• In May, 2011, the new Mathematics/Economics major was approved by the university. Please see Professors Peter Otto or Kathryn Nyman if you are interested in this major.
  • On Thursday, May 5, mathematics majors Heidi Andersen, Samantha Reynolds, Paul Hoard, and Wesley Smith were inducted to the Willamette University chapter of Pi Mu Epsilon, the National Mathematics Honorary Society.
  • Mathematics majors Heidi Andersen, Kali Boehle-Silva, Andrew Hoskins, Stephanie Jones, and Taylor McKenzie were inducted to the Willamette University chapter of Phi Beta Kappa this year.
  • Students Cole Altuzarra, Will Agnew-Svoboda, Andrew Bishop, Thomas Eliot, Grace Holdreith, and Anna Zimmerman took part in the first annual Kryptos cryptology contest (April 28th-May 2nd).
  • Students Taylor McKenzie and Jose Alvarado gave a joint colloquium talk on Monday, May 2. Taylor and Jose each gave a half-hour talk on a topic they saw presented during their trip to the Joint Mathematics Meetings in New Orleans, LA in January as part of the Mathematics Meetings course. Their trips were each funded in part by a Lilly Vocational Discernment Grant. The titles of their talks were "Bayesian networks in disease modeling" and "The Netflix Grand Prize".
  • The First Annual Intercollegiate Ginormous Blokus Tournament was held on Saturday, April 23rd, on the Ford Hall 2nd floor patio. (Ginormous blokus is the Willamette Math Club's own version of the game, with pieces as large as 5 feet across on a 20 ft by 20 ft board.) Willamette fielded a team of 5 blokus players against teams from Lewis and Clark College and Pacific University. Pacific took home the trophy this year, but we'll have another shot at it when they return in April 2012.
  • On April 20, 2011, students Jose Alvarado, Tom Chiapella, Stephanie Jones, Taylor McKenzie, Wesley Smith, and Kathryn Wilhelm gave mathematics presentations as part of Willamette Student Scholarship Recognition Day.
  • Assistant Professor Erin McNicholas gave a talk at the Southeastern International Conference on Combinatorics, Graph Theory, and Computing in Boca Raton, Florida, on March 7, 2011.
  • Congratulations to majors Taylor MacKenzie, Hanna Bliden, and Wesley Smith who each scored 10 points on the Putnam exam this year.
Willamette University

Mathematics Department

Address
Ford Hall
900 State Street
Salem Oregon 97301 U.S.A.
Phone
503-370-6077 voice
503-370-6977 fax

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