About the Department of Mathematics

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Announcements   
History   
Student groups   
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We are

  • 24 professors and lecturers
  • 9 part-time instructors
  • 10 graduate students
  • 100 undergraduate majors

We offer

  • 90 sections of
  • 30 different courses to
  • 3000+ students per semester

We receive

  • an average of $300,000 per year in federal and state grants from agencies such as
    • the National Science Foundation
    • the National Institutes of Health
    • the Ohio Department of Education
    • and NASA

We publish

  • 30 papers per year, of which 75% have student co-authors in research areas such as
    • Mathematics of materials
    • Algebra and Number Theory
    • Education in Mathematics

We emphasize

  • Interdisciplinary team research
  • High quality teaching

Department Accolades

  • 11 faculty have won teaching awards
  • 5 faculty have won service awards
  • 4 faculty have won research awards
  • 2 faculty have won early career awards

Credits: M101 and Typhoon Rammasun [NASA, via astronet], Mandelbrot zoom [W. Beyer, via wikimedia].

Announcements for Fall 2017

    Calendar    

Old Announcements for Spring 2017

  • Save the date and RSVP to Stefan Forcey! The 2017 Math Banquet, hosted by the student organizations, will be at 6:00 pm on the evening of Tuesday, May the 2nd, in room 312 of the Student Union. All are invited.
  • The UA Algebra Seminar will meet Friday April 21 and 28 from 4:25 to 5:15 in CAS 220D.
    Dr. JP Cossey of the University of Akron will speak on:
    When hobbies overlap: core partitions and Catalan numbers.
  • The UA Algebra Seminar will meet Friday March 24, 2017 from 4:25 to 5:15 in CAS 220D. Dr. Stefan Forcey of the University of Akron will speak on:
    Sequence 522: Google directions and the stellohedron
  • The UA Algebra Seminar will meet Friday March 10 and 17, 2017, from 4:25 to 5:15 in CAS 220D. Jeff Riedl will speak on:
    Automorphisms of elementary abelian-over-cyclic wreath product p-groups
  • On Wednesday April 12, 2017 at 3:00pm in CAS 139, UAkron alumna Terrian Nowden from NASA Glenn Research Center will give the talk "From Hands-on to Mathematics to the International Space Station".
  • On Tuesday April 4th (corrected from previous post!), WIM will join the Women in Engineering group for dinner and to listen to invited speaker Mike Lanstrum, a professor at Cuyahoga Community College, who will talk about the History of Women in Mathematics. Free dinner at Rob's Dinning Hall from 5:45-6:20 p.m. The talk will be held in ASEC 223B. Students who would like to attend should RSVP to hec9@uakron.edu by April 1st, 2017. This event is open to men and women. Hope you can make it!
  • On March 23, in CAS 220D, 3:30pm-4:30pm Dmitri Burago (The Pennsylvania State University) will tell us "A Few Fairy Math Tales."
  • On Thursday March 9th at 4pm, the UA SIAM student chapter seminar will present Daniel Rhoads, a PhD student in Engineering Applied Mathematics at UAkron and NASA Fellow. Dan will talk about "Investigation of Carbon Fiber Architecture in Braided Composites Using X-Ray CT Inspection."
  • The UA Algebra Seminar will meet Fridays February 17, 24 and March 3, 2017 from 4:25 to 5:15 in CAS 220D. Patrick Showers of the University of Akron will speak on: An arrangement of regular n-simplices in certain n-cubes.
  • The UA Algebra Seminar will meet Friday February 3 and 10, 2017 from 4:25 to 5:15 in CAS 220D. Dr. Stuart Clary of University of Akron will speak on: Dirichlet's theorem on primes in arithmetic progression.
  • Thursday February 16th 2017 at 4pm in Olin 107, the UA SIAM student chapter seminar will present Shawn Ryan from the Department of Mathematics at Cleveland State. Dr. Ryan will talk about "Collective Dynamics in Active Biological Systems"
  • The UA Algebra Seminar will meet Friday Jan. 27 2017 from 4:25 to 5:15 in CAS 220D. Dr. Stefan Forcey will speak on: Mathematical Shibboleths: Ten 3-step drawings.

