Math Dept 2013-2014
Newsletter 18
Monday, 24 February 2014
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Newsletter is sent out when there is something
new.
Please send entries by the end of the
week --Ed
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MEETINGS AND SEMINARS IN THE DEPARTMENT
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Every Monday
1. Combinatorics
Seminar
Details TBA.
Organizers: Alex Burstein and Lou Shapiro
2. Geometry and
Topology Seminar
ASB-B 213 3.00 to 4pm
Speaker: Professor Joseph Yeager
Topic: SYMPLECTIC
AND CONTACT GEOMETRY.
Stanley M. Einstein-Matthews
Coordinator
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Every Tuesday
The Seminar on Topological Semigroups
and Ramsey Theory
Tuesdays at 11:10 a.m
in room 233 of Annex III
Neil Hindman will
be speaking on separating subrings of the rationals
by partition regular matrices.
Organizer: Neil Hindman
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Tuesday, February 25
Dev Phulara's PhD Dissertation Defense
Title: "A Generalization of the Central Sets
Theorem with Applications and Some Additive and Multiplicative Ramsey
Numbers"
Advisor: Neil Hindman
External Examiner: Arthur Grainger, Associate
Professor, Morgan State University
Chairperson: Dennis Davenport
Other Committee Members: Alexander Burstein and
Francois Ramaroson
Location: Annex III (Graduate School) - Room 205
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Friday Feb 28
Mathematics Department Colloquium
4.10 to 5 pm, ASB-B 213
Speaker: Marshall Cohen, Morgan State
Title: The Hat Puzzle, Sphere Packing and Error
Correcting Codes
Fluid dynamics seminar
Seminar will take place after colloquium, and at
4.30 if there is no colloquium.
Abstract: (Neil Hindman)
The "Fluid" refers to soda and
beer. The "Dynamics" refers to the topics of conversation,
which is as likely as anything to deal with RGIII and the Washington Football
Club. Pizza, including a vegetarian option, and wings are provided.
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TALKS AND EVENTS OUTSIDE THE DEPARTMENT
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ANNOUNCEMENTS
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1. Muhammad Mahmood would
like to announce his recent publications:
'Short Duration Solitonic
and non-Solitonic Pulse Propagation through Optical Metamaterials', to be presented in META '14, the 5th.
International Conference on metamaterials , photonic crystals and plasmonics
to be held at Nanyang Technological University,
Singapore from 20 to 23 May 2014.
Elissaios Stavrou, Muhtar Ahart, M.F. Mahmood, A.G. Goncharov, ÒProbing the different Spatial Scales of Kel F-800 Polymeric Glass under PressureÓ, Scientific
Reports (NATURE), 3, 1290 (2013)
A.
Biswas, D. Milovic, R.
Khan, M.F. Mahmood, R. Kohl, ÒBright and Dark Solitons in Optical Metamaterials,Ó
Optik (In Press)
A.
Biswas, Dawn A. Lott, Brielle Sutton, Kaisar Khan, M.F. Mahmood,
ÒOptical Gaussons in Nonlinear Directional Couplers,Ó
J. Electromagnetic Waves and Applications (In Press)
Michelle
Savescu, A.H. Bhrawy, A.A. Alshaery, E.M. Hilal, Kaisar R. Khan, M.F. Mahmood, Anjan Biswas, ÒOptical Solitons in Nonlinear Directional Couplers with Spatio-Temporal DispersionÓ, J. Modern Optics (UK) (In
Press)- (43 pages)
Kaisar R.
Khan, M.F. Mahmood, Anjan Biswas, ÒCoherent Super Continuum Generation in
Photonic Crystal Fibers at Visible and Near Infrared WavelengthsÓ, IEEE Journal
of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics (In Press)
2. (Talitha Washington)
Advanced Computational Biology Symposium will take place at Howard on March
26, 2014.
Topics include Molecular Simulation & Design,
Systems Biology, Genomics and Big Data.
See http://CompBioSymposium.com for further
details.
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SCHOLARSHIP AND FELLOWSHIP OPPORTUNITIES (from
various sources)
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1. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)
SunShot
Postdoctoral Research Awards
The SunShot
Postdoctoral Research Awards support innovative solar research by offering
recent Ph.D. recipients the opportunity to conduct applied R&D at
universities, national laboratories, and other research facilities.
Application Deadline: April 30, 2014
For more information and to apply, visit:
http://www1.eere.energy.gov/education/postdoctoral
2. (Aziz Yakubu) AMS-Simons
Travel Grants
Applications are now being accepted, with support
provided by the Simons Foundation. The grant provides an early-career
mathematician with $2,000 per year for two years to be used for
research-related travel.
The application period for 2014 is February 1,
2014 through 11:59 pm eastern time on March 31, 2014.
