Department of Mathematics
Weekly Bulletin

September 22-26, 1997

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Current News

  We would like to welcome for the new academic year the following new faculty members, visiting professors and visiting scholars:

NEW FACULTY

Richard S. Laugesen, Assistant Professor, 376 Altgeld Hall

Prof. Laugesen earned a Ph.D. degree in 1993 at Washington University in St. Louis under the supervision of Albert Baernstein II. He was an Assistant Professor at Johns Hopkins University in 1996-97. He is an outstanding analyst with interests in the direction of applied mathematics and mathematical physics. His initial work was on extremal problems in complex analysis and potential theory. Observers are uniformly enthusiastic about his achievements and his future potential. He is described as a superb teacher.

Renming Song, Assistant Professor, 227 Illini Hall

Prof. Song earned a Ph.D. degree in 1993 at the University of Florida under the supervision of Joseph Glover. He was an Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan in 1996-97. His research interests are in stochastic analysis and related problems in hard mathematical analysis and mathematical physics. His work on directed polymers in random environments has established the best mathematical results in a field studied extensively by many physicists. His teaching is described as flawless.

John Sullivan, Assistant Professor, 326 Illini Hall

Prof. Sullivan earned his Ph.D. degree at Princeton University in 1990 under the supervision of Fred Almgren. Before coming to the University of Illinois, he was an Assistant Professor at the University of Minnesota. He is an internationally recognized expert in experimental mathematics and mathematical visualization. He does theoretical research in close combination with numerical experimentation. This requires excellent skills from different areas of mathematics and computer science. He is a superb teacher.

Susan Tolman, Assistant Professor, 222 Illini Hall

Prof. Tolman earned her Ph.D. degree at Harvard University in 1993 under the supervision of Raoul Bott. She was appointed CLE Moore Instructor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and also won a NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship. In 1996-97 she was an Assistant Professor at Princeton University. Her research interests are Hamiltonian group actions, symplectic geometry and the geometry of moduli spaces. She is an outstanding teacher.

Tibor Szabó, J L Doob Research Assistant Professor, 338 Illini Hall

Dr. Szabó has a 1996 Ph.D.degree from The Ohio State University, earned under the supervision of Professor Ákos Seress. During 1996-97, he was a member of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. His area of interest is extremal combinatorics. He received his undergraduate diploma with distinction from the Eötvös Loránd University of Sciences in 1990. In 1995 he was awarded the Presidential Fellowship of The Ohio State University.

Tadashi Tokieda, J L Doob Research Assistant Professor, 222 Illini Hall

Dr. Tokieda has a 1996 Ph.D. degree from Princeton University, earned under the supervision of William Browder. In 1996-97 he was a Postdoctoral Fellow and Lecturer at McGill University in Montreal. His interest is in symplectic topology and Hamiltonian dynamics. He is a 1989 classics graduate from Jochi University in Tokyo, has a 1991 bachelor degree from Oxford University in mathematics (where he studied as a Fellow of the British Council) and has a 1992 masters degree from Princeton University. He speaks Japanese, French, English, Greek, Latin, classical Chinese, Finnish, Spanish and Russian.

VISITING PROFESSORS FOR FALL'97

Juergen Bliedtner, Professor, 107 Altgeld Hall

Prof. Bliedtner comes from University of Frankfurt.

David Pierce, Visiting Assistant Professor, 223 Coble Hall

Prof. Pierce comes from the University of Maryland.

VISITING SCHOLARS FOR FALL"97 OR THE ACADEMIC YEAR 1997-98

Chidambaram Adimoolan, 225 Coble Hall

Prof. Adimoolan comes from Bharathidasam University, Tridy, Tamilnadu, India.

Young Do Chai, 329 Illini Hall

Prof. Do Chai comes from Sung Kyun Kwan University, Seoul.

Lakhdar Hammoudi, 329 Illini Hall

Prof. Hammoudi comes from the Universite de Haute Alsace, Strasbourg.

Segyeong Kim, 329 Illini Hall

Prof. Kim comes from Brandeis University. He is a lecturer at Chonnan National University in Korea.

Bernhard Koeck, 338 Illini Hall

Prof. Koeck comes from the University of Karlsruhe.

Seung-Hyeok Kye, 225 Coble Hall

Prof. Kye comes from Seoul National University.

John Selfridge, 331 Illini Hall

Prof. Selfridge comes from Northern Illinois University. He currently is also a Professor at Cyberspace University.

Shuang Zhang, 329 Illini Hall

Prof. Zhang comes from the University of Cincinnati.

