2003 Joint Mathematics Meetings in Baltimore, January 15-18, 2003

The annual meetings of the American Mathematical Society (AMS) and Mathematical Association of America (MAA) will take place at the Baltimore Convention Center, January 15-18. Over 5,000 mathematicians are expected to attend. Researchers will present approximately 1500 papers from all specialties of mathematics. See the Meetings website for current, detailed information on the program, registration, housing, Employment Center, exhibits, and more.

Topics will range from the mathematics of voting, security and cryptology, to applications of mathematics in business and sports. Other sessions will cover mathematics education, the history of mathematics across many cultures, and outreach programs to increase the diversity of students in mathematics.

The Press Room will be located in Room 311 of the Convention Center offering fact sheets, the book of abstracts, the complete program of the Meetings, phone, laptop with Internet access, and a place to conduct interviews. Hours will be 7:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. Wednesday Jan. 15 through Friday Jan. 17, and 7:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. Sat. Jan. 18.

Highlights of the Meetings will include addresses by Fields Medalists Vladimir Voevodsky and David Mumford, a talk by recent Japan Prize winner James A. Yorke, a town meeting with new NSF Director of the Division of Mathematical Sciences William Rundell, and The Math Life : a film about mathematical people and their thinking.

The Employment Register celebrates its 50^th anniversary with a special exhibit that chronicles the evolution of the Employment Register service and the ups and downs of the process from the perspectives of the employer and job-seeker. The exhibit will be in the lobby outside the registration area. Please contact the AMS Public Awareness Office if you wish to schedule an interview with AMS Associate Executive Director Jim Maxwell regarding recent surveys on undergraduate mathematics departments and employment trends in the mathematics profession.

The AMS Public Awareness Office will sponsor Who Wants To Be A Mathematician , a contest featuring 10 Maryland high school students competing for the $2000 Grand Prize, Thursday, Jan. 16 at 10:00 a.m. in Room 339 of the Baltimore Convention Center.

Highlights:

Motivic Homotopy Theory. Vladimir Voevodsky (vladimir@ias.edu ), Institute for Advanced Study. Friday January 17, 10:05 – 10:55 a.m. AMS Invited Address.
Voevodsky received a 2002 Fields Medal at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Beijing for his work in algebraic geometry. A consequence of his work is the solution to the Milnor Conjecture which had remained unsolved for three decades. The subject of this talk and his research involves algebraic varieties —-the solution sets of polynomial equations.

Modeling the Transmission Dynamics of HIV. James A. Yorke (yorke2@ipst.umd.edu ) University of Maryland. Saturday January 18, 8:00 – 8:30 a.m.
Yorke (along with Benoit Mandelbrot) received the 2003 Japan Prize, a prize with a cash award of over $400,000, for his work in chaos. This talk contrasts the outbreak of HIV in the gay U.S. population with the outbreak 10 years later in the heterosexual population of sub-Saharan Africa.

A Town Meeting. William Rundell, National Science Foundation. Friday January 17, 2:30 – 4:00 p.m. AMS Special Presentation.
Rundell is the recently appointed Director of the Division of Mathematical Sciences of the NSF. The NSF has seen an increase in its funding in the last few years, with a healthy increase in funding for mathematics. Last month an NSF reauthorization bill passed the House and Senate unanimously. This is a chance to hear Rundell’s views about the directions of mathematics research.

The Math Life . Dan Rockmore (rockmore@tahoe.cs.dartmouth.edu ), Dartmouth College, Wendy Conquest and Bob Drake. Friday January 17, 2:30 – 3:30 p.m. AMS-MAA Joint Session.
What exactly goes on inside the heads of mathematicians? Did the film A Beautiful Mind get it right? This 50-minute documentary, produced for a general audience, takes a look into the minds and lives of mathematicians. Some of the country’s foremost mathematicians are interviewed about why they love mathematics and how mathematics shapes our view of the world. The film also has entertaining graphics that help explain many of the topics.

Some Mathematical Insights Related to Automobile Drag Racing. Richard A. Tapia ( rat@caam.rice.edu ), Rice University. Thursday January 16, 10:05 – 10:55 a.m. MAA Invited Address.
Tapia, one of the leading math and science educators in the country, shares several experiences in which his mathematical training assisted him in solving a particular problem arising in his drag racing activity, including an attempt to determine the maximum acceleration that is attained by today's world-class dragsters. A component of the presentation is a lively video.

