Three Hope students -- Mike Cortez, Henry Gould and Andrew Wells -- presented papers at MathFest in Providence, Rhode Island this past August. Andrew's talk was titled "Counting Symmetric Matrices of Rank one and two."  It was inspired by research he did in the summer of '03 under Darin Stephenson. He said, "Basically, we looked at how many matrices of specific ranks were contained in the span of a certain number of linearly independent n by n matrices." "Mathematical Biology Curriculum Development" was the title of Henry's talk.  It involved research in which he participated during Summer 2003 with Janet Andersen.  Henry states, "I worked, along with a biology student, reading through biology research papers, revamping and creating new laboratory protocols, and things of that nature. All of this was done to improve the Mathematical Biology course offered each Spring." Mike Cortez won an award for the best presentation on environmental issues at the Pi Mu Epsilon sessions of MathFest.  The award was sponsored by the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM).  His talk, "A Mathematical Model of a Tri-Trophic Interactions," was based on research he did with Jennica Skoug and Mike Nelsen under the guidance of Prof. Janet Andersen and Prof. Thomas Bultman (Biology).  Their research used non-linear differential equations to model the interactions between a grass infected by a fungal endophyte, an herbivore (fall army worm), and a parasitoid (a wasp that ways eggs on the army worm and the offspring end up eating the army worm from the inside out). From other research, it was known that the fungus was harmful to both the army worm and the wasp.  Mike stated, "In the end, we hoped to determine whether or not it was advantageous for the grass to have the fungus (the army worm is harmed more than the wasp, thus the army worm population is lower) or not (the wasp would be hurt more, therefore killing off the grass's control on the army worm)."  He also added, "This was different from previous research efforts since we were looking at the interactions of all three levels.  When looking at just two levels, the addition of the fungus is always better for the grass, but since the wasp is also harmed by the fungus, our model should be more accurate." In addition to the student presentations at MathFest, Jennica Skoug, Brandon Alleman, Mike Cortez, and Mike Nelsen attended the Society of Mathematical Biology meeting at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

Mike Cortez

Matt Boelkins is on sabbatical from Grand Valley State University this year and joins the math department as a visiting associate professor. At GVSU he has led several undergraduate research projects in the area of families of orthogonal polynomials.  His sabbatical is largely devoted to the development of further lines of inquiry for work with students. For fun he enjoys fishing, going to the beach, playing games, and all things sports-related, especially when done with his family. Matt received his B.S. from Geneva College, M.S. from Western Washington University, and Ph.D. from Syracuse University.

• 3:30 - 4:30 p.m.
  
• Thursday, September 9
  
• VWF 104

Professor Tom Jager from Calvin College will kick off the colloquium season this fall with a talk about the following intriguing question: If two positive integers are selected randomly and independently, what is the probability that they are relatively prime?  The answer is delightfully surprising!  His talk is titled "The Probability of Being Relatively Prime" and will be presented Thursday, September 9 from 3:30 - 4:30 p.m. in VWF 104.  Note the starting time is a half hour earlier than last year's colloquia.

  Bring a mug: Tea at 3:00 in VWF 222 (Reading Room) on Thursdays before colloquia

Student teams from Hope College placed second and tied for third in the Lower Michigan Mathematics Competition held last April.  Albion College won the competition, and Calvin College was third along with Hope. The top five was rounded out by the University of Michigan at Flint.

The finishes continue a series of strong showings in the event for Hope. Teams from the college have won 10 times in the competition’s 28-year history, including in both 2002 and 2003.

Hope was represented by 16 students organized into six teams. The members of the college’s second-place team were Brandon Alleman, Henry Gould, Andrew Wells, while the students on the third-place team were Daniela Banu, Stefan Coltisor, and Heidi Libner.

The other participating Hope students were: Ben Bradley, Michael Cortez, Brandon Hazen, Natalie Hoogeveen, Brad Houzenga, Jennifer Kasten, Shova KC, Utsab Khadka, Luke Olinyk, and Jennica Skoug.

Got a math question?    Ask Elvis . . .      email him at elvis@hope.edu

Carl Friedrich Gauss, whom some consider the greatest mathematician ever to have lived, once said: "If others would but reflect on mathematical truths as deeply and continuously as I have, they would have made my discoveries."  Perhaps a good incentive to study hard for your math courses this year!  To read more about Gauss, please visit http://www-gap.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Gauss.html.

Carl F. Gauss

Nothing tessellates like Crispy Hexagons!  Also available from Mathrite Breakfast Cereals ---- Honey Nut Tori Sugar Frosted Tetrahedra Cinnamon Toast Quadrilaterals Ellipsoid Crunch!