colloquium Periodic solutions of nonlinear difference equations .
Lisa Niehenke (BS 89) married Thomas Harrington Jr. (MBA 94) and resides in Kettering, OH.
David Diller (BS 90) obtained a Ph.D. from Northwestern University and currently
lives in the Seattle area. Recently, Dave visited the University of Dayton and
presented a colloquium to the department.
Tom Bohman (BS 91) obtained a Ph.D. in mathematics from Rutgers University
and has been awarded a postdoctoral grant from the National Science Foundation.
John Giorgio (formerly George) (BS 91) married Amy Wortmann on May 27,
1995. He has completed a master s degree in counseling and has relocated to
Mississippi. He has changed his name to Giorgio, his grandfather s orginial surname.
Eric Kaufmann (MS 91) has accepted a faculty position with the University of
Arkansas in Little Rock.
Chikako Mese (BS 91) obtained a Ph.D. from Stanford University and has
accepted the position of Duseman Assistant Professor at the University of Southern
California. Chik completed her work at Stanford under the supervision of Rick Schoen (BS 72).
Lori Claude (BS 92) teaches mathematics at William Monroe high school in Standardsville, VA.
Julie Gaskeen (BA 92) married Colin McHugh (BS CHM/CRJ 93) in August, 1995.
Kristen Toft (BA 92) has obtained a master s degree in mathematics from
Washington University. She is continuing her study as a Ph.D. candidate.
Eric Castleman (BS 94) is working as a quality control engineer at Center
Manufacturing in Grand Rapids, MI.
Peter Vlahutin (BS 94) obtained a master's degree in historical theology from St.
Louis University. Peter teaches religion and is a campus minister at Chaminade
College Preparatory School in St. Louis, MO.
Griselle Bello (BA 95) is a contract negotiator for the Department of Defense at
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.
Steve Goodman (BS 95) resigned his position with Nationwide in Columbus and is
currently a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Statistics at Ohio State University.
Steve was awarded a fellowship to pursue his study.
Tarique Khan (MS '95) is a Programmer/Analyst for Professional Examination
Service in New York City.
Joanne Kubicek (BS 95) married Daniel Roth and resides in Lafayette, IN. where
she is a teaching assistant in mathematics at Purdue University.