Michigan Math and Science Scholars

MMSS Home

Daily Camper '03

Applications
PDF MSWord

General Program Information

2003 Program

Faculty

Courses

ONLINE Courses
   Structure of the Universe
   Chaos & Fractals
   Graph Theory

FAQ

Past Programs

Web Links

Michigan Math & Science Scholars

Summer Program 2003

BIOGRAPHIES

We our proud to announce the outstanding faculty participating in the Michigan Math and Science Scholars Summer Program 2003. These members of the University of Michigan faculty have experience teaching high school students and several faculty have received the LS&A Excellence in Teaching Award and Golden Apple Award.

Instructors

Martha Aliaga
Martha is an Associate Professor of Statistics at the University of Michigan. After receiving undergraduate and master's degrees from the University of Buenos Aires, she taught statistics at Latin American universities before coming to Ann Arbor. Not only did Martha receive her Ph.D. from Michigan in 1986, but her husband and their three children each have degrees from Michigan. Martha is co-author of the widely acclaimed statistics textbook "Interactive Statistics" and was named a Fellow of the American Statistical Society for this accomplishment.

Frederick Becchetti
Fred is a Professor in the Department of Physics. He received his B.Sc., M.S. and Ph.D. at the University of Minnesota. His research focuses on nuclear reactions, nuclear astrophysics and medical physics. Fred is a recipient of the LS&A Excellence in Teaching Award and has recently been elected to serve on the American Association of Physics Teachers-Undergraduate Teaching Committee. He can often be found judging science fairs, including the Southeast Michigan Science Fair and the International Science Fair. His hobbies include fishing, skiing and, more recently, snowboarding.

Brian P. Coppola
Brian is an Associate Professor in the Chemistry Department. Growing up in rural New Hampshire, Brian attended the University of New Hampshire where he earned a B.S. in Chemistry. He obtained his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Wisconsin in 1984. His research area is studying mechanistic organic chemistry in order to understand how molecular structures influences steps in a chemical reaction. Brian likes to travel, cook, read and draw. He has two cartoon strips about chemistry that appear in two different magazines!

Carolyn Dean
Carolyn is a Lecturer in the Department of Mathematics. She received her Ph.D. from the University of California, San Diego. Before moving to Michigan together, Carolyn and her husband juggled her job at the University of Chicago and his job in England as creatively as possible, with Carolyn spending some time in England. Carolyn enjoys hiking, sailing and cooking, and can often be found during lunch playing bridge in the Math Commons Room.

David Gerdes
David is an Associate Professor in the Department of Physics. He earned his B.A. in physics from Carleton College, studied for a year at Cambridge University under a Winston Churchill Scholarship, then returned to the U.S. to complete his Ph.D. in physics at the University of Chicago. He studies proton-antiproton collisions at the world's highest laboratory energies with the Fermilab Tevatron collider, and contributed to the discovery of the top quark, the heaviest known elementary particle. He is the recipient of an Outstanding Junior Investigator award from the U.S. Department of Energy. In college he worked as a bartender in an amusement park, where he had many opportunities to observe roller-coaster physics. He enjoys running, playing ice hockey, and teaching undergraduates.

Mel Hochster
Mel Hochster is the Robert and Lynn Browne Professor in Science and Professor of Mathematics, and is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and of the Michigan STRIDE Committee that is dealing with gender equity issues in the sciences. He did his undergraduate work at Harvard and received his Ph.D. from Princeton. His research interests might be described as studying solutions of a large number of equations in a large number of unknowns, including their geometry, by techniques related to number theory. He has five children, including one who is grown and is a mathematician, a twelve year old, and six year old triplets. Somehow this does not leave a lot of time for recreation, but his hobbies include bridge and cryptic crossword puzzles.

Trachette Jackson
Tracey is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mathematics. She has a B.S. in Mathematics from Arizona State University and a Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics from University of Washington. Tracey's research interests involve developing models of tumor structure, growth, and chemotherapeutic control strategies. In addition to mentoring students on career opportunities in math and science, Tracey likes hiking, gardening and cooking.

Santhadevi Jeyabalan
Santha is a lecturer in the Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology (MCDB). She received her M.S., and Ph.D. from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor in 1976, in Genetics and Developmental Biology. She also holds a M.S. in Microbiology from Eastern Michigan University and an M.Sc., in Parasitology from Madras University, India. She is devoted to full time teaching, coordinating Genetics Lab, and Developmental Biology Lab for upper level undergraduates and teaching a Genetics course in Spring terms. She is a recipient of LS&A Excellence in Education award in 1992, ’94 and ’98. Her ‘cyber fly’ project won a Computer World Smithsonian award in 1999. She is also an academic advisor in LS&A Honors and received Ruth M. Sinclair Memorial award for advising in 1997. Santha enjoys teaching, cooking, reading Tamil literature and spending time with her three grown-up daughters.

Kyger "K.C." Lohmann
K.C. is a Professor of Geological Sciences at the University of Michigan. He received his Ph.D. in Geology from the State University of New York at Stony Brook in 1977. K.C.'s research involves geochemistry, which uses chemical analysis to reconstruct the conditions of ancient environments and decipher earth history. He studies long-term variations in ocean chemistry seasonality and continental climate transitions. His research on marine environments takes him to Seymour Island in Antarctica as well as the coastal areas of Morocco, Ghana and Australia.