Four Colors Suffice: A History and Proof of the Four-Color Problem. Robin J. Wilson (r.j.wilson@open.ac.uk ), Open University (UK). Wednesday January 15, 2:15 – 3:05 p.m. MAA Invited Address.
One of the most famous problems in mathematics is the four-color problem: Can every map be colored with at most four colors? The past few months have celebrated the 150^th anniversary of the posing of the four-color problem and the 25^th anniversary of the publication of its solution. In this talk Wilson summarizes the history and proof of the four-color problem and its solution, including mention of a more recent proof by Robertson, et al.

Prize Session and Reception. Thursday January 16, 4:25 p.m.
The participating professional societies—AMS, MAA, Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, and Association for Women in Mathematics—will showcase the achievements of mathematicians by presenting prizes for outstanding research, teaching, publications and service to the mathematical community.

Knowledge for Teaching Algebra: Issues from The Mathematical Education of Teachers. Organizer: Joan Ferrini-Mundy, Michigan State University. Moderator: Gail F. Burrill, Michigan State University, Panelists: Daniel Chazan, University of Maryland, Anthony L. Peressini, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Joan Ferrini-Mundy. Speaker: William G. McCallum, University of Arizona. Wednesday January 15, 5:15 – 6:35 p.m.
Research in mathematics education has shown that substantial mathematical understanding is necessary to teach even whole number arithmetic well. This MAA Panel Discussion focuses on the recent publication that includes recommendations for elementary, middle and high school math teacher preparation.

Mathematics of Security and Cryptology:

The Mathematics of Detecting, Tracking and Pre-empting Terrorist Operations. Thomas L. Mifflin (mifflin@metsci.com ), Metron, Inc. Thursday January 16, 8:30 – 8:55 a.m.
This talk describes how Metron applies non-linear filtering, random graph theory, information theory and stochastic optimization to detecting, tracking and pre-empting terrorist operations.

Finding the Needle in the Haystack: Knowledge Representation and Inference for Multisource Fusion. Kathryn Blackmond Laskey, George Mason University. Thursday January 16, 2:00 – 3:00 p.m.
Recent events underscore the need for methods to integrate information from a wide variety of sources to head off and deal with terrorism attacks. Laskey describes a unified approach and toolset for multisource information fusion, and innovations in languages for representing knowledge, behaviors, and interrelationships, as well as recent work in decision and game theory that forms the basis for fusion of information. She also presents some research challenges on the critical path to success.

Finite Elliptic Curve Groups and Public Key Cryptography. John H. Wilson (wilson@centre.edu ), Centre College. Thursday January 16, 8:30 – 8:50 a.m.
Wilson explains how finite elliptic curve groups are defined and used in a public key cryptography system: a direct application to the security of information transmitted across the Internet.

Public-Key Cryptography. Organizer: Daniel B. Lieman (dlieman@math.uga.edu ), University of Georgia. Monday January 13, 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. and Tuesday January 14, 8:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. AMS Short Course.
Talks include: Cryptography in the Real World Today, Towards Faster Cryptosystems, and Attacks.

Mathematics of Voting:

The Mathematics of Presidential and Other Elections. Organized by Steven J. Brams, New York University. Wednesday January 15, 9:00 – 11:00 a.m. and Friday, January 17, 9:00 – 11:00 a.m. MAA Minicourse.
This timely course emphasizes modeling presidential campaigns and elections, and the theoretical problems underlying voting and social choices. Topics include modeling two-candidate and multi-candidate races, bandwagon and underdog effects in primaries, voting power in the Electoral College, and election reforms.

The Canadians Should Have Won!? Elyn Ryyken (elrykken@muhlenberg.edu ), Muhlenberg College, Maureen Carroll, University of Scranton, and Jody Sorensen, Grand Valley State University. Friday January 17, 4:45 – 5:00 p.m.
The biggest story of the 2002 Winter Olympics was the controversy surrounding the judging of pairs figure skating. As a result of that controversy, a new system has been proposed which involves randomly choosing 9 judges from 14 and calculating the mean of their scores. Rykken discusses common methods of ranking skaters and considers whether the proposed system is indeed better.

