Upcoming Events
Trjitzinsky Memorial Lectures, March 6-8, 2012
Robert Ghrist will present the Trjitzinsky Memorial Lectures entitled "Sheaves and the Global Topology of Data." Ghrist is the Andrea Mitchell Penn Integrating Knowledge Professor in the Departments of Mathematics and Electrical/Systems Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania. Read more about these lectures.
8th Annual Graduate Student Combinatorics Conference, April 13-15, 2012
The Department of Mathematics will host the 8th Annual Graduate Student Combinatorics Conference to be held April 13-15 on the Urbana campus. The purpose of this conference is to bring together graduate students in combinatorics and related areas to learn about new topics, present original research, and network with students from across the country.
Algebra, Geometry and Combinatorics Day, April 28, 2012
On April 28, the Department of Mathematics will host Algebra, Geometry and Combinatorics (AlGeCom) Day, a one day informal meeting of mathematicians from Illinois, Purdue, IUPUI, and other nearby universities. Speakers for the meeting are Daniel Erman (Michigan), Allen Knutson (Cornell), Alexandra Seceleanu (Nebraska), and Ravi Vakil (Stanford).
ICTM State Math Finals, May 5, 2012
The 2012 Illinois Council of Teachers of Mathematics (ICTM) State Math Contest Finals will be held May 5, 2012, at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus. Read more about the ICTM State Math Finals.
In the News
McNeilly receives ICTM Post-Secondary Mathematics Teaching Award
Jennifer McNeilly has been awarded the Illinois Council of Teachers of Mathematics 2011 Post-Secondary Mathematics Teaching Award for outstanding teaching in her position here at the University of Illinois. Jennifer was also recognized for her leadership in the Merit Program in Mathematics and the impact she has had on training teaching assistants to deliver studentcentered instruction.
Since earning both her Bachelors and Masters in the Teaching of Mathematics from the University of Illinois, Jennifer has been an instructor in the department, teaching large lecture introductory courses such as College Algebra and Preparation for Calculus. She is also a co-PI on a 5-year, $2 million NSF grant to fund an expansion of the successful Merit Program, a support initiative for underrepresented STEM students. Learn more about the Merit Program at www.merit.illinois.edu.
Meng Guo receives prestigious national award
Meng Guo, a Senior in Mathematics, received an Honorable Mention for the 2012 Alice T. Schafer Prize of the Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM), the most prestigious national prize for undergraduate women in mathematics. She is one of only four students nationwide to be honored in this manner this year. She will be recognized at the 2012 Joint Mathematics Meetings in Boston, MA. The award is the latest of Meng Guo's honors that include the Salma Wanna Prize in 2010, the H. Roy Brahana Prize in 2011, and top performances on the local math contest scene.
Junge named Romano Professorial Scholar
Professor Marius Junge has been named to a three-year term (2011-2014) as the Richard and Margaret Romano Professorial Scholar. Dean Ruth Watkins of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences selected Professor Junge for this honor, in recognition his outstanding achievements in research and his service to the campus. Professor Junge’s research includes groundbreaking work in operator spaces, operator algebras, noncommutative probability, noncommutative harmonic analysis, and most recently, in quantum information theory. Junge was a 2010–2011 Associate in the Center for Advanced Study and was appointed a J.L. Doob Scholar by the Department of Mathematics in 2011.
Richard Romano and his wife, Margaret, have generously served and supported the University of Illinois for over thirty years. In addition to providing annual financial support to the College of LAS, in 2003 the Romanos created the Romano Professorial Scholar Program. This program provides significant support for the research of some of the College’s most outstanding faculty members across many disciplines. The Department of Mathematics congratulates Marius and thanks the Romanos for this award.
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.