Bryan Mosher
Bryan Mosher ia an Assistant Profesor in the Department of mathematics. He grew up in Circleville, Ohio, the Pumpkin Capital of the World. He went to college at Ohio University and attended grad school in mathematics at the University of Illinois, receiving a master's degree at the Urbana campus and a Ph.D. at the Chicago campus. He is interested in the geometry and topology of 3-manifolds. He also likes playing sports of all kinds, listening to jazz music, and birdwatching with his wife.

Patrick Nelson
Patrick is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mathematics. He earned his B.S. from Arizona State University, a M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Washington - all in Applied Mathematics. Patrick's research areas are in non-linear dynamics, mathematical modeling, and mathematical biology including virology and parasitic infections. His hobbies include baseball, tennis, squash, fishing, hiking and climbing.

Georg Raithel
Georg is an Associate Professor in the Department of Physics. Georg received his Ph.D. at the University of Munich. In his research, he employs laser-cooled rubidium atoms to study matter waves in optical lattices and in other atom trapping devices, and to investigate collision processes involving cold, very highly excited atoms (Rydberg atoms) and cold plasmas. In his spare time and vacations, Georg enjoy bicycling, skiing, camping and mountain hiking with his family.

Edward Rothman
Ed is a Professor in the Department of Statistics and Director of the Center for Statistical Consultation and Research. He holds a B.Sc. degree in Mathematics from McGill University in Montreal, Canada, and a Ph.D. degree in Statistics from the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore Maryland. Ed is a consultant with researchers throughout the University, a variety of corporations, and students. He assists people with the design of the study, the analysis, and the presentation of the results. He has been honored for his teaching of undergraduates.

Sheila Schueller
Sheila is a Lecturer in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. She received her B.A. in Biology from Swarthmore College and recently completed her Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Michigan. She is interested in the interactions between plants and animals, such as pollination and seed dispersal, and in island biogeography, invasive species, and agriculture. Her graduate research took her out to the Channel Islands off the coast of southern California, to study the evolution of hummingbird-pollinated plants. Her husband, who is a medical resident at the University of Michigan hospital, was happy to serve as a field assistant there. She has also explored nature preserves in Kenya, India, Ecuador and New Zealand. She loves teaching and is a recipient of the Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor Award. She also enjoys good food, pottery and walks with her hound dog, Moby.

Carrie Swift
Carrie is an Adjunct Lecturer at the University of Michigan – Dearborn in the Natural Sciences Department. She teaches physics and science by inquiry for education majors. She received her Ph. D. from the University of Michigan in Astronomy and Astrophysics. Her research is focused on the modeling of relativistic jets, which are found emanating from a range of astronomical objects. She has been involved in the Michigan Spectral Catalogue for many years, which is a classification of some 225,000 stars based on temperature and luminosity. She enjoys family life in Farmington Hills with her husband and two teenage children.

Kathryn Tosney
Kathryn is an Professor in the Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology. She received her Ph.D. from Stanford University and did postdoctoral research at Yale University. Her research focuses on embryology and development, particularly the development of the nervous system. She is a three-time recipient of the College of LS&A's Excellence in Education award. Kathryn has published a study guide titled aCross Development that uses crossword puzzles to assist in learning biological terminology. Her outside interests include science fiction, handcrafts, gardening and herpetoculture (raising reptiles).

Alejandro Uribe
Alejandro Uribe is a Professor of Mathematics and former Department Chair in the University of Michigan's Mathematics Department, where he teaches a variety of courses and does research in mathematical aspects of quantum mechanics. Born in Mexico City, he attended the National University of Mexico and obtained his Ph.D. in mathematics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1982. He is interested in a broad range of mathematical topics associated with the quantum theory. During his free time he can be found reading to his two children, playing the Cello or jogging.

Bruce Wilkinson
Bruce is a Professor of Geological Sciences in the UM Geology Department. He earned a B.S. and M.S. from the University of Wyoming and his Ph.D. from the University of Texas. His research is in the field of sedimentary geology with emphasis on modern and ancient limestones. He teaches courses about the various national parks, sedimentary geology, coastal systems and their impact on human settlements. Bruce lives on a small country estate near Ann Arbor with his daughter and has an eclectic collection of livestock including emus, rheas and alpacas.

Administration

Dan Burns
Dan is the Director of the Michigan Math & Science Scholars Program and is a Professor in the Mathematics Department. Dan is originally from New York City. His undergraduate degree is from Notre Dame University and his Ph.D. from MIT. He works in complex analysis and geometry, but is pursuing mathematical applications in biology these days. He has taught a program on "Math and DNA" in the past summers. Dan is an amateur singer with Ann Arbor choral groups, and enjoys mushroom hunting and working with the local Habitat for Humanity.

Michigan Math & Science Scholars Program
Department of Mathematics
525 E. University; 2082 East Hall
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1109
mmss@umich.edu
(734) 647-4466