Week of February 23, 2009 xxxxxxxxxxxxx
2009 Miller lecture
While it is true that every vote counts, the real question is exactly what it counts.
The process of voting is far more complex than one might imagine, according to this year's Miller lecturer.
In example after example, Don Saari demonstrated how simply tabulating the results of some voting methods too often fails to truly represent the will of the voting population.
Saari proposed that a ranking method based on Borda counts may actully offer the most consistent and accurate representation of opinions and choices.
Two conferences receive IMA support
We have been notified that two planning groups will each receive $3,000 for the following projects:
Ames Symposium in Probability and Statistics:
A Conference in honor of the 70th birthday of Krishna B. Athreya. September 18-19 on the Iowa State University campus.
Organizing committee members include
our own Alexander Roitershtein, Sunder Sethuraman, Ananda Weerasinghe and Arka P. Ghosh from Statistics.
Midwest Numerical Analysis Day 2010. April 24-25, 2010 on the Iowa State University campus.
Organizers are Fritz Keinert, Hailiang Liu, Steve Hou and Jue Yan.
Midwest Undegraduate Mathematics Symposium
The Sixth Midwest Undergraduate Mathematics Symposium will be held on Friday-Saturday, April 3-4 at Simpson College. The purpose of the symposium is to promote independent undergraduate study in the mathematical sciences. Undergraduates are invited to present 10-15 minute talks or posters. More inforamation here: Call for Papers
25 year club
Kristy Goodale and Wolfgang Kliemann were honored at a dinner last week for 25 years of service to Iowa State University.
Steve Willson was honored for 35 years of service.
GPML competition
More than 200 high school students from across Iowa participated in the Great Plains Math League competition held at ISU on February 14.
Deadlines this week
February 25: NSF Summer Institute
Remember to check the departmental calendar for deadlines. de
Seminars and Colloquia this week
Combinatorics, Algebra and Number Theory Seminar
Monday, February 23 at 4:10 p.m. in 232 Carver. Tim Gillespie (University of Iowa): Automorphic L-functions and a prime number theorem.
Discrete Mathematics Seminar
Tuesday, February 24 at 2:10 p.m. in 174 Carver. Darren Row on An introduction to number coloring: Some generalizations of Schur's Theorem
Probability Seminar
Wednesday, February 25 at 1:10 p.m. in Carver 202. V. Dobrovitski on Measurement of quantum systems: Bayesian inference and state estimation
Elliptic Curves and Related Topics
Wednesday, February 25 at 3:10 p.m. in 290 Carver. Ling Long on Formal groups of elliptic curves II
Graduate Student Seminar
Wednesday, February 25 at 4:10 p.m. in 290 Carver. Jonathan Smith on The universal algebra of gene expression
Groups and Physics Seminar
Thursday, February 26 at 1:10 p.m. in 0018 Carver. Ken Driessel on Some relations between groups important in physics
Analysis Seminar
Thursday, February 19 at 4:10 p.m. in Carver 160
Transitions
Graduate student birthdays this week:
2/27 Ozkan Ozer; 2/28 Reza Rastegar and Jie Liu; 3/1 Katherine Craychee
Transitions features announcements regarding life transitions, i.e., family, job, etc. of those associated with the Department may be published at the request of the individual. Send submissions to tuttle@iastate.edu
