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News 2004
NUMB3RS on CBSNUMB3RS is a prime-time TV show in which one of the main characters is a mathematician. The character, played by David Krumholtz, uses his mathematical skills to help his FBI agent brother, played by Rob Morrow, solve crimes. The CBS show will premiere Sunday January 23 at 10 p.m. Eastern and Pacific time before it moves to its regular time slot on Fridays at 10 (Eastern and Pacific). The CBS website has more information. [Item posted 12/29/04]National High School Calculus Award NominationsNominations for the sixth annual National High School Calculus Award are being accepted until February 28. A teacher may nominate any U.S. junior high or high school student for this US$1000 award. The calculus.org website has details about the award, including information about the 2004 competition. [Item posted 12/29/04] 2004 Trjitzinsky AwardsThe AMS has made US$24,000 in awards to nine undergraduate students through the Waldemar J. Trjitzinsky Memorial Fund. The fund is made possible by a bequest from the estate of Waldemar J., Barbara G., and Juliette Trjitzinsky. For the awards, the AMS chose six geographically distributed schools to receive one-time awards of US$4,000 each. The mathematics departments at those schools then chose students to receive the funds to assist them in pursuit of careers in mathematics. The schools are selected in a random drawing from the pool of AMS institutional members. Below are the names of the selected schools for 2004 and the student recipients.
Results of 2004-05 Siemens Westinghouse CompetitionAaron Goldin, a high school senior in California, won the Grand Prize and a US$100,000 scholarship in the 2004-05 Siemens Westinghouse Competition in Math, Science and Technology for his invention that converts ocean wave energy into electricity. Second place and a US$50,000 scholarship went to Po-Ling Loh of James Madison Memorial High School in Madison, WI for her mathematics project Closure Properties of D2p in Finite Groups. (Po-Ling was also a winner when she played Who Wants To Be A Mathematician last spring.) The competition is administered by The College Board and funded by the Siemens Foundation. The Siemens Foundation website has information about the competition. The website also has a page with information about Po-Ling. [Item posted 12/7/04]World Renowned Geometer S.-S. Chern DiesShiing-Shen Chern, one of the outstanding mathematicians of the 20th century, passed away in Tianjin, China, on Friday, December 3, 2004, at the age of 93. S.-S. Chern was one of the creators of modern differential geometry as it is known today. Fifty years ago, his global viewpoint, emphasizing relations with topology, was revolutionary. One of his early successes was his elegant proof of the Chern-Gauss-Bonnet theorem, which, together with concepts such as Chern classes and Chern-Simons invariants, made a lasting imprint on the subject. S.-S. Chern was the founding director of the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute in Berkeley. After holding professorial positions at the University of Chicago and the University of California, Berkeley, he returned to China in his retirement and founded the Nankai Institute of Mathematics. He received the first Shaw Prize in 2004. Read more about Chern in an interview that appeared in Notices of the AMS. [Item posted 12/6/04]
Departments Coordinate Job Offer DeadlinesDepartments of Mathematics in the U.S. have, for the sixth year in a row, formally adopted an agreement to coordinate deadlines for responding to postdoctoral job offers. See details, including a list of departments adhering to the agreement, here. [Item Posted 11/19/04]Spring 2005 Math in Moscow Scholarships AwardedThe following undergraduate students have been awarded a US$5,000 scholarship to attend the Independent University of Moscow in spring 2005: Christopher E. Biermann (Dartmouth College), Brendan Matthew Creutz (California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo), Victor Kostyuk (Rochester Institute of Technology), Adrienne Rau (Barnard College/Columbia University), and Joel Louwsma (University of Michigan). Learn more about the Math in Moscow program and note the application deadline for the fall 2005 semester. [Item posted 11/16/04]