Also of interest:
Generalized Spectral Analysis of Large Sets of Voting Data. David Thomas Uminsky (duminsky@hmc.edu ) and Michael Orrison, Harvey Mudd College. Thursday January 16, 9:00 – 9:15 a.m.

Applied Mathematics:

Modeling:

Mathematical Modeling of Food Systems for Long Term Space Missions. John E. Cruthirds (jcruthirds@ngcsu.edu ), North Georgia College and State University. Thursday January 16, 8:05 – 8:30 a.m.
The model was developed during the author's participation as a Summer Faculty Fellow at Johnson Space Center. Additionally, Cruthirds gives an overview of the overall modeling problem for the type of closed system necessary for a possible trip to Mars.

Not Just Twiddling Our Thumbs. Tanya L. Leise (leise@rose-hulman.edu ), Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. Friday January 17, 3:00 – 3:15 p.m.
A simple, fun experiment is to twiddle index fingers back and forth faster and faster; soon you will find that your fingers snap into unison motion. Leise presents a simple but intriguing model from psychology that can be adapted for a course in either differential calculus or ordinary differential equations. She also explores her model of finger twiddling to speculate on how our neuromuscular system might be structured to account for this twiddling phenomenon.

Analysis of Traffic Flows at an Automobile Intersection Using MATLAB. Alexander Stanoyevitch, University of Guam. Saturday January 18, 2:00 – 2:15 p.m.
This talk presents a model for a four-way intersection having variable densities of traffic along the intersecting roadways. The object is to minimize total expected waiting time for all cars passing through the intersection. Simulations and some analytic techniques from basic probability are used to provide the best recommendations to minimize total waiting time.

Other modeling talks of interest:
The Global Positioning System, Data Analysis, and Earthquake Modeling. Carol Shubin (carol.shubin@csun.edu ), Werner Horn, and Gerry Simila, California State Northridge. Wednesday January 15, 5:40 – 6:00 p.m.

Complex Behavior in a Model of Human Language. W. Garrett Mitchener (wmitchen@princeton.edu ), Princeton University. Thursday January 16, 9:15 – 9:30 a.m.

Mathematics of Biology and Medicine:

Opportunities and Challenges from Systems Biology. Douglas A. Lauffenburger (lauffen@mit.edu ), MIT. Thursday January 16, 1:00 – 2:00 p.m.
This presentation explores some of the questions that bioscientists are approaching with a combination of experiment and mathematical analysis. The focus is on molecular cell bioengineering: the application of engineering approaches to develop quantitative understanding of cell function in terms of fundamental molecular properties, and to apply this understanding for improved design of cell-based technologies.

Also of interest in biology and medicine:
Modeling the Impact of HIV Infection on TB. Lih-Ing Wu Roeger, Texas Tech University. Saturday January 18, 8:30 – 9:00 a.m.

Modeling AIDS for Dummies. L. G. dePillis (depillis@hmc.edu ), Harvey Mudd College. Friday January 17, 2:30 – 2:45 p.m.

A Cross-Cultural Study on the Effects of Immunization Against Rubella. Carmen Michael Piccolo (piccoloci@mail.montclair.edu ), and Lora Billings, Montclair State University. Friday January 17, 9:00 – 9:30 a.m.

Mathematics of Networks:

Epidemics, Erdös Numbers, and the Internet: Graphs and Networks in the Real World. Mark Newman (mejn@umich.edu ), University of Michigan. Wednesday January 15, 2:45 – 3:15 p.m.
Many familiar systems, for example the Internet, are networks. This talk features some graph-theoretical models of networks and gives examples of how both empirical measurements and models lead to interesting and useful real-world predictions.

Mathematics and the Internet. Donald Towsley (towsley@cs.umass.edu ), University of Massachusetts. Thursday January 16, 3:00 – 3:45 p.m.
Towsley gives an overview of a range of Internet modeling issues, representing both theoretical and applied experimental research. Emerging broadband high-speed networks and their ability to carry multimedia traffic motivate much of the work.

