Mathematics Department News Archives

2006-2007 Academic Year:
January 8, 2007: Four faculty and two students from the Mathematics Department attended the AMS/MAA Joint Mathematics Meetings in New Orleans Jan.4-8. Mathematics/Computer Science double-majors Lava K.C. and Cory Nathe presented posters in the Undergraduate Research Poster session. Professor Jody Sorensen organized a panel on "Engaging Students in Research, Clubs, Student Chapters, and Internships" and presented on a different panel on Expository Writing in Mathematics. Professor Matt Haines presented on a panel on "Strategies for Making and Sustaining Research Collaborations as a Faculty Member in a Small Department". Professor Su Doree taught a minicourse on "Evaluating Student Presentations in Mathematics". Professor Tracy Bibelnieks participated in two minicourses -- one on the mathematics of wavelets and the other on Quantitative Reasoning projects.

November 11, 2006: The annual North Central Section Team Contest was held on Saturday, November 11, 2006. Four students participated: Brian Bocklund, Evan Fuhs, Michael Janas and Bihn Nguyen. Our two teams finished 35th and 39th out of 60 teams. Each team got credit for solutions for four different problems, which is impressive. Considering the young age and relative inexperience of our students, I think the future is looking bright. Please contact Jody Sorensen if you are interested in participating in future math contests.

November 4, 2006: Senior Ben Sonquist and sophomore Alison Heussler presented the results of their summer research in lipid biophysics at the Annual Argonne Symposium for Undergraduate Research in Science, Engineering and Mathematics the weekend of Nov. 4 at the Argonne National Labs in Chicago. Accompanying them were Professors Ben Stottrup, physics, and Tracy Bibelnieks, mathematics.

September 13, 2006: This year, joining our regulars, Tracy Bibelnieks (2002), Su Dorée (1989), Matt Haines (2001), and Ken Kaminsky (1987) is Jody Sorensen who was visiting us last year. She joins the department as an Associate Projessor. Visiting the department on a part-time basis this year are Elisa Vásquez Rifo, Jerry Eddy, and Todd Wadsworth. Please come greet the faculty and see what they've been up to.

2005-2006 Academic Year:
May 6, 2006: Mathematics students of the 2006 graduating class with some of their beloved professors attended the 137th Commencement. Peter Agre, Augsburg College graduate of 1970 and recipient of the 2003 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was the Commencement speaker.

April 8, 2006: Missy Larson and Dan Wolf presented their research on bifurcation at the regional Pi Mu Epsilon conference held at St. John’s University, MN. They were joined by Professor Jody Sorensen who directed their research, mathematics major Antonio Spargo and Professors Su Dorée and Matt Haines.

February 13, 2006: Applications for CSEM scholarships due March 13, 2006. Thirty scholarships of $3125 per year will be awarded to Mathematics and Computer Science majors each year. Students in the Weekend College program are also eligible for this scholarship. For more information go to http://www.augsburg.edu/home/compsci/CSEMS/

January 2006:
Two Augsburg mathematics majors presented posters on their work at the Joint Mathematics Meetings in San Antonio, Texas on January 14, 2006. Mathematics major Melissa Larson presented "Stability Results for Bifurcations of Periodic Points" based on work she has done along with student Dan Wolf under the supervision of Professor Jody Sorensen.

Mathematics and Actuarial Science major Jennifer Geis presented “Optimization Least Squares Approach for Valuation of American Put Options” based on her work done in the research experience for undergraduates (REU) during the summer of 2005 at North Carolina State University. Jennifer is currently working under the supervision of Professor Tracy Bibelnieks on researching data-mining techniques in conjunction with a local business. See more of Jenn's work here.                
 

September 12, 2005: The class of 2009 has entered the halls of Augsburg and it looks to be another excellent class. Arriving with the class is a visitng faculty member, Jody Sorensen. Jody is specializes in Discrete Dynamical Systems and the Hisotry of Mathematics.

2004-2005 Academic Year:

April 20, 2005: On April 15-16, St. John's University hosted their 27th annual Pi Mu Epsilon Conference in Collegeville, MN. Two Augsburg mathematics majors presented research results at the conference. Senior Andrew Held presented "Riding Along: A study in carpooling" and senior Dan Wolf presented "Reading the Medium; Inverse Scattering of Waves". For a list of all the student speakers, see http://www.csbsju.edu/math/pme.html. Math students Missy Larson and Chrissy Piram also attended the conference with mathematics faculty Su Dorée and Matt Haines.