2005 AMS-AAAS Mass Media FellowshipThe AMS will sponsor ten-week fellowships during the summer of 2005 for graduate students in mathematics through the Mass Media Science and Engineering Fellows Program. This fellowship program, provided by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), is designed to increase public understanding of science and technology and enhance coverage of science-related issues in the media. There is more information about the program, including experiences of former fellows, online. Deadline for applications is January 15, 2005. [Item posted 11/12/04]Math in the Media and Feature Column on the AMS websiteMath in the Media is a new centralized tracker of articles about mathematics that appear in newspapers and science magazines. The collection--"Tony Phillips' Take on Math in the Media," "Math Digest" (summaries of mathematics in the news), and "Reviews" of books, plays and films with mathematical themes--is a great way to keep abreast of math news as reported in the general media. The Feature Column is a series of essays on a wide range of topics, such as voting, bin-packing and networks. Math in the Media and the Feature Column offer a wealth of information about current mathematics and its applications. [Item posted 10/8/04]
Call for Nominations for Abel PrizeThe Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters calls for nominations of candidates for the Abel Prize 2005. The Abel Prize, which was awarded for the first time in 2003, amounts to NOK 6 million (approx. EUR 750.000, US$890,000US). It is an international prize for outstanding scientific work in the field of mathematics, including mathematical aspects of computer science, mathematical physics, probability, numerical analysis and scientific computing, statistics, and also applications of mathematics in the sciences. The nomination letter should be postmarked no later than November 15, 2004. The Abel Foundation website includes the prize committee, information about the prize and past winners, and guidelines for nominating. [Item posted 10/8/04]
AMS Hosts Workshop on Mentoring and Nurturing StudentsThe AMS will host a National Science Foundation workshop on mentoring and nurturing students on December 3-4, 2004 at the Four Points by Sheraton Hotel in Tucson, Arizona. The workshop is designed to provide participants with ideas and methods that will aid in the development of nurturing environments for students through critical stages in their academic careers. Space is limited to 40 participants so interested individuals are urged to learn more and register soon. [Item posted 10/8/04]
AMS Congressional Lunch BriefingFred S. Roberts, professor of mathematics and director of the Center for Discrete Mathematics and Theoretical Computer Science (DIMACS) at Rutgers University, presented an AMS-sponsored briefing to Members of Congress and staff. [Item posted 10/8/04]
Centennial Fellowships ApplicationsApplications are invited for the 2005-06 AMS Centennial Fellowships. The primary selection criterion for the Fellowship is excellence in research. Preference will be given to candidates who have not had prior extensive fellowship support. The stipend is expected to be US$62,000, with an additional expense allowance of about US$3,000. More information is available online. Application deadline is December 1, 2004. [Item posted October 4, 2004]NSF solicits nominations for Director's Award for Distinguished Teaching ScholarsNominations for the National Science Foundation Director's Awards for Distinguished Teaching Scholars are solicited. The purpose of the DTS Program is to recognize and reward individuals who are both meritorious scholars and exemplary teachers as evidenced by their ability to integrate their research and educational activities and to approach research and education in a scholarly manner. The specific requirements of the program are provided in the NSF solicitation. The closing date for nominations is October 20, 2004. [Item posted 9/24/04]
Histories of AMS and Mathematics OnlineThe AMS has posted online four books--notable treatises, histories of the first 100 years of the American Mathematical Society, and addresses given at the Society's centennial celebration in 1988:Semicentennial History of the American Mathematical Society, 1888-1938 , by Raymond Clare Archibald Mathematics into the Twenty-First Century , Felix E. Browder , Editor History of the Second Fifty Years, American Mathematical Society, 1939-1988 , by Everett Pitcher Semicentennial Addresses of the American Mathematical Society These resources are downloadable .pdf files, freely accessible to all. Search AMS Online Books by author or by subject. [Item posted 9/16/04]
Arden L. Bement, Jr. Nominated Director of the NSFArden L. Bement, Jr., current Acting Director of the National Science Foundation, has been nominated by President Bush to become Director of the NSF. Bement will undergo a Senate confirmation process, which may not occur until after the November election. [Item posted 9/16/04]