Algorithms for Estimating Trends in a Stream of Network Packets Using Little Memory. Erik D. Demaine (edemaine@mit.edu ), Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Alejandro Lopez-Ortiz and J. Ian Munro, University of Waterloo. Thursday January 16, 8:30 – 9:00 a.m.
Internet traffic patterns are largely unknown and differ from the well-known patterns of phone traffic. Demaine addresses the problem of how to use the limited amount of space in an Internet router to determine the essential features of a packet stream, a stream flowing on the order of gigabytes a second.

Also of interest in networks:
Kevin Bacon and a Senior Class. Patti Frazer Lock (plock@stlawn.edu ) and Aleksandra Portnova, St. Lawrence University. Saturday January 18, 2:30 – 2:45 p.m.

Topics of Special Interest:

The Center of Population Calculation Is Flawed Edward F. Aboufadel (aboufadel@gvsu.edu ) and David Austin, Grand Valley State University. Friday January 17, 4:30 – 4:45 p.m.
The formulas used by the Census Bureau to compute the "center of population" of the United States appear to be mathematically unsound. In this talk, Aboufadel describes how he and his co-author believe the formulas were created, and proposes a better way to make these calculations.

Boston's BIG DIG: Getting Down and Dirty with Volume Approximations. David H. Carhart (dcarhart@bentley.edu ) and Karen J. Schroeder, Bentley College. Wednesday January 15, 8:00 – 8:15 a.m.
With a budget over 14.4 billion dollars, the Big Dig is the most complex and technologically challenging endeavor ever attempted in American highway construction. Students used approximation methods to estimate the amount of dirt to be removed in the construction of a 215-foot ramp leading into a tunnel, determined the types of dirt (e.g., clay) and its potential uses, and analyzed the environmental impacts of this small part of the Big Dig project.

Picture Perfect Perfect Picture. Peter Stanek (peter.stanek@lmco.com ), Lockheed Martin. Thursday January 16, 8:55 – 9:20 a.m.
Mathematicians cannot "improve" artistic abilities of photographers and artists, but when seemingly insurmountable barriers confronted the photographic community during the transition from analog to digital imagery, mathematicians were there with methods and algorithms to save the day. Stanek gives examples from astronomy, remote sensing, and medical imaging, along with some outstanding mathematical challenges for the future.

Adding Error Correcting Capabilities to the Mod 11 ISBN Scheme. George Mackiw (mackiw@loyola.edu ), Loyola College in Maryland, and Aileen Cuddy, Baltimore, MD. Thursday January 16, 9:10 – 9:30 a.m.
The familiar International Standard Book Number (ISBN) check digit scheme has the ability to detect many errors yet it cannot correct them. Mackiw presents two and three check digit extensions of the scheme that do correct the usual single-digit and transposition errors.

The Probabilities of Odd/Even Combinations in Lotto. Patricia B. Humphrey (phumphre@gasou.edu ) and David R. Stone, Georgia Southern University. Friday January 17, 10:30 – 10:45 a.m.
In Lotto, k numbers are chosen from the n numbers 1, 2, 3, . . . , n. A selection a1, a2, . . . , ak is called odd (respectively even ) if the sum a1 + a2 + . . . + ak is odd (even). It is easy to imagine that the probability of the winning combination being even is one-half, but this cannot always be true as the total number of selections may not be an even number. Investigating the probabilities of odd or even combinations leads to recurrence relations which can be viewed as a decomposition of Pascal's Triangle, and to two new combinatorial identities.

What do Farey Sequences, Farmer Fred, and Chemistry Have in Common? Ioana Mihaila (imihaila@csupomona.edu ), California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. Friday January 17, 4:15 – 4:30 p.m.
Mihaila presents a surprising connection between number theory and middle school algebra. The process used in constructing the Farey sequences can also be used to give a unified approach to solving most problems involving ratios: mixture problems, rates problems, and the "chickens and cows" problem.

Geometry of the Earth and Universe Labs: From the Classroom to Current Research. Sarah J. Greenwald (greenwaldsj@appstate.edu ), Appalachian State University. Saturday January 18, 4:00 – 4:20 p.m.
The geometry of the earth and universe stretches the imagination while developing visualization skills and highlighting real-world applications of geometry and connections to art, philosophy, physics, astronomy and geography. It can be aimed at students with no math background, at graduate students in geometry and topology, or at any level in between.