To learn more about eligibility and how to apply,
visit
http://www.ams.org/programs/travel-grants/AMS-SimonsTG
3. From Oak Ridge Labs
Heidelberg Laureate Forum in
Heidelberg, Germany, from September 21 through 26, 2014. NSF
and ORAU invite your institution to nominate graduate students and postdoctoral
researchers to be members of the U.S. Delegation to this prestigious meeting.
The first Heidelberg Laureate Forum (HLF) was
held in 2013 bringing together winners of the Fields Medal, Abel Prize, Turing
Award, and Rolf Nevanlinna Prize with young
researchers in Heidelberg, Germany on the campus of the University of Heidelberg. U.S.
delegation members will receive all business-related expenses to attend the HLF
along with some additional benefits.
Specific eligibility criteria and a
nomination form may be found on our web site: http://www.orau.org/hlf. All applicants to the
U.S. delegation must also apply to attend to the HLF Foundation at http://www.heidelberg-laureate-forum.org/call-for-application.
All nominations must be submitted before Monday,
March 3, 2014 at 12:00 pm, Eastern Time.
4. From Oak Ridge Labs
Graduate Internship opportunities
at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
The Computational Data Analytics
Research Group (CDAG) at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has multiple
openings for Graduate Interns in the field of Data Analytics Research. https://www3.orau.gov/ORNL_TOppS/Posting/Details/516
The Computing and Computational
Science Directorate (CCSD) at ORNL oversees ORNLÕs store of computing power and
its talented staff of computational scientists and mathematicians. CCSD has
multiple Graduate Internship openings in the fields of: High-Performance File
Systems and Storage; Communications Middleware; HPC Languages and Tools
(programming languages, compilers, runtimes, and tools for high-performance
computers); Large-Scale and Data-Intensive, Collaborative, Scientific
Applications. https://www3.orau.gov/ORNL_TOppS/Posting/Details/515
5. (From Aziz Yakubu) Opportunities
at the Navy
HBCU Undergradute
Program:
NREIP Program:
http://www.onr.navy.mil/en/Education-Outreach/undergraduate-graduate/NREIP-naval-internship.aspx
Summer Faculty Program:
http://www.onr.navy.mil/Education-Outreach/Summer-Faculty-Research-Sabbatical.aspx
6. (From Aziz Yakubu) Opportunities
at NASA
Spring 2014 throug
spring of 2015 NASA will have workshops, research projects and internship
opportunities for undergrads in STEM programs.
Howard students are especially encouraged to
apply.
More information at http://DCSpaceGrant.org/STEM
7. RECONNECT Workshop 2014 Forensics
Where: Massachusetts Maritime Academy
in Buzzards Bay, MA
When: June 1-7, 2014
The CCICADA Summer Reconnect Workshops expose faculty teaching undergraduates to the role of the
mathematical and computer sciences in homeland security and provide an
opportunity to researchers in government or industry to learn about recent
material in various areas.
Deadline for Applications is February 28, 2014 or
until all slots are filled.
For more information visit the Reconnect web
page
http://ccicada.org/Reconnect/2014/.
8. Opportunity in China for graduate
students and post-docs. OTS and the Xishuangbanna
Tropical Botanical (XTBG: Chinese Academy of Sciences) are offering a new
course on ÒThe Ecology of Climate Change in the Tropics and
Sub-TropicsÓ. The course dates are June 16-July 16, 2014.
More information: Go to http://ots.ac.cr/
and look under ÒGraduate Programs.Ó
9. Project Kaleidoscope (PKAL) Summer Leadership Institute
Applications Due March 24
The PKAL Summer
Leadership Institute is designed for both early- and
mid-career STEM faculty engaged in leading projects aimed at transforming
undergraduate STEM education in their classrooms, departments, and
institutions. This year, through its Sustainability Improves Student
Learning (SISL) initiative, PKAL will offer travel and/or registration awards
for STEM faculty with demonstrated commitment to and experience in integrating
elements of sustainability into STEM course content. Additional
information about the PKAL SISL Initiative can be found here.
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INTERESTING ARTICLES AND WEBSITES
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1. (Louise Raphael) A
free pdf link to the National Academy of Sciences
report on Math Sciences in 2025 is here:
http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=15269
2. (From Aziz Yakubu) Improving minority participation in STEM
education
Stereotypes are dangerous—they hurt, they
mislead and they ultimately diminish us all. When whole groups are stereotyped,
prejudices that damage the social and educational fabric
result. This problem is evident when women and minorities are
stereotyped in the science, technology, engineering and math fields known as
STEM. The challenge of enrolling and graduating more women and minorities in
STEM fields has drawn national attention. The College Board has undertaken an
initiative to enroll more young women and minority students in STEM advanced
placement courses and the American Association of University Women has a large
outreach program for young women wishing to enter STEM fields.
As part of this national conversation, AIRÕs
Center for STEM Education and Innovation<http://www.air.org/focus-area/education/?id=10>
held a two-day symposium in late September on using research to inform policies
and practices<http://www.air.org/focus-area/education/index.cfm?fa=viewContent&content_id=2305&id=10>
in STEM education, particularly in higher education.
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