Deligne Awarded 2004 Balzan PrizeOn September 7, Pierre Deligne of the Institute for Advanced Study was awarded the 2004 Balzan Prize of one million Swiss francs (approximately US$800,00 U.S.) for "major contributions to several important areas of mathematics..." The prize ceremony will be in Rome on November 18. More information about Deligne's work, the prize, and other 2004 prize winners is at the Balzan Foundation website. [Item posted 9/13/04]
2004 Pan African CongressThe Sixth Pan African Congress of Mathematicians (PACOM2004) is taking place in Tunis, September 1-6. The theme of the Congress is “Mathematical Sciences and the Development of Africa: Challenges for Building a Knowledge Society in Africa.” Events at the opening ceremony included remarks by AMS President David Eisenbud. The PACOM2004 website has more information about the meeting. [Item posted 9/1/04]
AMS 2004 Election Now UnderwayThe AMS Election of Officers for 2005 is currently underway and will continue until midnight EST on November 5, 2004. AMS members can vote online or by paper ballot. On August 23, 2004, instructions for voting online were sent by email to members who chose that option. That same day, traditional paper ballots were sent to all other members. See answers to questions about the election process and more information about the election and candidates in the September issue of Notices of the AMS. [Item posted 8/26/04]
Epsilon Scholarship Awards for 2004Six students who participated in the Young Scholars Programs, supported by the AMS Epsilon Fund, have received memorial scholarships from the AMS. The first student listed below received a Roderick P. C. Caldwell Memorial Scholarship ; the other five students each received a Ky and Yu-Fen Fan Memorial Scholarship . The scholarship winners, and the programs they participated in (in italics), are:
More information about the Epsilon Fund and Young Scholars Programs is available online. [Item posted 8/5/04]
U.S. Team Second in IMOThe 2004 U.S. Math Olympiad team finished second among over 80 countries at the recently concluded 45th International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) in Athens, Greece. U.S. team members were: Oleg Goldberg, Tianka Liu, Alison Miller, Aaron Pixton and Tony Zhang, who each won a gold medal, and Matt Ince, who won a silver medal. The medal count and second-place finish are the best results for a U.S. team since 1994. China finished first with a team total of 220 points (out of 252 possible), eight points ahead of the U.S. team. Rounding out the top five teams were Russia, Vietnam, and Bulgaria. Cancun, Mexico is the site of next year's Olympiad. [Item posted 7/19/04 and updated on 7/20/04]
Happy 100th Birthday, Henri Cartan!Legendary French mathematician Henri Cartan turned 100 on July 8th. The son of Élie Cartan and a major figure in 20th century mathematics, Henri Cartan made outstanding contributions to several fields of mathematics. He led the famed "Cartan Seminar" in Paris and is also well known for his 1956 book Homological Algebra, written jointly with Sammy Eilenberg. On June 28, his birthday was celebrated in the Journée Cartan, held at his home institution, the École Normale Supérieure in Paris. In addition, the International Mathematical Union has issued a resolution congratulating Cartan. Read more about Henri Cartan in the Notices of the AMS : "Happy 100th Henri Cartan!" and "Interview with Henri Cartan" . [Item posted 7/8/04]
Joseph Doob, 1910-2004Joseph Leo Doob, who worked in probability theory and measure theory, died June 7. Doob was AMS president from 1963 to 1964. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard in 1932 and three years later joined the faculty at the University of Illinois, where he remained active until recently. Doob was a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and was awarded the National Medal of Science in 1979. In 1984, Doob received the Steele Prize "for his fundamental work in establishing probability as a branch of mathematics and for his continuing profound influence on its development." He is survived by one daughter, two sons, and four grandchildren. More information is available at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Department of Mathematics website. [Item posted 6/29/04]