"Real World" Projects for Linear Algebra. Carl V. Lutzer (cvlsma@rit.edu ), Rochester Institute of Technology. Wednesday January 15, 9:45 – 10:00 a.m.
The first project asks students to act as an automotive design team, and introduces them both to curve fitting and the continuity of solutions of Ax = b in b. The second asks them to play a role in the struggle between environmentalists and the logging industry in the Pacific Northwest. In this project, students make a connection between the effects of iterated matrix multiplication and eigenvalues.

Introducing a Mathematical Perspective Where It Has Rarely (In Public) Gone Before. Martin Walter (walter@euclid.colorado.edu ), University of Colorado. Wednesday January 15, 2:20 – 2:40 p.m.
A mathematical perspective leads to unique insights in topics as diverse as analyzing political debates and washing machine performance using fuzzy logic; looking at the flow of money in personal or community finances; and scrutinizing droughts, floods and other weather extremes.

Mathematics and Business

Mathematical Finance. Organized by Walter R. Stromquist and Alan Durfee, Mount Holyoke College. Wednesday January 15, 2:15 - 4:15 p.m. and Friday January 17, 1:00 – 3:00 p.m. MAA Minicourse.
The organizers examine market price statistics to test the validity of the "standard model" for stock prices. They draw on practical examples to cover two main ideas of modern finance: portfolio optimization and option valuation (including the well-known Black-Scholes formula).

Tacos for Everyone! Projects for Introductory Probability through Advanced Actuarial Science Students. Lisa Elaine Marano (lmarano@wcupa.edu ), West Chester University of Pennsylvania. Thursday January 16, 2:45 – 3:00 p.m.
On March 24, 2001, the Russian space station Mir crashed into the Pacific Ocean, and when it did all Americans were holding their breath in the hope of receiving... a free taco? Taco Bell had set a target afloat in the Pacific and if Mir had struck the target, the restaurant chain would have given every American a free taco. The chain took out an insurance policy to cover its potential losses. How do insurance companies price these types of policies? The speaker discusses this student project and alternate versions of this problem that stem from either the news or advertisements.

Risky Business: Connecting Mathematics with Business and Economics. Ronald J. Harshbarger (ronharsh@hargray.com ), University of South Carolina Beaufort and Lisa S. Yocco, Georgia Southern University. Saturday January 18, 3:45 – 4:00 p.m.
The presenter uses one of many classroom projects to link finite math and calculus to business topics. He examines one project that investigates the relationship between operating leverage and business risk—how different prices and different fixed costs affect the break even point and the rate at which profit grows.

Also of interest:
Portfolio Design and the Genetic Algorithm. Harry H. Suber (H.Suber@Comcast.net ), TrendLogic Associates and Robert M. Tardiff, Salisbury University. Thursday January 16, 10:35 – 10:55 a.m.

Suggested Diagnostics for Application of Benford's Law in Auditing and Fraud Detection. Richard J. Cleary (rcleary@bentley.edu ), Bentley College. Friday January 17, 9:00 – 9:15 a.m.

The Numerical Calculation of the Annual Percentage Rate of an Installment Loan by Iteration. Constantine Georgakis (cgeorgak@condor.depaul.edu ), DePaul University. Friday January 17, 9:30 – 9:45 a.m.

Mathematics and Sports:

An Intelligent Agent Model for Human-Environment Interactions. Catherine A. Roberts (croberts@holycross.edu ), College of the Holy Cross. Thursday January 16, 10:00 – 10:15 a.m.
This talk is about the Grand Canyon River Trip Simulator, an integrated statistical and artificial intelligence-based computer simulation of recreational rafting behavior. The simulator captures the decision making of rafting parties as they responsively seek to optimize their experiences.

Monotone Strategies in Games of Incomplete Information. David L. McAdams (mcadams@mit.edu ), MIT Sloan School of Management. Friday January 17, 1:30 – 2:00 p.m.
If opposing batters know that a baseball pitcher has a very strong fastball, that pitcher may actually do best to pitch more curve balls than if his fastball were weaker. On the other hand, if the strength of his fastball were unknown to batters, one expects that he would pitch more fastballs as that pitch became stronger. McAdams presents his research on conditions in which players in equilibrium of incomplete information games adopt monotone strategies, i.e. choose weakly higher actions as they receive higher information.