    • Old Announcements for Fall 2016

  • The UA Algebra Seminar will meet Friday November 18, December 2, and December 9, 2016 from 4:25 to 5:15 in CAS 220D. Jeff Riedl will speak on: Automorphisms of finite monolithic groups
  • Friday November 18th, 2016 at 4:30pm in CAS 138
    Xiaoyu Zheng, Associate Professor in the Department of Mathematics at Kent State University will speak on: Pair Interaction of hard ellipsoids
  • The UA Algebra Seminar will meet Friday October 28, Nov 4, and Nov 11, 2016 from 4:25 to 5:15 in CAS 220D. Dr. JP Cossey will speak on: Euler characteristic of the symmetric group.
  • WIM Lecture Series: Pamela Pyzza, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science at Ohio Wesleyan University will give the talk "Modeling Insect Olfaction: How Bugs Smell" on November 4th, 2016 at 4:30pm.
  • 10/19/16: Igor Boglaev of Institute of Fundamental Sciences, Massey University, New Zealand will speak on "Monotone numerical methods for nonlinear parabolic problems". The seminar will start 2:30 pm in CAS 220D.
  • 10/26/16: Paata Ivanisvili of Kent State University will speak on "Monge-Ampere type equations and their applications to functional isoperimetric inequalities." The seminar will start 2:30 pm in CAS 220 D.
  • NEW DATE! Friday, October 21, 5:30 pm: The annual fall picnic at Sand Run Park Mingo pavilion (map) will be hosted by the math department faculty and student groups: PME, WIM and SIAM. All are invited--students and guests are free, faculty/staff should bring a dish to share. RSVP (not required but appreciated) to Stefan Forcey.
  • The UA Algebra Seminar will meet Friday October 7,14 and 21 2016 from 4:25 to 5:15 in CAS 220D. Dr. Mark Lewis of Kent State University will speak on: Semi-extraspecial p-groups.
  • Dr. Abigail Shoben, an Associate professor in the Division of Biostatistics at The Ohio State University, will give the next WIM Lecture Series on Friday October 14th 2016 at 4:30pm in CAS 144.
  • The UA Algebra Seminar will meet Fridays September 16, 23, and 30, 2016 from 4:25 to 5:15pm in CAS 220D.
    Dr. Hung Nguyen of the University of Akron will speak on:
    Rational-valued and real-valued characters.

    • Old Announcements for Spring 2016

        
    • The PME induction ceremony and the Math Department banquet was hosted by PME, WIM and SIAM in May 2016.
    • Wednesday April 6th 2016 at 3:15-4:15 pm in CAS 144: Wanda Strychalski, from Case Western Reserve University, will speak on: Mathematical Modeling of Cellular Blebbing
    • PDE and Applied Math seminar Thursday 03/17/16. Artem Zvavitch of Kent State University will continue to speak on "Brunn-Minkowski type inequalities for different measures." The seminar starts at 1:00pm in CAS 220 D.
    • The UA Algebra Seminar will meet Fridays March 18, April 1 and April 8 2016 from 3:20 to 4:10 in CAS 220D. Jeff Riedl will speak on Doubly-invariant subgroups of an abelian 3-group of 3-by-3 matrices.
    • Pi day celebration: 3:00 on Monday March 14 2016 in CAS 220 (but in order to appropriately celebrate, we will not start the party until 3:14 pm). Also at 4:00 pm The Imitation Game will be shown in CAS 240.
    • The UA Algebra Seminar will meet Friday March 11 2016 from 3:20 to 4:10 in CAS 220D. Dr. Hung Tong-Viet of Kent State University will speak on Brauer characters of q'-degrees
    • Tuesday 03/08/16. Artem Zvavitch of Kent State University will speak on "Brunn-Minkowski type inequalities for different measures." The seminar starts at 2:30pm in CAS 220D
    • A Major Award has been received!
    • The UA Algebra Seminar will meet Friday February 19 and 26 2016 from 3:20 to 4:10 in CAS 220D. JP Cossey will speak on "The minimal number of characters in a block of a finite (solvable) group"
    • WIM Lecture Series
      Lola Thompson from Oberlin College
      February 24th 2016 at 3:15pm, CAS 144 Title: Twin primes and their kin
    • SIAM Student Chapter Seminar
      David Martin, Chief Data Scientist at ROOT will come to UAkron and give a presentation in the SIAM Seminar on Friday March 11th at 3:30-4:20 pm in LH 312.
      The title of the talk is: What does a mathematician do at a car insurance company?
    • WIM Lecture Series
      Wanda Strychalski from Case Western Reserve
      April 6th 2016 at 3:00pm
    • Wednesday, March 2nd 2016 at 5:30pm, CAS 108 American Greetings is planning a visit to UA to discuss intern and job opportunities for graduate students in Statistics and Mathematics.
    • Women in Math Valentine’s Day Outing! Join us for food and fun on Wednesday, February 10th 2016 at 5:30pm. Meet in the CAS Atrium and go to The Lockview from there! RSVP to Makayla Tyree.
    • Support your peers!
      Mackenzie Jones and Oliver Evans will give talks at the PME YSU Regional Conference on Feb. 20th 2016.
      They will practice their talks on Friday Feb. 12th at 3:30pm in CAS 240.
    • REU Summer Programs 2016
      Still looking for Undergraduate Research Opportunities this summer, here is a link to a list of REU programs with topics and deadlines. Notice that some application deadlines are coming soon.
    • The UA Algebra Seminar will meet Fridays: January 29, Feb 5 and 12 2016 from 3:20 to 4:10 in CAS 220D. Corey Lyons of Kent State University will speak on: Induced characters with equal degree constituents.

