Archive News Associate Professor Mircea Mustata received a Packard Fellowship for Science and Engineering. These extremely competitive Fellowships, awarded annually by the David and Lucille Packard Foundation, recognize and support outstanding young scientists early in their careers. Mustata, who is one of 20 recipients for 2006, will be working on a project using techniques such as spaces of arcs, D-modules or positive characteristic techniques to understand questions on invariants of singularities coming from the classification theory of higher dimensional varieties Newly appointed Assistant Professor Erhan Bayraktar received his PhD from Princeton University in 2004. He came to Michigan after graduation as a Hildebrandt Assistant Professor, and was hired as a tenure-track Assistant Professor in September 2006. Bayraktar is part of the Applied and Interdisciplinary Mathematics program, and his research is in the areas of mathematical finance, applied probability, and stochastic processes. Professor Jerrold Marsden from Caltech presented the 2006 Ziwet Lectures in September, 2006.  The Ziwet Lectures are one of the Department’s oldest and most distinguished lecture series. See list of past speakers (pdf). Professor Philip Holmes from Princeton University presented the 2006 Rainich Lectures in November, 2006.  The Rainich Lectures (pdf) are one of the Department’s most distinguished lecture series. Assistant Professor Daniel Forger’s joint research on the sleep gene has recently received national recognition. Information on his research can be found here . The story has been publicized by Fox News, MSNBC/Newsweek, the L.A. Times, and other national and international print and broadcast media. Anna Gilbert and Divakar Viswanath were invited speakers at the 2006 Abel Symposium in May. Gopal Prasad has been awarded Humboldt Research Award for Senior U.S. Scientists. This award is given to researchers with internationally recognized academic qualifications and honors the academic achievements of the award winner's lifetime. Award winners are invited to carry out research projects of their own choice in Germany in cooperation with colleagues. A conference honoring Jeffrey Rauch was held at the University of Bordeaux, May 18-20, 2006. http://www.math.u-bordeaux.fr/collrauch/ Patrick Nelson has been elected to the board of directors of the Society for Mathematical Biology (SMB), effective July/August 2007. Carl P. Simon, Professor of Mathematics, Economics, and Public Policy, has been named the 2007 Distinguished Senior Lecturer for the College of Literature, Science and the Arts. Rob Lazarsfeld has been elected a member of the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The Academy honors distinguished scientists, scholars, and leaders in public affairs, business and the arts. Fellows are selected through a highly competitive process that recognizes individuals who have made preeminent contributions to their disciplines and to society at large. A conference honoring the 70th birthday of Joel Smoller was held at Stanford University, April 29-May 6, 2006. Assistant Professor Anna Gilbert received a 2006 NSF CAREER award for her project “Modeling and Analysis of Data from Massive Graphs.” The CAREER awards provide early career development for faculty with outstanding potential. Anna previously received an Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship, an extraordinarily competitive award involving nominations of the very best young scientists from around the country.   Professor Jeffrey Lagarias received an award for the Best Paper of the Year for 2005 in the area of Difference Equations from the International Society of Difference Equations. The award recognizes a series of 3 papers written jointly with Eric Rains entitled “Dynamics of a family of piecewise-linear area-preserving plane maps” that were published in Volume 11 of the Journal of Difference Equations and Applications. Kannan Soundararajan has been awarded the First SASTRA Ramanujan Prize. The prize is given to mathematicians not exceeding the age of 32 for outstanding contributions in areas of mathematics influenced by Ramanujan. The prize will be given during the International Conference on Number Theory and Mathematical Physics in December 2005, at SASTRA University in Kumbakonam, the hometown of Ramanujan. Professor Sijue Wu has been appointed the Robert W. and Lynn H. Browne Professor in Science for a five-year renewable term.  The Browne Professorship recognizes the recipient’s outstanding contributions to science and teaching. Professor and Chair Anthony Bloch has been awarded a Collegiate Professorship from the College of Literature, Science and the Art.  He will hold the Alexander Ziwet Collegiate Professorship in Mathematics for a five year term. Trachette Jackson has received a James S. McDonnell Foundation 21st Century Research Award for her project "Combining continuous and discrete approaches to study sustained angiogenesis associated with vascular tumor growth."  The 21st Century Research Awards are designed to support research projects with a high probability of generating new knowledge and insights.  The Complex Systems program supports scholarship and research directed toward the development of theories and models that can be applied to the study of complex, nonlinear systems.  Trace's project will combine mathematical modeling, numerical simulation and in vivo tumor vascularization experiment to gain deeper understanding of angiogenesis, tumor growth and vascular structure.  More information is available at http://www.jsmf.org/grants/cs/essays/2005/jackson.htm. Jinho Baik has been awarded an Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship, an extraordinarily competitive award involving nominations of the very best young scientists from around the country. Congratulations to Sasha Barvinok, Chris Skinner and Mario Bonk on receiving invitations to present 45 minute talks at the International Congress of Mathematicians next year. This is a singular achievement to be sure. William Fulton has been named the 2005 Henry Russel Lecturer, one of the most prestigious awards given to UM faculty. Recipients are chosen for their outstanding achievements in research and teaching. Joel Smoller has been awarded a Humboldt Research Award for Senior U.S. Scientists. This award is given to researchers with internationally recognized academic qualifications and honors the academic achievements of the award winner's lifetime. Award winners are invited to carry out research projects of their own choice in Germany in cooperation with colleagues. David Kausch has successfully completed his Fellowship Admissions Course and has received the designation of Fellow, Society of Actuaries. Gopal Prasad has been appointed an Associate Editor of the Annals of Mathematics for a period of three years. Congratulations to Bob Megginson for his appointment as LS&A Associate Dean for Undergraduate and Graduate Education (2004-2007). Abel Prize is awarded to U of M graduate, Isadore M. Singer. (Two of Singer's former graduate students include our colleagues Dan Burns and John Lott.) Joel Smoller was invited to give The Morningside Lecture at the