2004 U.S. Math Olympiad TeamThe United States team members, who will compete in the 45th International Mathematics Olympiad, have been chosen. The team features the second female ever to qualify for the U.S. team: Alison Miller (the first female, Melanie Wood, won the silver medal in 1998 and 1999). Three of the team members are from Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, NH. The U.S. team members, all seniors, are: Oleg Goldberg from Phillips Exeter Academy, Matt Ince from St. Louis Family Church Learning Center in Chesterfield, MO, Tianka Liu from Phillips Exeter Academy, Alison Miller from Home Educators Enrichment Group in Niskayuna, NY, Aaron Pixton from Vestal High School, in Vestal, NY, and Tony Zhang from Phillips Exeter Academy. The team alternate is Anders Kaseorg, from Charlotte Home Educators Association in Charlotte, NC. The 2004 International Mathematics Olympiad which will be held in Athens, Greece, July 6-18. Results from the 2004 U.S. Mathematical Olympiad are online. [Item posted 6/29/04]Largest Known Prime Number DiscoveredThe Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search (GIMPS) has recorded another find: the 41st known Mersenne Prime (a prime number of the form 2p - 1, where p is prime) which was discovered by Josh Findley's computer. The number, 224,036,583 - 1, is over seven million digits long and is currently the largest known prime number. The GIMPS is a distributed computing project which uses idle computing time to find prime numbers. The project began in 1996 and has found seven of the 41 known Mersenne primes; the 40th known Mersenne prime was discovered in November. There is a US$100,000 prize for the discovery of a ten million digit prime. [Item posted 6/16/04]
Banchoff receives NSF Director's Award for Distinguished Teaching ScholarsThomas F. Banchoff (Professor of Mathematics at Brown University) has received the National Science Foundation (NSF) Director's Award for Distinguished Teaching Scholars . Banchoff is one of eight recipients and the only mathematician among the 2004 awardees honored at an NSF reception in Washington D.C. on June 2. The award "honors individuals who have made outstanding contributions to research in their discipline as well as the education of undergraduates and/or K-12 teachers and students. It is the highest honor bestowed by the NSF for excellence in both teaching and research." Banchoff's project, Interactive Internet-Based Teaching and Learning Mathematics , was cited as "an original approach to undergraduate mathematics instruction. Through a series of summer projects and activities at national meetings, he aims to make the approach more adaptable and scalable, for use in courses for mathematics majors, for science students, for liberal arts students, and for teacher training programs." [Item posted 6/3/04]
2004 Abel Prize Award CeremonyThe 2004 Abel Prize will be awarded by Norway's King Harald on May 25 in Oslo. In addition to the prize ceremony, Sir Michael Francis Atiyah and Isadore M. Singer, the 2004 laureates, will be giving lectures in Oslo and Trondheim. Details about events associated with the award ceremony are posted in the calendar section of the Abel Prize page. [Item posted 5/24/04]
Gromov Awarded 2003-2004 Nemmers PrizeNorthwestern University has announced that Mikhael L. Gromov, professor of mathematics at the Institute des Hautes Études Scientifiques, Bures-sur-Yvette, France, and Jay Gould professor of mathematics at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at New York University, has been named recipient of the Frederic Esser Nemmers Prize in Mathematics. The Nemmers Prize carries a stipend of US$150,000--believed to be the largest monetary award in the U.S. designed specifically for academic excellence in economics and mathematics. Gromov was cited "for his work in Riemannian geometry, which revolutionized the subject; his theory of pseudoholomorphic curves in symplectic manifolds; his solution of the problem of groups of polynomial growth; and his construction of the theory of hyperbolic groups." Ariel Rubenstein, professor of economics at Tel Aviv University, Israel, and New York University, was named recipient of the Nemmers Prize in Economics. The news release is published in Northwestern's Observer Online . [Item posted 5/10/04]
Mathematicians Elected American Academy of Arts & Sciences FellowsThe American Academy of Arts & Sciences has announced several mathematicians among its 2004 Fellows and Foreign Honorary members : Fellows David Aldous (Univesiry of California, Berkeley), Leonard Gross (Cornell University), Anatole Katok (Pennsylvania State University), Fang-Hua Lin (Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University), Yuri I. Manin (Northwestern University), Gang Tian (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Nolan Wallach (University of California, San Diego), Lai-Sang Young (Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University), and Foreign Honorary Member Yves Colin de Verdiere (Université de Grenoble, France). Academy President Patricia Meyer Spacks announced that the newly elected members "have made extraordinary contributions to their fields and disciplines." The annual induction ceremony will be held in October at the Academy's headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts. [Item posted 5/10/04]
