By Jenny Wells

Francis Su, a mathematician from Harvey Mudd College, will deliver a talk on how math helps people flourish at the University of Kentucky next week.

Hosted by the UK Department of Mathematics in the UK College of Arts and Sciences, the 2017-18 J.C. Eaves Lecture will be held from 5 to 6 p.m. Thursday, March 29, in Room 110 of the White Hall Classroom Building.  

Su, who is the outgoing president of the Mathematical Association of America, is known for his powerful speeches on how mathematics can help people achieve their human desires, such as truth and justice.

“Why does the practice of mathematics often fall short of our ideals and hopes? How can deeply human themes motivate our students to do and

The March 2018 issue of the Notices of the American Mathematical Society recognizes the history of women in mathematics in the US. The issue includes a section that  profiles  twenty-seven outstanding mathematicians. The guest editors for these profiles are Margaret Readdy of the University of Kentucky and Christine Taylor of Princeton University.

by Susan Odom

Kentucky’s middle school girls and their parents/guardians are invited to join us for the second annual Expanding Your Horizons Conference at the University of Kentucky campus on Saturday, April 21, 2018.  This day of hands-on workshops will give middle school girls the chance to meet STEM role models and get exposure to opportunities in science, technology, engineering, and math. This is the second iteration of the conference, which is organized by members of the Colleges of Agriculture, Food, and Environment, the College of Arts & Sciences, and the College of Engineering.

Co-organizers, including Ellen Crocker (Forestry and Natural Resources) and Carmen Agouridis (Biosystems & Ag Engineering), joined forces to bring Expanding Your Horizons back to UK for a second time. The EYH team is back with more person – in particular, woman! – power than

By Jenny Wells

This weekend, the University of Kentucky Department of Mathematics will host the first Julia Robinson Mathematics Festival for middle and high school students across the state.  The event will be held 9 a.m. to noon Saturday, Nov. 4, in the Don & Cathy Jacobs Science Building.

"This is part of a national initiative begun in 2013 to have students work on mathematics puzzles in a collaborative, noncompetitive and fun environment," said Margaret Readdy, UK professor of mathematics, who is organizing the event with Richard Ehrenborg, also a UK professor of math. "Professor Ehrenborg and I became interested in this after I brought our two sons to a Julia Robinson Math Festival in Princeton three years ago while on sabbatical. It was a lot of fun for

By Jennifer T. Allen

The University of Kentucky Department of Mathematics in the College of Arts and Sciences announces the appointment of Associate Professor Kate Ponto to the Wimberly and Betty Royster Research Professorship and Professor Richard Ehrenborg to the Ralph E. and Norma L. Edwards Research Professorship.

The Royster and Edwards professorships serve to recognize the Department of Mathematics’ most active researchers and to support their research. Both positions are three-year terms and include a stipend to support salary or research expenses.

Recommendations for the professorships are made by the mathematics faculty.

“Ehrenborg and Ponto are outstanding scholars who enjoy working with students,” said Russell Brown, chair of the Department

Professor Emeritus Beidleman passed away on Tuesday, 29 August 2017. Beidleman came to the Department of Mathematics in 1964 and retired in 2012. A memorial service will be held on 7 September 2017. Complete details may be found in his obituary. 

Mathematics major Emily Dautenhahn was recognized with an outstanding student presentation award for her talk at MathFest, 26-29 July 2017. The title of her presentation was "Raney Objects: A Generalization of Catalan Sets" and she reported on joint work with Hannah Pieper of Oberlin College. The project was supervised by Dr. Shelly Smith as part of an REU at Grand Valley State University.

By Whitney Hale

 The University of Kentucky Office of Nationally Competitive Awards has announced five of the university's undergraduate students pursued research in their fields of study this summer with funding from the National Science Foundation-Research Experiences for Undergraduates (NSF-REU) program.

The NSF funds many research opportunities for undergraduate students through its REU Sites program. An REU Site consists of a group of approximately 10 undergraduates who work in the research programs of the host institution. Each student is associated with a specific research project, where he/she works closely with faculty and other researchers. Throughout the NSF-REU program, students are granted stipends and, in many cases, assistance with

By Whitney Hale

Angela Wei, an agricultural and medical biotechnology and mathematics senior from Lexington, was one of five students across the country selected to participate in the 2017 Dartmouth MD/PhD Undergraduate Summer Fellowship Program.

