Department News (2007)
Melanie Rubin, Graduate Program Assistant, is the recipient of a WCAS "Sunshine Award!". This award is for someone "who represents and is the face of the department or program and who constantly displays a smile and welcoming attitude to students, faculty and staff."
The department of mathematics has received a five-year $1.3 million Research Training Grant (RTG) from the National Science Foundation in the field of geometry and mathematical physics, an area in which the department has been growing in recent years. This grant will support one postdoctoral fellow and five graduate students each year, as well as an annual graduate student workshop and conference, between one and two weeks in length. For undergraduate students, there will be expanded research opportunities, the creation of new undergraduate courses in geometry and physics and a seminar series. The department will also make use of the grant to strengthen its high school outreach program.
David Nadler has been awarded an Alfred P Sloan Fellowship for the two years 2007-09.
Martina Bode has won the Charles Deering McCormick University Distinguished Lecturership for 2007. This university wide award recognizes outstanding instruction by a member of the Lecturer Faculty, and only one is given each year. This Lecturership is awarded to a faculty member who has consistently demonstrated outstanding performance in classroom teaching or who has developed significant innovations which have also influenced the methods and teaching effectiveness of other faculty.
The Geometric Langlands Program was supported by grants from DARPA and the National Science Foundation that are administered through Northwestern, from 2005-07. This program was dedicated to the investigation of the geometric Langlands, its relationship to other areas of mathematics, and its relationship to physics. See Geometric Langlands Program webpage for further information.
Alexander Getmanenko, one of our graduate students, has been awarded a Weinberg Research and Dissertation Fellowship for 2007-08.
Mathematics Teaching Assistants receiving prizes for excellence during 2006-07 are Scott Bailey, Alexander Getmanenko, Robert Nendorf, and Justin Thomas.
Congratulations to Eric Zaslow for being a member of the ultimate frisbee team DoG, winner of the (national) Masters UPA Club Championship for 2007.
Hillel Furstenberg, recent winner of the prestigious Wolf Prize, will visit the department during the week of February 5, and give talks on February 6 and 7.
As part of the emphasis year in noncommutative geometry, a conference is planned for May 18-24. Professor Dmitry Kaledin from Moscow is visiting during the winter quarter and Professor Bruno Vallette is visiting from Nice during the spring quarter.
Putnam Competition: In the 67th William Lowell Putnam Competition held on Saturday, December 2nd, 2006, the Northwestern team of undergraduates ranked 32nd out of the 508 participating institutions. That is very good. We had a number of individuals who did well. Congratulations to all who participated and to Frank Calegari and Miguel Lerma who helped prepare the team.
