A New Face in Math (at UAS)
Megan Buzby will be joining the Juneau Mathematics Faculty in Fall 2009. Megan grew up in Salcha, Alaska, and is looking forward to being in the midst of all that is (Southeast) Alaskan. She is into sports, the outdoors, and says she is not afraid of the rain ... yet. As for teaching at UAS, Megan says:
"I am very excited about coming to Juneau and joining the community and math faculty at UAS. Since having several great math teachers in high school and then college, I've wanted to follow in their footsteps and make a positive impact on my own students."
Megan's background, teaching experience, interdisciplinary interests and area of specialization make her a great addition to the mathematics program and UAS. She received her undergraduate degrees in Physics and Mathematics in 2003 from Adams State College, Colorado, while also on the ASC's Division II Grizzlies volleyball teams. She then moved into what is commonly referred to as Biomathematics and earned her MS in mathematics in 2005 from Colorado State University at Fort Collins; her MS thesis title was "Quantitative sensitivity analysis of a vector-borne disease model using adjoint techniques". After a year of teaching at Laramie Community College in Cheyenne, Wyoming, (2005 - 2006) she went back to Fort Collins where she is currently working under Dr. Donald Estep on "Short time error analysis of deterministic ODE solutions and the expected value of the corresponding birth-death process" for her PhD in mathematics.
A Mathematics Meeting in Juneau!
Mark your calendars - UAS will be hosting the 2011 Annual Meeting of The Pacific Northwest Section of the Mathematics Association of America (PNWMAA). This will be a great opportunity for students, school teachers, and college and university faculty from Alaska and the Canadian Northwest to attend a meeting in the "neighborhood". This will also allow mathematics students and faculty from the Lower 48 to visit Juneau.
The planning for this meeting has begun and a link to the meeting web page will soon appear on the program website - so be sure to check back for details.
Other News
We are pleased that Andrzej Piotrowski has enjoyed his first year here, and his students have enjoyed taking classes from him. When asked if he planned to stick around for a while, his response was "Yup". A man of few words...
Colleen Ianuzzi, our Ketchikan representative, had her first experience of the "big math meeting" in January. She presented a talk, titled "Project Based Distance Delivered Elementary Statistics" at the 2009 Joint Mathematics Meeting in Washington DC.
The Math Program will have some new faces in the student body, which is a good thing as many of our majors graduated this Spring and others are close behind. As usual, the new majors hail from a wide range of geographic locations. This year's graduates include Kevin S. (from Montana), Dustin R. (from South Dakota) and Micaela P. (from Colorado). Following close behind are some locals, Erin R-V, Nick A. and Tara G. (all from Juneau). Also included among next year's planned graduates are Alicia S-H (Virginia), Lai H. (all over), and Sean O. (California).
A Call for News from Graduates
If you are a graduate of the UAS Math Program (BLA or BS), please send us an update of where you are and what you are doing these days.
Interested Studying Math at UAS?
If you are curious about coming to UAS to get a BS in mathematics, either as a transfer student or an incoming first year student, feel free to contact the Math Program Coordinator, Dr. Brian Blitz. If you would like to get the student perspective, contact the UAS Math Club.