Started in 2012, the Dartmouth MD-PhD Undergraduate Summer Fellowship Program is an initiative aimed at exposing undergraduates, especially members of historically underrepresented ethnic minorities in medical science, to the vibrant career pathway of the physician-scientist.

During the 10-week fellowship, running from mid-June until mid-August, fellows were exposed to basic medical science research working alongside one of Dartmouth’s MD-PhD students presently in the doctoral degree

By Jennifer T. Allen

University of Kentucky mathematics Assistant Professor Bert Guillou has been awarded funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for his research in homotopy theory. The $139,765 grant over three years will enable Guillou to further the understanding of all of the ways that a sphere can be mapped onto a sphere of a different dimension.

“This project will attempt to classify mappings in two related contexts,” Guillou said. “The first is a rigid world of algebraic geometry, where all objects can be described by polynomial equations. The other is the equivariant setting, where symmetries of the spheres are taken into account.”

Guillou will use recently developed techniques to tighten the connection between these two arenas and extend the range of dimensions in which these mappings can be classified.

“The calculation of the set of

Peter Perry is co-organizing a program titled Focus Program on Nonlinear Dispersive Partial Differential Equations and Inverse Scattering at the Fields Institute for Research in the Mathematical Sciences in Toronto. The program runs from 31 July to 23 August 2017.

By Amanda Lee

Fiona Foster. Photo by William Bingham.

Recent University of Kentucky graduate and member of Phi Kappa Phi (PKP), Fiona Foster, has received the 2017 Phi Kappa Phi National Fellowship. PKP is the nation's oldest and most selective all discipline honor society, having over 300 chapters across the nation and more overseas.

PKP currently presents 51 fellowships of $5,000 each to award winners entering the first year of graduate or professional study. Each active PKP chapter may select one candidate from among its local applicants to compete for the society-wide award.  

Foster graduated in May 2017 with a mathematics major and a 

By Lori Minter

The University of Kentucky has released its Dean's List for the spring 2017 semester.  A total of 6,412 students were recognized for their outstanding academic performance. 

To make a Dean’s List in one of the UK colleges, a student must earn a grade point average of 3.6 or higher and must have earned 12 credits or more in that semester, excluding credits earned in pass-fail classes.  Some UK colleges require a 3.5 GPA to make the Dean’s List.

The full Dean's List can be accessed by visiting: www.uky.edu/PR/News/DeansList/.

UK is the University for Kentucky. At UK, we are educating more students, treating more patients with complex illnesses and conducting more research and service than at any time in our 150-year history. To read more about the UK story and how

By Jennifer T. Allen

J.C. Eaves made expanding the study of mathematics throughout Kentucky one of his life’s missions.

"I remember my father telling me the story of how he visited high schools in 119 of Kentucky’s 120 counties," said Jim Eaves, his son. "He put a great importance on math education in Kentucky high schools."

J.C. Eaves grew up in Muhlenberg County in a large family with 11 siblings. He came to UK and earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in mathematics before joining the U.S. Navy during World War II. After the war, Eaves earned his doctorate at the University of North Carolina and, eventually, his path brought him back to his beloved state of Kentucky.

Jim Eaves grew up at the University of Kentucky. His family moved to Lexington when he was in the second grade, when his father became head of the Department of

Sara Ellis-Hebble was recognized by the University of Kentucky College of Education as a Teacher Who Made a Difference for 2017. 

Mathematics and Physics major Ben Riley has received the Goldwater Scholarship for 2017. More information is available at uknow.uky.edu  

By Whitney Hale

The University of Kentucky Office of Nationally Competitive Awards has announced that senior Benjamin Riley, of Louisville, Kentucky, has been awarded the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship. Riley is among 240 students nationwide awarded the Goldwater Scholarship this year. This year's Goldwater Scholars were selected on the basis of academic merit from a field of 1,286 mathematics, science and engineering students who were nominated by the faculties of 470 colleges and universities nationwide.

Additionally, two other UK students, Aaron Mueller, of Louisville, and Connor VanMeter, of Lexington, were among 307 students to receive honorable mention recognition from the esteemed scholarship program.

The Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and