Also of interest:
Sports Projects in an Ordinary Differential Equations Course. Roland Minton (minton@roanoke.edu ), Roanoke College. Thursday January 16, 2:30 – 2:45 p.m.

Teaching Logistic Regression Using Examples from Sports. Farzad D. Noubary (farzad@psu.edu ), Penn State University (Schreyer Honors College). Friday January 17, 8:00 – 8:30 a.m.

Zeroing the Baseball Umpire Indicator. Christopher S. Simons (simons@rowan.edu ) and Marcus Wright, Rowan University. Wednesday January 15, 2:45 – 3:00 p.m.

Mathematics and the Arts, Literature and Philosophy:

Mathematical Connections in Art, Music and Science. Organizers: John M. Sullivan (jms@math.uiuc.edu ), University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Douglas E. Norton, Villanova University, and Reza Sarhangi, Towson University. Saturday January 18, 1:00 – 5:25 p.m. MAA Session.
Presentations cover such topics as origami, quilting, computer-generating images, art and architecture, plane tilings, cartography, mathematics as a tool in music, and mathematical connections in philosophy and theology.

Philosophy of Mathematics. Organizer: Bonnie Gold (bgold@monmouth.edu ), Monmouth University. Friday, January 17, 1:00 – 5:55 p.m. MAA Session.
Talks include Why Plato Was Not a Platonist, Are Mathematical Objects Inside or Outside a Human Mind?, What is Mathematics I: the Question, and A Conjecture about ... Feminist Mathematics?.

Also of interest:
The Cosmos Corner: Utilizing Play Writing to Investigate the History of Mathematics. Michael J. Bossé (mbosse@iup.edu ), Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Thursday January 16, 11:45 – 11:55 a.m.

Counting Contra Dances: A Kinesthetic Application of Group Theory. Larry Copes (copes@edmath.org ), Institute for Studies in Educational Mathematics. Thursday January 16, 9:50 – 10:10 a.m.

Linear Algebra for Circus Workers, Painters, and Printers. Fusun Akman (fusun@coastal.edu ), Coastal Carolina University. Saturday January 18, 9:00 – 9:15 a.m.

Eine Kleine (Mathematische) Nachtmusik. Erich Neuwirth (erich.neuwirth@univie.ac.at ), University of Vienna. Thursday January 16, 7:30 – 9:00 p.m.

History of Mathematics:

The Mathematics Textbook and the Disappointed Daughter: History of a Mathematical Urban Legend. Kim Plofker and E. Allyn Smith, Brown University. Friday January 17, 9:00 – 9:30 a.m.
Histories of mathematics frequently relate how the most famous of Sanskrit mathematical works, the twelfth-century Litavati of Bhaskara II, was inspired by the author's wish to console his eponymous daughter for having missed the astrologically auspicious moment for her wedding. Plofker examines the actual evidence for this pretty story in the textual tradition; the growth of the tale in the telling illustrates some common pitfalls in dealing with the history of non-Western mathematics.

The History of Mathematics. Organizers: Joseph W. Dauben (jdauben@worldnet.att.net ), Lehman College and David E. Zitarelli, Temple University. Friday January 17, 8:00 – 10:55 a.m. and 1:00 – 4:55 p.m., and Saturday January 18, 8:00 – 10:55 a.m. and 1:30 – 3:55 p.m. AMS-MAA Special Session.
Topics include mathematics from ancient Iraq, the origins of the number zero, Chinese trigonometry, a history of the school protractor, as well as talks about William A. Granville, Paul Dirac, Karl Weierstrass and Frederic Riesz.

Also of interest:
History or Heritage? Historians and Mathematicians on the History of Mathematics. Ivor Grattan-Guiness, Middlesex University (UK). Wednesday January 15, 3:20 – 4:10 p.m. MAA Invited Address.

