Effective September 1, 2004, the Department of Mathematics will be leaving the College of Engineering and joining the College of Arts and Sciences. Of course, the Board of Regents will have to approve this move. It is made with mixed feelings, some sadness and anticipated opportunities. We have enjoyed being around the engineers and we will continue to be housed in Lucas. Dean Hopper has been very supportive of the Department and its programs. We will miss his wise leadership. However, the culture of mathematics is very different from the culture of engineering. I believe that the culture found in a College of Arts and Sciences is a little more compatible with that of mathematics. I have had good experience working with humanities faculty in the past at my former university. Also, we may have better access to resources in Arts and Sciences but only time will tell. We hear that Dean Nichols (Arts and Sciences) is very good. Thus, some of us eagerly anticipate this change although it will be fraught with challenges and hard work. But, there will be opportunities that will allow the Department to continue on the path that was begun in the College of Engineering.
Charles A. Coppin, Chair
We are pleased to welcome Miss Wendy Hickman as the newest addition to our office staff. Wendy is serving as Administrative Assistant.
Mathfest! was held this spring on April 2, 2004 at the John Gray Center. MathFest! is an annual fun day of mathematics-related events. Nine southeast Texas high schools were invited to send a group of students for a day of individual and team competitions, and mathematics exhibits and presentations. The individual competitions included the areas of algebra, geometry, and calculator use, respectively. The team competition was a broad-based exam, covering topics from arithmetic, counting, algebra, geometry, financial mathematics, and multi-stage problems. The department is grateful to Entergy Texas and to the University for their support of Mathfest! activities.
The Math Club had a number of meetings during the fall semester – problem working sessions, social gatherings, etc. This year’s officers are: President Sateesh Velmala, Vice-President Katie Tyler, Secretary Diana Caicedo, and Treasurer Ashley Yancey. The club’s faculty sponsors are Drs. Fowler, Wilkinson, and Daniel. The club’s website is http://www.math.lamar.edu/organizations/mathclub/mathclub.html.
V. V. Andreev and A. Matheson, “Quadratic Extremal Problems on the Dirichlet Space”, Complex Variables, 48 (2003), No. 9, 767-776
V. V. Andreev, “Fejer-Riesz Type Inequalities for Bergman Spaces”, accepted to appear in Rocky Mountain Journal of Mathematics
V. V. Andreev, “An Extremal Function for the Chang-Marshall Inequality over the Beurling Functions”, accepted to appear in Proceedings of the American Mathematical Society
P. Chiou, “Shrinkage estimation for the difference between exponential guarantee time parameters,” accepted for publication in Computational Statistics and Data Analysis
D. Daniel and C. T. Kennaugh, “A Metrizable Fibering of Continuous Images of the Lexicographic Square,” to appear in Topology and its Applications
J. Fowler, Contributed Presentation – “Computations in Local Symmetric Spaces” Weekend Algebra Conference at Florida Atlantic University, November 8, 2003
J. Fowler, Contributed Presentation – “Computing a Basis for the Local Symmetric Space” Joint Meetings of the AMS/MAA, January 7-11, 2004
W. Ted Mahavier, Invited address, 6th Annual Legacy of R. L. Moore Conference, March, 14, 2003, University of Texas at Austin.
S. Naratip, Solution to Problem 733 in The College Mathematics Journal 34 (2003), No. 4.
D. Schultz and J. Weir, Solution to Problem 731 in The College Mathematics Journal 34 (2003), No. 4.
Congratulations to Dr. Ted Mahavier, who has been named Associate Editor of Applied Mathematics and Computer Science for the Missouri Journal of Mathematical Sciences. He has also been named as Associate Editor of Research for the Journal of the Texas Section of the Mathematical Association of America.
The department is pleased to continue to welcome visiting researchers. We welcomed Dr. Willliam S. Mahavier as a visiting researcher in March 2004. Dr. Mahavier is a leading researcher in metric continuum theory and general topology. Dr. Mahavier is Professor of Mathematics at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. Dr. Mahavier is the father of Dr. W. Ted Mahavier.
The Department is grateful to the Educational Advancement Foundation for the following funding:
$4500 to convert MathNerds from LLC to 501(c)3
$21,000 to support development of the Journal of Discovery Learning in Mathematics with majority of funding for student typesetting of mathematical materials
$43, 500 in support of the strengthening of the graduate program
Let f(x)=[x] be the greatest integer function. What is the limit of the function f(x)/x as x approaches infinity?
Show that if n is an integer greater than 1, then n4+4 is not prime.
If you would like to make a tax-deductible donation to the Department, please make your check payable to the Lamar University Department of Mathematics and send to:
| Lamar University | |
| Department of Mathematics | |
| P. O. Box 10047 | |
| Beaumont, Texas 77710-0047 |
If you have questions or comments, please write to the address above or call us at (409)-880-8792.