March 9, 2005: Congratulations to senior math major and three-time All-American Mark Matzek from Ellsworth, Wisconsin on earning his second straight national title, finishing his final campaign at 34-0 and his career at 129-21. Mark was part of the 10 All-Americans that led Augsburg to national title this year, their 9th in the past 15 years. Mark will be finishing classes this spring and student teaching in the fall.

February 9, 2005: Prof. Nick Coult’s recent talk “A Walk on the Industry Side:
A Mathematician Takes on the Seismic Exploration
Business,” was selected as one of the “Highlights of the 2005
Joint Mathematics Meetings” by the American Mathematical
Society. See http://www.ams.org/ams/jmm2005-highlights.html.

January 18, 2005: Five mathematics faculty members and one student traveled to Atlanta, GA, for the annual MAA-AMS Mathematics Meetings January 4-8, 2005. Mathematics/CSC double-major Dan Wolf presented a poster "Inverse Scattering of the One-Dimensional Schrodinger Equation with Rational Scattering" on his research this past summer at a Research Experiencefor Undergraduates (REU). Faculty members Blake Boursaw, Tracy Bibelnieks, Nick Coult, Matthew Haines and Su Dorée also presented.

December 10, 2004: Join the holiday cheer with the Mathematics and Computer Science Departments. Enjoy tasty treats, succulent goodies, soothing beverages and fine Conversations!

December 7, 2004: Get paid to do research! The Office of Undergraduate Research and Graduate Opportunity (URGO) is hosting a session entitled, "Summer Research Opportunities 101." Come learn what a summer research experience is like, how to locate research experiences across the country and how to be a competitive applicant. Workshop will be held at 4 p.m. in Science 116 this Wednesday, December 8, and then repeats this Thursday, December 9, also at 4 p.m. Also, see our page on Summer Research Opportunities.

December 3, 2004: The end of the semester is approaching already. Stay tuned for details on the annual Mathematics Department Holiday party.

October 6, 2004: The annual Science/Mathematics Alumni Gathering is this Saturday, October 9, 9:30 - 11:30 a.m. in the Marshall room of the Christensen Center. Graduates, friends, students, and current and former faculty are all encouraged to attend.

September 21, 2004: The NCA/MAA team competition is coming up. The event takes place on Saturday, November 13. Last year our teams did very well - interested students should watch this space for more information!

September 7, 2004: Welcome back! Summer 2004 has come to a close, and the Mathematics Department welcomes new and returning students. Watch this space all semester for information on colloquium and other events.

May 1, 2004: Graduation! The Mathematics Department said goodbye to a number of seniors on Saturday. Have a great summer!

April 25, 2004: Mathematics Faculty Recipient of Teaching Award

Dr. Su Dorée, Chair of the Augsburg Mathematics Department, received the Mathematical Association of America North Central Section's Award for Distinguished College or University Teacher of Mathematics.  Dr. Dorée was presented the award at the regional meeting in Winona, Minnesota, on April 25, 2004.  The MAA North Central Section includes colleges and universities from Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota.  The annual award is given to one faculty member of a college or university who is widely recognized as extraordinarily successful in teaching, has had influence in their teaching beyond their own institutions, and fosters curiosity and generates excitement about mathematics to students. Dorée has been an integral member of the Augsburg College Mathematics Department since 1989.

April 10, 2004: At the colloquium this week Tim Bancroft, a senior at Augsburg, will talk about his research, "Bulgarian Exchange: Where Does It End?".

2003-2004 Academic Year:

March 28, 2004: Su Dorée, from Augsburg, will be speaking at this week's colloquium about "Euler's Extraordinary Evaluation of Σ 1/n²". See the colloquium page for details.

February 28, 2004: For this week's colloquium, Tom Sibley from St. John's University will be on campus speaking about "Donut Coloring or Toroidal Chromography".

February 16, 2004: The colloquium this week will bring a recent Augsburg graduate, Kevin Sanft, from the Mayo Clinic to talk about "My Role as a Data Analyst and Advice for Math Majors".

February 4, 2004: For this week's colloquium Mark S. Kaiser from Iowa State University will be on campus to speak about "The Many Faces of Probability in Statistical Analyses". See the colloquium page for details.

January 22, 2004: Students, thinking about summer plans? You can spend the summer in an interesting place, work on fun and challenging research problems, and get paid! Take a look at our Summer Research Opportunities page for more information.

December 2, 2003: The last colloquium of Fall semester is this Wednesday, December 3, in Science 108, at 3:40 p.m. The week's speaker is Glen Medeen of the University of Minnesota; the title of his talk is "What is the 'center' of an asymmetric distribution?" Please note that this is a change from the talk described in the Augarithms.