Do the Math! in MA and RIDo the Math!, a new game for high school students developed by AMS Public Awareness Officer Mike Breen and DePaul University mathematics professor Bill Butterworth, was held at Danvers High School, Danvers, MA, and at Providence College in RI. The new game, like the game Who Wants To Be A Mathematician, offers prizes to students along with the chance at a grand prize of US$2000. Among all of the talented students who competed in both games, Arthur Drehman of Chelsea, MA, won the US$2000 prize. Read highlights and see photos of Do the Math! games in Danvers and Providence. [Item posted 5/10/04]
2004 Erdős Memorial LectureThe 2004 Erdős Memorial Lecture will be given by Bernd Sturmfels, of the University of California, Berkeley on May 15. Sturmfels' lecture, Tropical Geometry , will take place during the Sixth International Joint Meeting of the AMS and the Sociedad Matemática Mexicana in Houston. The Erdős Memorial Lecture is an annual invited address made possible by a fund created by Andrew Beal, a Dallas banker. The lecture is named for mathematician Paul Erdős (1913-1996). [Item posted 5/4/04]
Who Wants To Be A MathematicianHigh school students showed their mathematical skills at recent Who Wants To Be A Mathematician games, winning US$13,000 at two events in April. As part of Mathematics Awareness Month, the AMS conducted Who Wants To Be A Mathematician on April 16 at Madison Area Technical College (MATC) in Madison, WI and on April 21 at the St. Louis Science Center in St. Louis, MO. The latter game was held in conjunction with the Arnold Ross Lectures. Descriptions of the Arnold Ross Lecture and game, and the game at MATC are online. [Item posted 5/4/04]
National Academy of Sciences Elects Mathematical ScientistsThe National Academy of Sciences announced on April 20 the election of 72 new members and 18 foreign associates from 13 countries in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research. Among them are individuals in the mathematical sciences: Joseph Bernstein (professor, School of Mathematical Sciences, Tel Aviv University); Phillip Colella (senior staff mathematician and group leader, Applied Numerical Algorithms Group, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory); Stephen H. Davis (McCormick School Professor and Walter P. Murphy Professor of Applied Mathematics, Northwestern University); Shafrira Goldwasser (professor, department of electrical engineering and computer science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology); Benedict H. Gross (George Vasmer Leverett Professor of Mathematics, department of mathematics, and dean, Harvard College, Harvard University); Nicholas M. Katz (professor and chair, department of mathematics, Princeton University); Charles M. Newman (professor of mathematics and director, Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University); and Ronald L. Rivest (professor of computer science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology). [Item posted 4/23/04]
AMS Policy on International Submissions for PublicationThe American Mathematical Society believes that science is universal and that it relies on cooperation and exchange throughout the world. The Society is committed to the principle that scientists must have free access to each other and to scientific information. For these reasons, all publication programs of the Society continue to consider each submission without regard to the nationality or national origin of its authors. We believe that this is consistent both with the above principles and with current law. [Item posted 4/7/04]
ICMI Awards to Brousseau and HoylesThe International Commission on Mathematical Instruction (ICMI), founded in Rome in 1908, has, for the first time in its history, established prizes recognizing outstanding achievement in mathematics education research. The Felix Klein Medal honoring lifetime achievement is awarded to Guy Brousseau, Professor Emeritus of the University Institute for Teacher Education of Aquitaine in Bordeaux, for his lifetime development of the theory of didactic situations and its applications. The Hans Freudenthal Medal recognizing a major cumulative program of research is awarded to Celia Hoyles, Professor at the Institute of Education of the University of London, for her seminal research on instructional uses of technology in mathematics education. See the ICMI news release (22KB), citation for Brousseau (17KB), citation for Hoyles (18KB), and photos of the award winners (175KB). [Item posted 4/4/04]
