Upcoming Events
Midwest Number Theory Conference for Graduate Students and Recent PhDs IX, October 12-14, 2012
The Midwest Number Theory Conference for Graduate Students and Recent PhDs gives graduate students and recent PhDs an opportunity to meet and give talks in a friendly, relaxed atmosphere. This is the ninth year for the conference. Graduate students at all levels are encourage to attend. Read more about the MNTCG9 conference.
In the News
Department members garner college and campus awards
Five members of the Department are among this year's recipients of college and campus level awards, the highest such number in recent history: Bruce Berndt received the 2012 Campus Award for Excellence in Graduate Student Mentoring. Jeremy Tyson received the 2012 LAS Dean's Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, the flagship teaching award of the LAS College. This marks the eighth consecutive year that a mathematics faculty member has received this award, the longest such streak of any LAS department. Jane Butterfield and Andrew Hunte each received both the 2012 LAS College Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching by Teaching Assistants and the 2012 Campus Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching by Teaching Assistants. At the campus level, only five such awards are given out each year; that two of these awards go to the same department is unprecedented. Wendy Harris received both the LAS Academic Professional Award and the Chancellor's Academic Professional Excellence (CAPE) Award for 2011-2012. Read more about these awards.
Leininger named Lois M. Lackner Faculty Scholar
The Department of Mathematics is proud to announce the appointment of Associate Professor Chris Leininger as the Lois M. Lackner Faculty Scholar for 2011-2013. Dr. Leininger is an outstanding scholar and teacher. He is a dynamic and popular instructor who has appeared six times on the List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent and is devoted to student understanding, both in and out of the classroom. He has been doing groundbreaking work in recent years on geometric and algebraic questions related to the topology of 2-dimensional surfaces, with a focus on mapping class groups, Teichmüller spaces, and the complex of curves. He has published 11 papers since 2009 in top mathematics journals such as Inventiones Mathematicae and Journal für die reine und angewandte Mathematik. A strong teacher, he received the department's N. Tenney Peck Teaching Award in 2008 and has given several week-long lecture series at workshops for graduate and undergraduate students. He has had two PhD students graduate in the past few years, and is currently the advisor for three more.
The Lois M. Lackner Faculty Scholar appointment has been made possible by a generous gift from University of Illinois alumna Dr. Lois M. Lackner. Dr. Lackner holds three degrees from the University of Illinois: B.S. in the Teaching of Mathematics (1957), M.S. in the Teaching of Mathematics (1958), and Ph.D. in Education (1968).
Math Times
Read more news about the Department of Mathematics in the Math Times.
Math Placement at Illinois
All new freshmen coming to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign are required to take the ALEKS Math Placement Exam. All new transfer students who do not already have credit for Calculus I (or a higher level math course) are required to take the ALEKS Math Placement Exam. Information about the ALEKS Math Placement Exam is available on the Department of Mathematics website.