November 25, 2003: Augsburg scores highly on NCS team competition! The North Central Section of the MAA held its annual problem contest on November 15. Augsburg fielded two teams; both placed in the top half, and one was number 4 out of more than 60 teams from Minnesota, South Dakota, North Dakota, and Manitoba. St. Olaf, Carleton, and Macalester were the only schools to best the Auggies; teams from schools including the University of Minnesota, Gustavus Adolphus, St. Thomas, and many other fine institutions failed to match Augsburg's score. Congratulations to the Augsburg teams for their stellar performances!

November 18, 2003: This week's colloquium brings Randy Erdahl of Decision Intelligence, Inc. to campus, to speak on "Asset Allocation." See the colloquium page for details.

November 11, 2003: The MAA North Central Section problem contest is next Saturday, Nov. 15, from 9 to 12. This is a team contest, teams of up to three, and there is no limit to how many teams can sign up. For more information please contact Professor Ioanna Mavrea. Last year's Auggies did well and we hope to field a good showing this year as well.

November 3, 2003: For this week's colloquium we'd like to welcome Andrew Pole and Eric Bibelnieks, Guest Research and Analytics for Target.Direct, Target Corporation (Bibelnieks, hmm, that name sounds familiar...) The title of their talk is "Learn how to earn fabulous discounts and offers from Target™".

2002-2003 Academic Year:

July 2003: Professor Ken Kaminsky's textbook on financial mathematics, Financial Literacy: an Introduction to the Mathematics of Interest, Annuities, and Insurance, is being published by the University Press of America. Congratulations Ken! Click here to see the cover.

June 30, 2003: Thanks to a generous donation from GeoEnergy, Inc. of Houston, Texas, Augsburg Mathematics acquired a 6-CPU Beowulf cluster, to support research in computational and applied mathematics.

Augsburg Mathematics majors Dan Wolf (l) and Kailash Thapa (r) shown with Augsburg's new computer cluster.

May 4, 2003: Commencement! The mathematics department said goodbye to our graduating seniors. See everyone next fall!

April 29, 2003: The mathematics department held its annual Spring Barbecue/Picnic on April 25. See our picnic page for more photos of the event.

April 15, 2003: The century-old Poincaré Conjecture has apparently been proved! For this and other news from the world of mathematics, see mathworld.wolfram.com.

April 11, 2003: April is Mathematics Awareness Month. This year's theme is Mathematics and Art.

April 9, 2003: The 2002-2003 Mathematics Colloquium series is now finished; thanks to all our speakers! See the colloquium page for more information on the Mathematics Colloquium at Augsburg.

March 2003: Augsburg's team put in a good effort in the 2003 Mathematical Contest in Modeling February 6 - 10. MCM is a contest where teams of undergraduates use mathematical modeling to present their solutions to real world problems. Last year's team from Augsburg received an Honorable Mention for their solution to the "Wind and Waterspray" problem. Students, tune in next February to get on Augsburg's 2004 team!

January 2003: Augsburg's CSEMS scholarship program has been renewed for another four years. Check the CSEMS page for deadlines for renewal and new applications for 2003-2004 academic year.

Happy new year! Our new mathematics department brochure is available for download.

November 2002: Results from the NCS team competition are available. Augsburg's top team placed 17th out of 70 teams. Congratulations to all who participated! See our NCS/MAA 2002 results page for more info.

September 2002: A homecoming gathering of mathematics and science alumni was held on Saturday, September 28. See the Homecoming event page for more information.

September 2002: Augarithms, our departmental newsletter, is now available online.

August 2002: Mathematics department receives $214,690 NSF grant - see the announcement page for more information.

2001-2002 Academic Year:

May 2002: The mathematics department graduated a number of mathematics majors in Spring 2002. Pictured to the right is Chandra Erdman, Mathematics major and class of '02, with Professor Rebekah Dupont (left). See the Graduation '02 page for more photos.

April 2002: Augsburg's team of junior Alexa Halford and seniors Kevin Sanft and Maria Sieve received an "Honorable Mention" in the 2002 Mathematical Contest in Modeling for their submission on the problem of "Wind and Waterspray." The contest took place in February, 2002.

Our site has a section devoted to mathematics student research at Augsburg. Mathematics students at Augsburg have many opportunities to engage in research projects with faculty.

The National Science Foundation has funded 30 scholarships for Mathematics and Computer Science students for two years, starting in 2001-2002. Go to the CSEMS page for more information.