Mathematics from Ancient Iraq in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. Eleanor Robson (Eleanor.robson@all-souls.ox.ac.uk ), All Souls College, Oxford. Friday January 17, 8:00 – 8:30 a.m.

The Number Zero: Its Origins and Its Use. Abdulalim A. Shabazz, Lincoln University (ashabazz@lu.lincoln.edu ). Friday January 17, 8:30 – 9:00 a.m.

Mathematical Modeling of Cascading Water Clocks. Jennifer Goodenow (jlg4179@rit.edu ) and David S. Ross, Rochester Institute of Technology. Friday January 17, 3:00 – 3:30 p.m.

Americans in Paris: The Interwar Years. Della D. Fenster (dfenster@richmond.edu ), University of Richmond. Saturday January 18, 2:30 – 3:00 p.m.

Incorporating History of Mathematics in the Mathematics Classroom. Organizers: Victor J. Katz (vkatz@udc.edu ), University of the District of Columbia, Edith Prentice Mendez, Sonoma State University, and Eisso J. Atzema, University of Maine. Thursday January 16, 8:00 – 11:55 a.m. and 1:00 – 3:00 p.m. MAA Session.

Programs to Increase Participation by Underrepresented Groups in Mathematics:

Forum on Strategies for Increasing the Diversity of Students in Mathematics. Organizers: Naomi Fisher (ndfisher@uic.edu ), University of Illinois at Chicago, William H. Barker, Bowdoin College, Jerry L. Bona, University of Illinois at Chicago, and Kenneth C. Millett, University of California Santa Barbara. Thursday January 16, 1:00 – 3:30 p.m. AMS-MAA-MER Special Session on Mathematics and Education Reform.
Panelists: Naomi Fisher, University of Illinois at Chicago, Dennis Davenport, Miami University, Raymond Johnson, University of Maryland, College Park, Roosevelt Johnson, National Science Foundation, Robert Megginson, Mathematical Sciences Research Institute, Teri Murphy, University of Oklahoma, and Ami Radunskaya, Pomona College.
Presenters discuss a range of experiences including strategies that work, essentials of successful programs, and possible pitfalls.

MAA Session on Strategies for Increasing the Diversity of Students in Mathematics. Organizers: Marjorie Enneking (marj@mth.pdx.edu ), Portland State University, Wade Ellis, West Valley College, William Hawkins, Strengthening Underrepresented Minority Mathematics Achievement, Robert E. Megginson, University of Michigan, Kenneth C. Millett, University of California, Santa Barbara, and William Y. Velez, University of Arizona. Friday January 17, 8:00 – 10:55 a.m.
The Summer Institute in Mathematics for Undergraduates research experience, the Math Excel Program at Oregon State University, perceptions of minority students, high school outreach activities at New Mexico State University, and other topics are discussed.

The Maryland Experience: Building a Community of African American Graduate Students. Raymond L. Johnson, University of Maryland (rlj@math.umd.edu ) will give the National Association of Mathematicians (NAM) Cox-Talbot Address, Friday evening, January 17 after the NAM Banquet.

Also of interest:
Improving the Persistence of Women in Graduate School. Organizers: Ruth G. Favro, Lawrence Technological University, Kristen S. Moore, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Sarah-Marie Belcastro, Xavier University. Moderator: Raymond L. Johnson, University of Maryland, College Park. Panelists: Abbe H. Herzig, Rutgers University, Ivelisse M. Rubio, University of Puerto Rico, and Judy L. Walker, University of Nebraska. Friday January 17, 9:00 – 10:55 a.m.

Women in Mathematics: Past, Present, and Future. Organizers: Antonia Bluher and Michelle D. Wagner, National Security Agency. Thursday January 16, 5:45 – 7:45 p.m. National Security Agency Special Presentation.

Contact: Mike Breen or Annette Emerson, Public Awareness Officers, American Mathematical Society, 201 Charles Street, Providence, RI 02904.
Tel: 401-455-4000; Fax: 401-331-3842; Email paoffice@ams.org.

Founded in 1888 to further mathematical research and scholarship, the 30,000-member American Mathematical Society fulfills its mission through programs and services that promote mathematical research and its uses, strengthen mathematical education, and foster awareness and appreciation of mathematics and its connections to other disciplines and to everyday life.