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Alumni Day Mathematics 2022

Mathematics Alumni Day at the University of Kentucky brings together students, faculty, alumni, and friends of the Department of Mathematics to celebrate the accomplishments of our alumni.

Date and location

Date: Friday, April 1, 2022

Location: CB 122

Time: 2:00 – 5:30 p.m.

Speakers / Presenters

Liam Solus, Kristen Barnard, Stephen Sturgeon

Summary

Three UK Math Department alumni will return to UK to share their journey with current faculty, math graduate students, and undergraduate students.

 

Name: Liam Solus, KTH Stockholm (Zoom)

Title: On the Road to Tenure in Research Academics 

Abstract: A Ph.D. in mathmatics opens up a variety of different career paths in today's society, including lucrative industry positions, professorships in undergraduate teaching fucused-collges as well as professorships in Ph.D.-granting programs. While each of these career-paths naturally intersects with the others, success in one direction often means prioritizing certain activities during your time as a Ph.D. Student. I will refect on my experience and the choices I made as I pursued a tenure-track position within a Ph.D. granting mathematics program, starting from my time as a Ph.D. student at the University of Kentucky. We will discuss the importance of networking, grant writing, leadership and teaching experience, how one might approach these different tasks both before and after finding a tenure-track position, and how one might cope with the stresses these tasks induce. I will also compare and contrast how these key aspects play a role in pursuing such a position in Europe as opposed to one in the USA.

 

Name: Kristen Barnard, Berea College (in-person)

Title: Working In Reverse: Insights Gained from Being in Academia Before My PhD

Abstract: My path through graduate school at UK was certainly not the traditional path.  While I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone, I wouldn’t change a thing, and I have had opportunities that not many people could say they have had in just five years after earning their PhD.  During my sixteen years at Berea I have learned a lot about teaching and a lot about what it means to be a professor and community member at a small liberal arts college.  In my talk I will briefly share about my journey through graduate school while teaching full time, some highlights from what I have learned as a teacher, and some insights on what you can start doing now to get noticed, get hired, and get tenured at a liberal arts institution.  

 

Name: Stephen Sturgeon, Linquest Corporation (in-person)

Title: Good Enough for Goverment Work - Mathematics Across the DoD 

Abstract: From PDEs to simple regressions to massive linear programs, the US Department of Defense is the country’s largest business employing a wide range of mathematical methods. In this talk I will present a sampling of the experiences I’ve had working on these problems. PDEs play a critical role in research related to radiation exposure. Rapid analytical methods to pull meaning from the numbers at the speed of relevance is critical in a combat situation. Linear programs embedded in simulation software dominate the landscape of the analysis supporting the multi-billion-dollar defense budget. Working in industry also provides the experience with working 

on (and sometimes leading) cross-discipline teams. Join me as we walk through a sampling of what a mathematics career in the DoD has to offer.
Date:
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Location:
White Hall Classroom Building (CB 122)
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Alumni Day Mathematics 2020

Date and location

Date: Friday, February 28, 2020

Location: Gatton College of Business & Economics, room 191

Speakers / Presenters

Rachelle R. Bouchat, Robert Davis, Ryan Walker

Summary

Three UK Math Department alumni will come back to UK and speak to our current faculty and students.

Speaker 1

Name: Rachelle R. Bouchat, Indiana University of Pennsylvania

Title: Keep Your Chin Up: A Lesson in Resilience

Speaker 2

Name: Robert Davis, Colgate University

Title: Becoming Your Own Mathematician

Speaker 3

Name: Ryan Walker, Casetext

Title: Mathematicians, startups need you!


Date:
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Location:
Gatton College of Business & Economics, Room 191
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Event Series:

Alumni Day, Mathematics 2019

Three UK Math Department alumni will come back to UK and speak to our current faculty and students. 

 

Tricia Muldoon Brown, Georgia Southern University

Title: Four Words to Live by for Your Career in Academia

 

Julia Chifman, American University

Title: My Journey into Mathematical and Computational Biology: There is no Common Formula

 

Aaron Saxton, National Center for Super Computing Applications

Title: "Not All Who Wander Are Lost" -- J.R.R. Tolkien

 

Date:
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Location:
CB 204
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Discrete CATS Seminar--Dissertation Defense--Clifford Taylor