DEPARTMENT FAMILY POTLUCK PICNIC

WHEN: Saturday, September 27, Noon - 4:00 PM

WHERE: Pavilion in Crystal Lake Park at the Corner of Central Ave. and Park St. in Urbana

BRING: Please bring a dish to share and your own drinks. Beer and/or wine will be permitted. Folding chairs, blankets, volleyballs and yard games are welcome. Paper plates and plastic utensils will be provided.

NOTE: Please let Pat Coombs know by Wednesday, September 24th if you plan to attend so that enough plates and utensils are available.

FROM THE MATHEMATICS LIBRARY

Attention Mathematicians

Dear Mathematicians:

All of you received last month a letter from the University Librarian, Robert Wedgeworth, describing major changes in the University Library. He has glossed over the fact that the University of Illinois Library is considerably underfunded compared to its peers. The main effect has been for all of the departmental librarians to make substantial cuts, in a very short period of time, into their core journal collections. The Chemistry, Engineering, and Physics libraries have been particularly hard hit so it's not surprising those faculties are screaming mad. On the other hand, the Mathematics Library has been spared from making these cancellations due to support from the Department of Mathematics and the Illinois Journal of Mathematics.

I urge you to attend the Senate meeting this coming Monday as Faulkner and Wedgeworth will be there to answer the concerns of the faculty. I also urge you to attend a session Wedgeworth has scheduled for mathematicians, engineers, and physical scientists on Tuesday, September 30th, 9:30 -11:30 a.m., Levis Center, 3rd Floor to describe a library in transition. I would hope the "younger" members of the department (as they will be most affected by these changes) and the Mathematics Department Library Committee attend both of these meetings.

Nancy Anderson

Here is the latest message from the University Librarian.

Wiley Journals

An announcement has been received with regard to Wiley journals. Of interest to the mathematical community are:

        Applied Stochastic Models and Data Analysis
        Communications on Pure and Applied Mathematics
        Complexity
        Journal of Combinatorial Designs
        Journal of Graph Theory
        Mathematical Education
        Mathematical Modeling and Computational Experiment
        Naval Research Logistics
        Numerical Linear Algebra with Applications
        Numerical Methods for Partial Differential Equations
        Optimal Control: Applications & Methods
        Random Structures & Algorithms
        Russian Journal of Mathematical Physics

IMPORTANT DATES - FALL 1997

Coming Events

MIDWEST TOPOLOGY SEMINAR

When: Saturday, September 27, 1997

Where: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Organizers: Profs. Dan Grayson (dan@math.uiuc.edu) and Randy McCarthy (randy@math.uiuc.edu) of the Department of Mathematics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Speakers: To be announced.

Note: Twenty rooms for those two nights are being held at the Illini Union Guest Rooms until August 26, 1997. Please call (217) 333-1241 to make a reservation.

35TH ANNUAL ALLERTON CONFERENCE ON COMMUNICATION, CONTROL, AND COMPUTING

When: Monday, September 29 - Wednesday, October 1, 1997

Where: Allerton House in Allerton Park near Monticello, Illinois

Co-chairs: Tamer Basar and Alexander Vardy

Note: There will be sessions on algebraic geometry and coding theory all day Monday. University of Illinois faculty and students are excused the registration fee.

Conference Information

Preliminary Program

1997-1998 ARTHUR B. COBLE MEMORIAL LECTURES

Prof. Freeman J. Dyson of the School of Physics at the Institute for Advanced Study will deliver the 27th annual series of the Arthur B. Coble Memorial Lectures* at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign on October 6, 7, and 8, 1997.

All lectures will be delivered in the Tryon Festival Theater at the Krannert Center for Performing Arts (KCPA) at 4:00 PM.

Monday, October 6	Life in the Universe, I. The Paradox of Order and Disorder.
Tuesday, October 7	Life in the Universe, II. The Search for Life.
Wednesday, October 8	Does the Electron Charge Stay Constant as the Universe Evolves?

A reception will be held on Tuesday, October 7 in the KCPA lobby following the lecture.

*The lecture series honors the memory of Arthur B. Coble (1878-1966), professor of mathematics at UIUC from 1918 to 1947. The late Professor Coble's family established a fund to endow a series of public lectures on mathematics to be delivered by outstanding mathematicians.

CONFERENCE ON PROBABILITY, ERGODIC THEORY AND ANALYSIS

When: October 23-26, 1997

Where: Northwestern University

Sponsors: National Science Foundation and Northwestern University

Organizers: Roger Jones, DePaul University; Mark Pinsky, Department of Mathematics, Northwestern University and Joseph Rosenblatt, Department of Mathematics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Poster.

Information.

Schedule.

MIDWEST MODEL THEORY SYMPOSIUM

When: November 15-16, 1997

Where: UIUC Dept. of Math.

Information.

Weekly Calendar