It is the time of year when we reflect on what has been happening at the Department of Mathematics and talk about our plans for the near future. This year passed by incredibly fast, possibly because we were so busy! 2024 was a year of significant change for the department.

After the spring semester ended, the department moved from Bachelor Hall to its temporary locations: half of the faculty is now in Upham Hall and the other half is in Laws Hall. After occupying Bachelor Hall since 1987, this move felt like an event of seismic proportions, but everyone collaborated and helped each other make the move. It took some time to settle into a new environment and appreciate the new opportunities and features it offers. Soon after the move, Linda Ferriell, the administrative associate and valued friend of the department announced her retirement. She provided support to faculty for more than 26 years. We will miss her upbeat and calming presence and are wishing her the best in her retirement.

Another very important event in 2024 was the approval of the new degree: BS in Applied Mathematics. The program’s goal is to prepare students for work in industry or put them on track for graduate degrees in Applied Mathematics. It took almost two years to design the proposal and guide it through the approval process. I am proud of our department for all of the work and collaboration it took to achieve this feat and create a new degree program. Miami University considers this program a potential area of new growth. Here is an article on the College of Arts and Science news website about our degree program.

The following certificate programs, which were designed during 2023, became available to students in Fall 2024: Financial Mathematics certificate, Mathematical Modeling certificate, and Dynamical Systems and Mathematical Modeling graduate certificate. The department did not stop there; two more certificates are currently moving through the approval process: the Computational Linguistics certificate and the certificate in Mathematics Teaching. I would like to thank the faculty members involved in the design of the approved and proposed programs for their work and contributions to the strategic vision.

Alumni, we would greatly appreciate it if you could share information about internships, job opportunities, and projects that students or faculty may get involved in. Your career advice and insights would also be invaluable as we aim to foster connections and facilitate opportunities for our students.

We value your stories and would be grateful to learn from your career experiences. Hearing how the foundation you built in the Math Department has shaped your journey would inspire and guide our current students. Please reach out, send an email to either a faculty member that you remember, or to me, or just drop us a note through this form, to share your experience with us. We would love to hear from you!

We are extremely grateful for the financial contributions we receive from our alumni and friends. Your support of the department in general or designated support for projects like the Math Help Center or funding students’ travel to the Joint Mathematics Meeting or other conferences makes a difference and would be greatly appreciated.

Please keep in touch, and best wishes for the future.

Anna Ghazaryan
Professor and Chair
mathematics@MiamiOH.edu

The new AMS graduate student chapter, pioneered by faculty advisor Prof. Beata Randrianantoanina, was formally registered with AMS in May 2024. The first event organized by the chapter was the Fibonacci Day (above), held on September 11, 2024. It featured a presentation by a first-year graduate student Thomas Jordan, a lot of games, and community building.

Nathaniel Smith (right), an MS student who graduated in May 2024, received the 2024 Miami University College of Arts and Science graduate student teaching award.

Pi Mu Epsilon Ohio Delta Chapter, co-advised by Professor Dan Farley and Professor Ivonne Ortiz, inducted new members and elected new officers on November 8, 2024.

Eleven Miami students (Jose Roberto Fabre Segundo, Ume Hania, Thomas Jordan, Ava Kerry, Raj Limbasia, Charlotte Melby, Will Paz, William Ranis, Shumaila, Jonathan Waldmann, and Daryl Zazycki) gave research talks at the 49th Pi Mu Epsilon student conference held at Miami University in October 2024. See photos below.

"This summer I attended an REU entitled Equitable Data Science for Adolescent Development at the University of Minnesota. This REU gave me the invaluable chance as an undergrad to be paid to learn, and I ended up loving my research project so much that after the summer was over, I continued working on it with my research advisor. We're now working on turning it into a publication.

"This REU gave me that chance, as well as the chance to make contacts in my field, learn about applying to graduate schools, present at an undergraduate conference, and live in a city I'd never even been to before that summer. The support and opportunity offered by these programs cannot be overstated--plus the people are pretty great too."

“This past summer I participated in an REU program in Computational Methods in Discrete Mathematics at Moravian University in Bethlehem, PA. I worked on two projects: one in graph theory where I researched perfect Roman domination and bondage, and the other in game theory where I researched the solvability of three-color peg solitaire. This REU has opened the door for several opportunities to present my work, including CAS Discover the Sciences, Miami's PME student conference, and JMM.”