    Old Announcements for Fall 2015

        
    • The Department of Mathematics hosted a career seminar by Ms. Ginny Gegick of Aon Hewitt on December 3rd 2015 from 3:30 to 4:30 in LH 312. Ms. Gegick, a UA alumna, works as a retirement actuary for Aon Hewitt. She will talk about what retirement actuaries do.
    • Thursday November 5th, 2015 at 3:30pm Where: Leigh Hall 312 Speaker: Michelle Clem, NASA Glenn Research Center Title: The Critical Role of Math in Flow Visualization Techniques
    • Friday October 2 2015, 5:30pm. The annual fall picnic at Sand Run Park Mingo pavilion (map) was hosted by the math department faculty and student groups: PME, WIM and SIAM. Thanks to all 41* attendees for making it a terrific event! *This number includes at most 3 deer.
    • September 23 2015, 12 pm. Progressive Insurance: Big Data in the Workplace Speaker Series. Student Union Room 335, *Refreshments and snacks will be served!*
    • The UA Algebra Seminar will meet on Friday September 25 2015 from 9:55 to 10:45am in CAS 220D. JP Cossey will speak on ``Nilpotent blocks of solvable groups'' All are welcome.
    • The UA SIAM Student Chapter hosted UA math alumnus Jacob Trombetta for a talk on Friday, Sept. 11 2015, at 1:30pm in Schrank Hall North 354 (SHN 354). Jacob will talk about his experience working at Applied Vision and the problems he has been working on.

    Old Announcements for Spring 2015

    Contacts

    Department Telephone 
    (330) 972-7400

    Department Email
    Email:  math@uakron.edu

    Department Fax 
    (330) 374-8630 

    Mailing Address 
    Department of Mathematics 
    Buchtel College of Arts and Sciences 
    The University of Akron 
    Akron, OH 44325-4002 

    Department Office 
    College of Arts and Sciences Building
    Room 220

    Department Chair 
    Dr Timothy Norfolk 
    (330) 972-6121 
    Email: norfolk@uakron.edu 

    Assistant  to the Chair
    Ms Pamela Hoover 
    (330) 972-7401 
    Email: phoover@uakron.edu

    Secretary
    ---
    (330) 972-6987
    Email: phoover@uakron.edu

    Graduate Coordinator 
    Dr Pat Wilber 
    (330) 972-6994 
    Email: jw50@uakron.edu 

    Undergraduate Coordinator 
    Dr J. P. Cossey 
    (330) 972-8127 
    Email: cossey@uakron.edu

    Help

    Math Department History

    Historical account of the UA mathematics department, prepared by J. Palagallo.