Past and Present Math Majors
This year marks 20 years since the first UAS mathematics B.S. degree was awarded. This year's graduate will raise the total number of mathematics B.S. degrees awarded at UAS to 53. UAS mathematics majors have gone on to pursue a wide range of careers after graduating. Currently, three graduates are pursuing Ph.D.'s: Ben Malander, in mathematics at University of Wyoming; Amy Jenson, in glaciology at the UAF Geophysics Institute; and Alice Mehalek, in mathematics at Colorado State University. Others, from a while back, have earned graduate degrees (Masters and Ph.D.'s) in mathematics or the applied sciences, some have chosen to pursue careers in local businesses, engage in local politics, or secure professional positions for State or federal agencies. One past graduate is practicing medicine and another is practicing law, both in Alaska. Three have positions at UAS in Juneau, a few have secured teaching positions at the secondary school level in and outside of Alaska, one is teaching mathematics at the college level in Alaska, and others have begun their own startup companies. It appears this year's graduate, Elizabeth Bruch, plans to follow this trend.
Elizabeth, the latest graduate (double major in mathematics and environmental sciences), will be heading North over the summer on an internship in the Gulf of Alaska (on a boat!). After this she will start working on a M.S. degree in Earth System Science with a concentration in hydrology through the UAF College of Engineering and Mines and the Department of Civil, Geological, and Environmental Engineering. She plans to conduct fieldwork for her research in Southeast Alaska as two of her committee members, Eran Hood and Jason Fellman, are UAS faculty.
Because of her academic excellence, hard work, many research related internships (in and outside of the Juneau area), serving as a 2+ field research technician for Lindsey McCulloch (a UAF CFOS Ph.D. candidate), and a range of other accomplishments, Elizabeth has been recognized as the outstanding mathematics graduate for 2025.
Of our continuing majors, Dylan Wood, Naawéiyaa Tagaban, and Cassandra Suryan are close to completing their degree requirements and are mulling over options for the future. Genoa Mangusso is getting close to completing her degree too, which she has been doing (quite impressively) while working fulltime for the State as the Licensing Supervisor in the Juneau office of the State of Alaska Division of Insurance.
Among other ongoing or recently declared mathematics majors and/or upper level mathematics enthusiasts, Randy Brannan will be doing summer fieldwork with the USGS in Southeast Alaska. He and Remington (Remi) Wiley received the Ron Seater Award for 2025. Remi initiated a casual summer research group in 2024 that included Erin Abbott, Andrzej Piotrowski, Brian Blitz, and Chris Hay-Jahans. He plans to revive this group this summer (2025). Remi will also be attending a week-long research workshop at the Institute for Computational and Experimental Research in Mathematics (ICERM) along with Andrzej Piotrowski in Providence, RI, in June 2025. Erin went to MathFest (Summer 2024) and was awarded a student sponsorship from Sealaska to attend the 2024 AISES Conference.
Another new mathematics (and marine biology) major, Rhianna Yates, will be attending the Summer 2025 Intercollegiate Biomathematics Alliance Cross-institutional Undergraduate Research Experience Workshop (IBA CURE). What is great about these workshops is that, since UAS is an institutional member of the IBA, accepted UAS students get an all-expenses paid undergraduate research experience opportunity.
Math Club & Alaska Chapter of PME
There was one new inductee to the Alaska Chapter of Pi Mu Epsilon (PME), Reminton Wiley.
The UAS Math Club stayed active this year. In addition to the bi-weekly meetings at which attendees engaged in "fun" problem solving sessions, there was an outreach activity that involved club members. This was the Enigma (Juneau-Douglas High School Math Club) on-Campus Event which was supported by a MAA Dolciani Mathematical Enrichment Grant that was secured by Andrzej Piotrowski.
Alice Mehalek (UAS graduate and Colorado State University Ph.D. candidate) returned to Juneau over her Spring Break and gave two talks. One of these was a UAS Math Club talk, open to all interested. Titled Research in math education: Towards a unifying theory of abstraction, this talk was about Alice's Ph.D. research. Her second talk, an extension of her UAS capstone project that she researched further to qualify for her Ph.D. , was to UAS mathematics seminar attendees and was titled Octonions and Moufang loops.
The UAS Math Club held it's annual BBQ right after finals this year. There was lots of good food, conversation, and a great view from the King Salmon Shelter at Lena Beach.
The rain moved aside, giving us (the Juneau equivalent of) a sunny evening along with the usual amazing view the Chilkat Mountains. As always, this get-together is not restricted to math majors, all are welcome, and others (friends and family) did join in the fun to enjoy a relaxed pre-graduation evening.
Faculty News
The mathematics faculty continue to be busy in a variety of ways.
Brian Blitz served as the UAS Faculty Senate President and looks forward to handing over the reigns to the next Faculty Senate President so that he can focus on what he enjoys most, teaching mathematics.
Megan Buzby continued serving as the Mathematics Program Coordinator. She proposed and led an effort to successfully purchase used books for most of the lower level mathematics so that students can check them out from Egan Library rather than purchase them. This saved students quite a bit of money! Because of this, Megan was recognized with the 2025 Open Educational Resources Faculty Excellence Award. Megan also continued her involvement with the MAA as the director of the Pacific Northwest Section of Project NExT.
Jill Dumesnil had her hands full serving as the United Academics president while negotiating a new collective bargaining agreement, and as she continued refining her distance delivered courses.
Andrzej Piotrowski co-authored a paper (S. Klanderman, M. Montee, A. Piotrowski, A. Rice, and B. Shader, "Determinants of Seidel Tournament Matrices," Linear Algebra Appl., 707 (2025), pp. 126-151), has been invited to a week-long research workshop at ICERM (Summer 2025), and participated in a week-long research workshop at Carleton College (Summer 2024). Andrzej also regularly attended Enigma meetings at JDHS throughout the year and facilitated their participation in the MAA American Mathematics Competitions. These outreach activities are funded by a MAA Dolciani Mathematical Enrichment Grant grant which was recently renewed. Also on his list of activities was leading and compiling the 5-year mathematics program review and chairing the BASS Institutional Review.
Chris Hay-Jahans continues to serve on the Board of Directors of the Intercollegiate Biomathematics Alliance, of which UAS is an institutional member. He co-authored a book with Olcay Akman of Illinois State University, to be published by De Gruyter on May 19, 2025. This book, titled Biomathematical Modeling: Methods and Software, was inspired by three expository student publications in the journal Spora that emerged from previous years' IBA CURE projects, which Olcay and Chris co-mentored. Chris will be returning to CURE 2025 to teach a short course on using Berkeley Madonna (a differential equations solver) and possibly mentor or co-mentor a student project on a yet to be determined topic. Chris was also asked by Taylor & Francis and agreed to prepare a second edition of his first book, An R Companion to Linear Statistical Models, the tentative completion date of this project is June 2026.
From our extended campus in Sitka, Joe Liddle served on the Alaska Council of Teachers of Mathematics Board and attended the 2025 Joint Mathematics Meeting in Seattle. Colleen Ianuzzi kept things going in Ketchikan, serving as the senior faculty mentor, and on the UAS Strategic Plan Steering Committee. In her role as mentor, Colleen organized and lead Ketchikan faculty orientations every fall and spring and also assisted Ketchikan campus dual enrollment instructors in Ketchikan, Craig and Klawock (mainly Career Ed classes).
Last but not least, Auguste Steihr and Gabe Wechter (both UAS mathematics graduates themselves) have been holding down the fort at the Juneau Campus Learning Center.