“Over the past summer, I participated in the Summer@ICERM Program at Brown University. Funded by the NSF and run through the Institute for Computational and Experimental Research in Mathematics, my program was entitled Mathematical Models to Predict, Prepare, and Prevent, where my research focus was on Predictive Modeling and Analysis of Sports Using Linear-Algebra-Based Models.

"Working in a group with three other undergraduates, Mia Adler (Pomona College), Tiffanie Ng (Kenyon College), and Ford McDill (Wesleyan University), we dug into the world of the rodeo where we constructed holistic methods to rank bareback riders as well as attacking the sport of rodeo from a mathematical lens. Our paper, Money Bull: An Analysis of Ranking Methods on Rodeo, is awaiting our referee report from the Math and Sports journal for publication. My team and I were invited to speak at the Mathematics and Sports special session at the Joint Mathematics Meetings 2025 in Seattle and the Pi Mu Epsilon poster and paper sessions.

"My REU experience was unforgettable, and I will always cherish the memories, the sights, and the lifelong friendships I made.”

Many of our faculty members are active researchers working at the forefront of their respective fields.

This past fall semester, Miami Math Professor Jason Gaddis had a particularly busy schedule speaking and participating at conferences at two of the leading institutes in the world. In this issue, we asked him to give a brief account of his experience. Here is what he said:

“This past semester, I had the opportunity to present my research at two international conferences. The first conference took place at the Oberwolfach Research Institute for Mathematics in Germany's Black Forest. The institute offers a serene setting and plenty of hiking trails to encourage mathematical discussion and collaboration. In addition, visitors have access to the institute's large library of books and journals, as well as its online holdings during their visit. Conference proposals at Oberwolfach are very competitive and attendance is by invitation only.

"The conference, titled "Algebraic Geometry and Noncommutative Projective Varieties," ran as a tandem workshop with the Research Institute for Mathematical Sciences in Kyoto, Japan. Each institute hosted two talks a day, one that was presented synchronously for the other institute and one that the alternate institute would watch asynchronously.

"The second conference, titled “Poisson Geometry and Artin-Schelter Regular Algebras," took place at The Institute for Advanced Study in Mathematics in Hangzhou, China. Though Hangzhou is a large city of almost 12 million people, the institute is located on a small island (called Academic Island) in the scenic Xianghu Lake. Hangzhou is also the hometown of Miami math professor Tao Jiang.

"Both of my talks focused on my research in noncommutative invariant theory, or the study of symmetry in the context of algebraic systems where the usual rules of multiplication (a*b=b*a) do not necessarily hold. The specific projects that formed the basis for these talks is part of my ongoing collaboration with Kenneth Chan (Indeed.com), Robert Won (George Washington University), and James Zhang (University of Washington)."

I graduated from Miami in 1991 with BS degrees in Math and Math Education, and I got my MS in Math in 1993. I then taught as an Instructor at Miami in the Math & Stats Department for one year, followed by the Decision Sciences & Management Information Systems Department for 4 years. I also taught a class here or there at both branch campuses. I then became an Instructor in the Math & Stats Department at Wright State University on the Dayton campus. I am now a Senior Lecturer at WSU, and I just started my 27th year! I still love teaching, and I typically teach College Algebra, Statistical Concepts, and Applied Calculus.

My husband Keith is also a Miami grad (BS, M Ed, and PhD all from Miami) and just retired after 34 years in public education, almost of all of which was as a high school math teacher. Our son Kyle is 20 and is a sophomore at The Ohio State University studying Psychology. I have great memories of math & stats classes in Bachelor Hall.

My first teachers were Mrs. Paula Byrkett and Dr. Dennis Davenport. I also was fortunate to have Dr. Dunn, Dr. Waikar, Dr. Bolger, Dr. Murphree, Dr. Capel, Dr. Schaefer, Dr. Kullman, Dr. Pritikin, Dr. Ward, Dr. K. Magurn, Dr. Laatsch, Dr. M. Smith, Dr. D. Groggel, and Dr. Holmes. I remember others I did not have for class like Dr. Skillings, Dr. B. Magurn, and Dr. S. Davis.

Some memories I have of the department were when the students beat the profs at the annual softball game! Also, who could forget Dr. Schaefer's hockey pools? One year, I got the entire college hockey playoff correct, but I picked BC instead of BU in the final and lost the pool! I remember being on a "Hockey-L" discussion list where messages came through a vax machine and how we used to make copies on a ditto machine that spun around! And I'll never forget Dr. Holmes writing notes on an envelope! Miami is such a special place to me, and I cannot thank my math & stats teachers enough for all of their dedication and time. I now pass that on to my students!