International Congress of Chinese Mathematicians in Hong Kong in December 2004. Jinho Baik has been awarded an American Mathematical Society Centennial Research Fellowship. "The primary selection criterion for the Centennial Fellowship is the excellence of the candidate's research." In recent years, the number of Centennial Fellowships awarded has been between 2 and 4 each year, and so this award marks the very high esteem in which Jinho's work is regarded in the mathematical community. Divakar Viswanath has been awarded an Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship, an extraordinarily competitive award involving nominations of the very best scientists from around the country. Associate Professor Brian Conrad has been selected to receive from the Rackham Graduate School, a Henry Russel Award for the year 2004. This award is conferred annually to recognize distinguished scholarship or authorship (including creativity in the arts) and conspicuous ability as a teacher. Assistant Professor Harm Derksen has been awarded an NSF CAREER Award for Science and Engineering. The Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program is a highly competitive Foundation-wide activity that offers the National Science Foundation's most prestigious awards for new faculty members. The CAREER program recognizes and supports the early career-development activities of those teacher-scholars who are most likely to become the academic leaders of the 21st century. Charles Doering has been awarded Humboldt Research Award for Senior U.S. Scientists. This award is given to researchers with internationally recognized academic qualifications and honors the academic achievements of the award winner's lifetime. Award winners are invited to carry out research projects of their own choice in Germany in cooperation with colleagues. Robert L. Griess, Jr., received the University's Harold R. Johnson Diversity Service Award, recognizing his commitment to the development of a more culturally and ethnically diverse campus community. For 10 years, Griess has led the department's annual effort in the King/Chavez/Parks College Day visitation program. He displays his commitment to diversity through taking personal and direct interest in students from under-represented minorities who enter the mathematics program. Mel Hochster has been appointed the Jack E. McLaughlin Distinguished University Professor of Mathematics. Appointment to this Distinguished University Professorship recognizes Hochster's many outstanding contributions as a scholar, gifted teacher and mentor of students, and generous contributor to the life and mission of the department and the university. The Professorship is named in honor of his colleague, Professor Emeritus of Mathematics, Jack E. McLaughlin (1923-2001). McLaughlin served on the Mathematics faculty from 1958-1994. Trachette Jackson was chosen by LSA as the recipient of the Robert D. and Janet E. Neary Faculty Award. This award was established by the LSA Dean's Office to be used for faculty research support. In addition she received the Amoco Faculty Teaching Award for 2002-2003 for exceptional contributions to undergraduate teaching. This year she also received the Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship, an extraordinarily competitive award with Fellows selected from the very best scientists of their generation, and the 2003 Career Enhancement Fellowship from the Woodrow Wilson National Foundation, intended to "assist talented junior faculty to pursue scholarly research and writing so that they attain tenure more easily by providing support for a year's sabbatical". Jackson will use the fellowships to further her research in mathematical modeling in biomathematics, in particular, mathematical models for cancer growth and treatment. Assistant Professor Kristen Moore has been awarded an LSA Excellence in Education Award from the College of Literature, Science & the Arts. This award acknowledges Moore's dedication and special contributions to undergraduate education. Karen Rhea has been awarded an LSA Excellence in Education Award from the College of Literature, Science & the Arts. This award acknowledges Rhea's dedication and special contributions to undergraduate education. Karen Smith has been awarded a Faculty Recognition Award for outstanding contributions as a teacher, scholar and member of the University Community. Kannan Soundararajan has been awarded this year's Salem Prize.The Salem Prize is awarded every year to a young mathematician judged to have done outstanding work in the field of interest of Raphael Salem, primarily the theory of Fourier Series. The Mathematics Department here at Michigan now has no fewer than 3 Salem prize winners on its faculty, all of whom won the prize as "junior" faculty members here at UM. Sijue Wu was chosen by LSA as the recipient of the Phyllis and William Wolff III Faculty Award. This award was established by the LSA Dean's Office to be used for faculty support. The funds from this award are intended to support research, and may be used for travel, research assistance or other expenses. Mathematics Department Alumna, Karen Uhlenbeck (BS 1964) received an Honorary Doctor of Science degree from the University of Michigan at Spring Commencement Activities. The Mathematics Department hosted a reception for Professor Uhlenbeck on Thursday, April 29th in the Mathematics Department Atrium. Professor Anthony Bloch has been elected a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers effective 1 January 2003. He has been elected on the basis of contributions to nonlinear dynamics and geometric control of physical systems. The IEEE Fellow is one of the most prestigious honors of the IEEE, and is bestowed upon a very limited number of Senior Members who have made outstanding contributions to the electrical and information technologies and sciences for the benefit of humanity and the profession. The number of IEEE Fellows elected in a year is no more than one-tenth percent of the total IEEE voting membership. This year 260 new Fellows were elected. Visit Bloch's website. Associate Professor Trachette Jacksonhas recently been awarded two prestigious fellowships. The Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship is an extraordinarily competitive award with Fellows selected from the very best scientists of their generation. The 2003 Career Enhancement Fellowship from the Woodrow Wilson National Foundation is intended to "assist talented junior faculty to pursue scholarly research and writing so that they attain tenure more easily by providing support for a year's sabbatical". Jackson will use the fellowships to further her research in mathematical modeling in biomathematics, in particular, mathematical models for cancer growth and treatment. Visit Jackson's website. Associate Professor Brian Conrad has been awarded the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), the highest award bestowed by the United States government on young scientists. The PECASE program recognizes outstanding scientists and engineers who, early in their careers, show exceptional potential for leadership at the frontiers of knowledge. Visit Conrad's website.