Keyfitz Appointed Director of Fields InstituteBarbara Lee Keyfitz, Professor of Mathematics at the University of Houston, has been appointed Director of the Fields Institute for Research in Mathematical Sciences, beginning July 1, 2004. She is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and is chair elect of their Mathematics section. She is an officer of the International Council for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, and has made numerous contributions as a reviewer and advisor to the Canadian Natural Sciences and Engineering Council. She was recently awarded the Canadian Mathematical Society's Krieger-Nelson Prize, has served as a Vice President of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, and is incoming President of the Association for Women in Mathematics. The Fields Institute, located on the campus of the University of Toronto, is a center for mathematical research activity for mathematicians from Canada and abroad, from universities, industry and financial institutions. [Item posted 3/26/04]
Atiyah and Singer Awarded Abel PrizeThe Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters has award the 2004 Abel Prize jointly to Sir Michael Francis Atiyah, University of Edinburgh, and Isadore M. Singer, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Atiyah and Singer will receive the Prize "for their discovery and proof of the index theorem, bringing together topology, geometry and analysis, and their outstanding role in building new bridges between mathematics and theoretical physics." Read more about the Abel Prize. [Item posted 3/25/04]
Intel Science Talent Search WinnersTwo mathematics projects are among the top four winners in this year's Intel Science Talent Search. Boris Alexeev, 17, of Cedar Shoals High School in Athens, GA won the second-place prize, a US$75,000 scholarship, for his research in the theory of automata. Linda Brown Westrick, 18, of the Maggie L. Walker Governor's School in Richmond, VA won fourth place, a US$25,000 scholarship, for her mathematics project, Investigations of the Number Derivative. The first-place prize, a US$100,000 scholarship, was awarded to Herbert Mason Hedberg of North Attleboro, MA for developing a faster, more efficient method to diagnose cancer. A list of all the winners, with more information about the projects, is available online. [Item posted 3/18/04]AWM Essay Contest WinnersThe Grand Prize winner of the 2003 Biographies of Contemporary Women in Mathematics essay contest of the Association for Women in Mathematics is Esther Feldblum of Maimonides School in Sharon, MA, for her essay, "Dr. Harpreet Chowdhary: The Mathematician as Executive." Read this and the prizewinning essays in the Grades 6-8, 9-12, and College catgeories.National High School Calculus Award NominationsNominations for the fifth annual National High School Calculus award are
being accepted until June 7. A teacher may nominate any U.S. junior high or high
school student for the US$1000 award. The
calculus.org website
has details about the award, including information
about last year's competition. [Item posted 3/2/04] 2004 Clay Research Fellows AnnouncedThe Clay Mathematics Institute (CMI) has appointed four Research Fellows: Ciprian Manolescu and Maryam Mirzakhani of Harvard University, and András Vasy and Akshay Venkatesh of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The Institute will fully support the Fellows' research for a period of two to four years. CMI's news release contains brief biographies and resesarch interests of the Fellows. [Item posted 2/25/04]Dialog 2004: DMS and the Mathematical Sciences CommunityThe AMS, ASA, MAA and SIAM will host Dialog 2004: DMS and the Mathematical Sciences Community on April 30 - May 1, 2004, in Washington D.C. The goal is to promote communication between faculty in the mathematical sciences and program officers in the NSF's Division of Mathematical Sciences. Department chairs are invited to recommend one or two representatives for approximately 200 total participant places: To apply, send an email to Katarina Briedova at kbriedova@maa.org, with subject heading "DMS meeting application." Screening of applications will begin March 1, with initial notifications of acceptance no later than March 15. See the Dialog 2004 website for program objectives and complete application information. [Item posted 2/18/04]John Allen Paulos Wins AAAS AwardJohn Allen Paulos has been given the 2003 AAAS Award for Public Understanding of