Title:  Deletion-Induced Triangulations

Abstract:   Let $d > 0$ be  a fixed integer and let $\A \subseteq \mathbb{R}^d$ be a collection of $n \geq d+2$ points which we lift into $\mathbb{R}^{d+1}$. Further let $k$ be an integer satisfying $0 \leq k \leq n-(d+2)$ and assign to each $k$-subset of the points of $\A$ a (regular) triangulation obtained by deleting the specified $k$-subset and projecting down the lower hull of the convex hull of the resulting lifting. Next, for each triangulation we form the characteristic vector outlined by Gelfand, Kapranov, and Zelevinsky by assigning to each vertex the sum of the volumes of all adjacent simplices. We then form a vector for the lifting, which we call the compound GKZ-vector, by summing all the characteristic vectors. Lastly, we construct a polytope $\Sigma_k(\A) \subseteq \mathbb{R}^{| \A |}$ by taking the convex hull of all obtainable compound GKZ-vectors by various liftings of $\A$, and note that $\Sigma_0(\A)$ is the well-studied secondary polytope corresponding to $\A$. We will see that by varying $k$, we obtain a family of polytopes with interesting properties relating to Minkowski sums, Gale transforms, and Lawrence constructions, with the member of the family with maximal $k$ corresponding to a zonotope studied by Billera, Fillamen, and Sturmfels. We will also discuss the case $k=d=1$, in which we can outline a combinatorial description of the vertices allowing us to better understand the graph of the polytope and to obtain formulas for the numbers of vertices and edges present.

Date:
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Location:
POT 745
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Celebration of Mind

 

Have you heard of M.C. Escher? Origami?

The widespread popularity of these and many other intellectual staples of popular culture is largely due to one man: Martin Gardner.
 
He is said to have created more mathematicians than any other person in history, through his numerous books and long-running recreational math column in Scientific AmericanWidely revered among mathematicians, Gardner passed away in 2010. However his influence and legacy continue to inspire us to approach seemingly intractable problems from unconventional angles.
 
"Gardner's greatest skill was his ability to communicate complex mathematical ideas to the layperson," said math graduate student Cyrus Hettle. "His books and especially his long-running column in Scientific American are full of ideas that are central to modern mathematics, but Gardner – whose mathematical education never went beyond calculus – made them accessible to anyone with a high school mathematics education." 
 
"Gardner also presented mathematics in a truly multidisciplinary way. Not only did he explain mathematics using puzzles, games, and magic tricks, he found mathematics and mathematical ideas in poetry and art," Hettle explained.
 
The Celebration of Mind is an international celebration of Gardner, who would have turned 100 this year. "This is the fourth Celebration of Mind at UK, and I'm excited to be a part of this global event," said Hettle, who is heading up this year's festivities.
 
There are over 80 events worldwide, on every continent except Antarctica. UK's event will be on Monday, November 3, from 4:45 to 5:45 p.m. at the Math House. Refreshments will be served, as well as confections for the mind - all the mathematical games, puzzles, and magic tricks one can imagine to honor the contributions of Gardner.
 
Faculty, students, and all others with an interest in mathematics are invited to attend!
 
For more information, contact Cyrus Hettle at cyrus.h@uky.edu
 
Also check out the International Celebration of Mind website at celebrationofmind.org.
Date:
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Location:
Math House, 654 Maxwelton Ct
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2015 van Winter Memorial Lecture

TItle: "The Master's Hand" Can image analysis detect the hand of the Master? 

Abstract:  The talk will describe wavelets, a mathematical tool used for the analysis and compression of images (including for digital cinema).Then it will go on to discuss how they have been used recently for the study of paintings by e.g. Van Gogh, Goossen van der Weyden, Gauguin, and Giotto.

About the speaker: Professor Daubechies obtained her Ph.D. in theoretical physics in 1980, and worked at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel until 1987. At the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences in New York, she made her best-known discovery: based on quadrature mirror filter-technology, she constructed compactly supported continuous wavelets that would require only a finite amount of processing. This breakthrough enabled wavelet theory to enter the realm of digital signal processing.

In July 1987, Dr. Daubechies joined the AT&T Bell Laboratories' New Jersey facility at Murray Hill. From 1994 to 2010, Dr. Daubechies was a Professor of Mathematics at Princeton University where she directed the Program in Applied and Computational Mathematics. She was the first female full Professor of Mathematics at Princeton. Dr. Daubechies currently works as a James B. Duke Professor of Mathematics at Duke University.

Professor Daubechies received the Louis Empain Prize for Physics in 1984. In 1994, she received the American Mathematical Society (AMS) Steele Prize for Exposition for her book “Ten Lectures on Wavelets”, and gave a plenary lecture at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Zurich. In 1997, she was awarded the AMS Ruth Lyttle Satter prize. Professor Daubechies was elected to the United States National Academy of Sciences in 1998. In 2000, Professor Daubechies became the first woman to receive the National Academy of Sciences Award in Mathematics for excellence in published mathematical research. In 2006 she was the Emmy Noether Lecturer at the San Antonio Joint Mathematics Meetings. She won 2012 BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in the Basic Sciences category (jointly with David Mumford) and the 2012 Nemmers Prize in Mathematics from Northwestern University. She was the first woman president of the International Mathematical Union (2011- 2014).

Additional information is available at www.math.uky.edu/van-winter



Photo credit of Ingrid Daubechies - David von Becker

Date:
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Location:
Chemistry-Physics 155