Claremont Center for the Mathematical Sciences

Professor Francis Su recently received a research grant of $114,468 from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for the support of the project entitled “Combinatorial Fixed-Point Theorems, Polytopes, and Preference Sets”.

The grant lasts for three years beginning August 1, 2007. Su's research continues the line of work begun in his prior NSF grant from 2003–2007, in which methods from combinatorics, topology and geometry are used to study problems in mathematical economics and the social sciences; in particular, problems related to voting and fair allocation.

The Department of Mathematics at Harvey Mudd College will host the 9th annual Harvey Mudd College Mathematics Conference (previously known as the Mt. Baldy Mathematics Conference) on Friday-Saturday, September 28-29, 2007. The topic this year is public sector operations research. Keynote speakers will discuss applications of operations research models in the public sector and future directions for such research. Speakers will make the first portion of their talks accessible to a general mathematical audience. We encourage anyone who wishes to learn more about research in this area to attend.

The conference is sponsored by the Department of Mathematics at Harvey Mudd College. The organizer is Susan Martonosi. [ read more ]

Professor Alpan Raval has published a ground-breaking work entitled “Molecular Clock on a Neutral Network” in the prestigious Physical Review Letters.  Biologists and Scientific Historians use the number of mutations in the genes of a species to put dates on evolutionary history.  This “molecular clock” is now known to deviate from previously held theories, leading to larger-than-expected errors.  Raval’s paper provides an explanation for these clock errors and places precise mathematical estimates on their variation.  More information, along with some peer comments, may be found at the Physical Review Focus site or in CGU's press release.

Professor Darryl Yong and Emeritus Professor Robert Borrelli awarded NSF grant of $499,792 to support the project entitled “Online Resources to Improve the Teaching and Learning of Differential Equations: Encouraging the Wide-Spread Use of Modeling and Computing.”

The aim of this project is to improve the teaching and learning of ordinary differential equations (ODEs) by facilitating the development, dissemination and wide-spread adoption of modeling projects and computer experiments. By encouraging the wide-spread adoption of innovations in the teaching and learning of ODEs, Yong and Borrelli seek to affect the training of a great number of future scientists, not just mathematicians. Every student at HMC must take the equivalent of a full-semester course in ordinary differential equations, regardless of their major.

"The Joy of Mathematics" is a course of 24 video lectures with Course Guidebooks. Professor Benjamin shows how everything in mathematics is connected and how the beautiful and often imposing discipline that has given us algebra, geometry, calculus, probability, and so much else is based on nothing more than just fooling around with numbers. [ read more... ]

Professor Jo Hardin of Pomona College receives American Statistical Association Waller Education Award in 2007 [more..]

Professor Andrew Bernoff (HMC) has been awarded an NSF grant for $405,372 for collaboration with an experimental physics group at Kent State University and with chemical engineers and mathematicians at Case Western Reserve University.

The joint theoretical–experimental–numerical project, entitled “Dynamics of Interfacial Domains”, delves into the basic physical behavior of lipid layers at the micron scale; one classical example being the lipid bilayer that forms the exterior wall of most biological cells. Bernoff's expertise in fluid mechanics and numerical methods has allowed precise simulations that almost exactly reproduce the experiments at Kent State.