February 26, 2007
Dear Friends of Georgia Mathematics,
I hope this letter finds you well after a happy and prosperous 2006, and that the (not so) new year has been a good one for you so far. Here in Athens we remain very busy, but content with the many accomplishments of our students and faculty.
Last year saw the retirements of John Gosselin, Paul Wenston and Ken Johnson. John has moved back up north, though he continues to keep his hand in helping with the automated Precalculus testing system. Ken of course continues to be active in research and maintains a presence in Boyd. We haven’t seen Paul recently but we expect he’s having a good time.
At the other end of the conveyor belt we were fortunate enough to hire Pete Clark as a tenure track Assistant Professor last year. Pete is a number theorist who earned his PhD at Harvard under Barry Mazur in 2003. His energy and enthusiasm for a wide range of mathematical subjects have been a real boon since he took up his post in the Fall. In hiring this year, both Jon Hanke and Mike Usher have accepted tenure track Assistant Professor positions starting in Fall of 2008. Jon is another number theorist, a 1999 PhD from Princeton under Goro Shimura. Mike graduated from MIT under Gang Tian in 2004 and works in symplectic topology. During the 2007—08 academic year, Jon will be in residence at the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in Bonn, Germany, while Mike will complete his postdoctoral fellowship at Princeton. Furthermore we are in hot pursuit of a third candidate--- stay tuned for further developments.
In other personnel news, late last year Valery Alexeev, on the heels of his very well received address at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Madrid last August, was named the new Barrow Professor of Mathematics. Those who are acquainted with his outstanding contributions in algebraic geometry, as well as his energetic contributions to the life of the Department generally, will know that Valery is a worthy successor in the tradition of this post, one that had been vacant since Andrew Granville left for Montreal in 2002. Clint McCrory was appointed to a three year term as General Sandy Beaver Teaching Professor, and Will Kazez won the Sandy Beaver Teaching Award. Last but not least, Dan Nakano won the Creative Research Medal for his work on the celebrated Jantzen conjecture (but please keep this under your hat--- I’m not supposed to tell anyone before the awards are formally announced at the annual Awards Banquet early next month). We are fortunate indeed to enjoy the services of these talented and dedicated individuals.
Our program of distinguished visitors remains healthy. Leading the way this Spring is the 2007 James Cantrell Lecturer, Erik Demaine of MIT, who will give three lectures from April 11-13 on a fascinating array of topics surrounding the general theme of folding, from origami to proteins. Athens mayor The Honorable Heidi Davison will introduce his lecture on the 11th. If, as we hope, you can attend, please consider joining us as well for the associated banquet--- for more information please contact Julie McEver, (julie@math.uga.edu). Other outstanding speakers at colloquia and departmental seminars this year include Adam Koranyi of CUNY(who spoke in conjunction with the Johnson retirement festivities), Konstantin Oskolkov of USC, Yair Minsky (Yale), Bill Goldman (Maryland), our erstwhile colleague Andrew Granville (Montreal), Weiqiang Wang (Virginia), Sinnou David (Paris), Brendan Hassett (Rice), and the well known mathematical author Michael Spivak.
In addition we will host the annual Georgia Topology Conference in May, as well as a major conference in Algebraic Geometry from March 29—April 3 in honor of Roy Smith’s 65th birthday. The increasing frequency of such major mathematical conferences at UGA indicates the strong and still growing presence of the Department on the global stage of mathematics research.
Last month the Department was awarded a three year Research Experiences for Undergraduates grant from the National Science Foundation. This project, directed by Jason Cantarella and Lenny Chastkofsky, will support groups of undergraduate students from around the country to come to UGA during the summer to work on collaborative research projects under the direction of UGA mathematics faculty. The topics of this summer’s projects are geometry of knots, led by Prof. Cantarella, and geometric probability, led by me.
Another exciting new initiative spearheaded by Andrew Sornborger will place three mathematics graduate students in the laboratories of biological scientists at UGA over the summer. As mathematics continues inexorably to suffuse the biological sciences in the coming decades, we look forward to the growth of this program to prepare our students to embrace the resulting opportunities this presents for mathematics professionals.
The graduate program as a whole will come under new leadership this July as Robert Varley steps down as Graduate Coordinator after serving ably and enthusiastically since 2004. Replacing Robert will be Brian Boe, who promises to bring new vitality and focus to our programs. I should mention also that the Dean has reappointed me to a second three year term as Department Head, to terminate at 12:00 am on July 1, 2010 (but who’s counting?).
Of course all these items are just the tip of the iceberg of activity here at the Mathematics Department--- the main event is always the work that goes on day in and day out in the classrooms and minds of our students and faculty. If you know of any news items I’ve left out, or if you’d like to hear more about some other aspect of the program that I have not touched on here, please let me know.
Finally, please take a few moments to fill out the UGA alumni questionnaire
online at
http://www.math.uga.edu/~curr/alumni.html
--- and while you’re at it please bear in mind that the Department needs your help to support our programs: our contribution webpage is
And of course you are always welcome to visit the Department whenever you are in Athens.
Best wishes,
Joe Fu
Professor and Head