Science and Technology in recognition of his being "one of the greatest mathematical storytellers of all time." Paulos has written seven books, including Innumeracy (which appeared on The New York Times bestseller list), and more recently, A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper (which reached No.l on Amazon.com and which was widely and positively reviewed ). Paulos also contributes a monthly column, "Who's Counting," to ABCNews.com. Read Temple University's news release. [Item posted 2/16/04]Jacob Lurie Wins AIM Five-Year FellowshipThe American Institute of Mathematics has announced that Jacob Lurie is the recipient of the 2004 AIM Five-Year Fellowship, which is awarded each year to an outstanding new Ph.D. student in an area of pure mathematics. Lurie is a student of Mike Hopkins at MIT. His research interests include algebraic geometry, homotopy theory, and their interrelationships. Jacob received the Frank and Brennie Morgan Prize for Outstanding Research in Mathematics by an Undergraduate in 2000 (see "2000 Morgan Prize" in the April 2001 issue of Notices of the AMS ), and won First Place in the Westinghouse Science Talent Search in 1996 (see "Budding Mathematician Wins Westinghouse Competition,", by John H. Conway and Allyn Jackson, in the July 1996 issue of Notices of the AMS. ) Lurie was selected for the AIM Fellowship from a pool of more that 130 applicants and nominees who will be receiving their PhD sometime in the year 2004. [Item posted 2/13/04]Rita Colwell to Leave National Science Foundation"National Science Foundation Director Rita R. Colwell will assume the position of Chairman of Canon U.S. Life Sciences, Inc. upon her retirement from the Foundation, effective February 21, 2004. Canon U.S. Life Sciences is a newly created, Washington-based subsidiary of Canon U.S.A., Inc. whose goal is to identify and develop life-science solutions with potential applications in diagnostics and medical instrumentation. Among the highlights of her tenure Colwell initiated programs to increase NSF's investment in mathematics and to integrate mathematics with the life and social sciences, urged and obtained substantial increases in graduate-student stipends, and called for expanded opportunities for minorities and women in the nation's science and engineering communities." -- from the NSF press release. [Item posted 2/11/04]Mathematics at the AAAS Annual MeetingThe annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) will be held in Seattle, February 12-16. Some of the meeting sessions with mathematical themes are listed below. The AAAS website has more information about the meeting.Seminar: Topical Lectures: Symposia: [Item posted 1/20/04] Voiculescu Receives National Academy of Sciences Mathematics AwardDan Virgil Voiculescu (University of California, Berkeley) has received the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) 2004 Mathematics Award "for the theory of free probability, in particular, using random matrices and a new concept of entropy to solve several hitherto intractable problems in von Neumann algebras." The award, established by the AMS in 1988 in commemoration of its Centennial, was funded mainly by gifts to the Society from Morris Yachter and Sydney Gould. The US$5,000 award is given every four years for excellence of research in the mathematical sciences published within the past ten years. See the NAS news release and past winners of the award. [Item posted 1/20/04]
Current Events in MathematicsAMS President David Eisenbud organized an AMS Special Session, Current Events in Mathematics , at the Joint Mathematics Meetings, Friday, January 9. The well-attended session featured The Interior-Point Revolution in Optimization: History, Recent Developments and Lasting Consequences, presented by Margaret Wright ; What Is Motivic Integration?, by Thomas C. Hales ; It Is Easy to Determine Whether or Not a Given Integer is Prime, by Andrew Granville ; and Perelman's Recent Work on the Classification of 3-Manifolds, by John W. Morgan. The talks can be downloaded in two versions: booklet format [2.33 MB pdf, to be printed 2-sided for folding and collating] or 8.5 x 11" format [1.59 MB pdf, single pages to be printed either 1- or 2-sided]. [Item posted 1/16/04]
Prizes and Awards at the 2004 Joint Mathematics MeetingsSeveral people were honored at the recent Joint Mathematics Meetings in Phoenix. Read news releases about AMS winners, and see the Prizes and Awards booklet which lists all the prizes and awards given at the Meetings by the AMS, AWM, MAA, and SIAM, with citations and biographical notes. [Item posted 1/12/04]
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