Mathematics Department from 2002 to 2004
After a long search, Bernard Mair was chosen to became head of the mathematics department. He assumed his duties on July 1, 2002.
The newly organized Statistical and Applied Mathematical Sciences Institute (SAMSI) was one of the things that attracted Mair to NC State. He felt it offered new opportunities for research by the faculty. SAMSI is a national institute whose vision is to forge a new synthesis of the statistical sciences and the applied mathematical sciences with disciplinary science to confront the very hardest and most important data-driven and model-driven scientific challenges. SAMSI is a partnership of Duke University, North Carolina State University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and the National Institute of Statistical Sciences, in cooperation with the Mathematical Sciences Research Institutes program of the Division of Mathematical Sciences at the National Science Foundation and in collaboration with the William R. Kenan, Jr. Institute for Engineering, Technology and Science. With a directorate consisting of James Berger (Duke), H. T. Banks (NCSU), J. S. Marron (UNC), and Alan F. Karr (NISS), SAMSI is located at the NISS building in Research Triangle Park.Bernard Mair was born and raised in Jamaica and received his undergraduate degree there. He travelled to Canada to get his Ph.D. at McGill University in 1983. After three year stints at Texas Tech and Penn State, Mair was appointed to the faculty at the University of Florida. There, besides being a professor of mathematics, he became Co-Director of the Center for Applied Mathematics. Mair's research interests are in medical imaging, inverse problems and potential theory. He has written over 50 papers and had one Ph.D. student. His research has been supported by NSF.
Bernard Mair Mair was attracted to State by the vibrant research program, especially in applied mathematics, and the opportunities for collaborative research with other departments and the institutions in the Research Triangle Area.
The department not only got a new department head, but a new departmental secretary, Charlene Wallace. Charlene replaced Dianne (Joyner) Hartgrove, who had been the departmental secretary since 1974. Dianne had survived through five different department heads: Rose, Ortega, Harrington, Burniston (two terms) and Martin.
Mair had barely gotten his feet wet at State when, in January 2003, he was forced to take a leave of absence for six-months for personal family reasons. Dean Solomon, Dean of PAMS, selected Jean-Pierre Fouque as interim head of the department and John Franke as interim associate head.
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| Jean-Pierre Fouque | John Franke |
On May 15, 2003 the students, friends and collaborators of Carl Meyer celebrated his 60th birthday with a conference Matrix Analysis and Applied Linear Algebra in his honor. Talks were given by many prominent linear algebraists including Gene Golub, Hans Schneider, Mickey Neumann, Ilse Ipsen and Robert Plemmons. The conference was attended by about 50 people.
In the fall of 2002, Mair started the ball rolling on hiring five new faculty. Fouque and Franke had to finish the task during the spring of 2003. The new faculty were:
Bojko N. Bakalov was born in Bulgaria and studied at Sofia University before getting his Ph.D. at MIT in 2000. Bakalov's research interests are vertex algebras, infinite-dimensional Lie algebras, integrable systems and conformal field theory.Fouque had a daughter who was taking calculus at State and was concerned that, because of large lecture sections, she did not have enough graded homework. Web-Assign, a system for automatic grading student homework, was introduced for Physics students and had been used successfully in some introductory mathematics courses. Fouque asked a committee consisting of Page, Norris Scroggs, Franke and Griggs to study the feasibility of using Web-Assign in the main calculus sequence. In the fall of 2003, Web-Assign made its debut in the main calculus sequence.Helge Kristian Jennsen is a 1998 Ph.D. graduate of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway, where he received an award for the best Ph.D. thesis in fundamental Research from Esso. He works in non-linear partial differential equations and systems of conservation laws. Jennsen has written 15 papers.
Irina Kogan works in the geometric study of differential equations and variational problems. She obtained her Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota in 2000. Kogan has published 6 papers.
Demetrio Labate is a native of Italy where he received a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the Politecnico di Torino. He then obtained a Ph.D. in mathematics from Georgia Tech in 2000. Labate specializes in harmonic analysis, with emphasis on time-frequency analysis and wavelets with applications to signal and image processing.
Alun L. Lloyd comes from the United Kingdom. He studied math at Cambridge before receiving his D.Phil. in Biology from Oxford in 1996. Lloyd's research is in mathematical biology, with a particular interest in epidemiology and in spatial and stochastic models in biology. He has written 35 research papers and is working on a book.
When Fouque heard about the Meyer-Shearer report arguing for a new mathematics building he decided to push it along. He set up a new committee consisting of Meyer, Franke, Shearer and Olufsen to update the Meyer-Shearer report. This committee, with the help of Dean Ray Fornes, came up with a report and presented their arguments to the Dean and the Chancellor.
Fouque and Franke had the departmental web page, www.math.ncsu.edu, redesigned. Among the new features added were seminar announcements and videos of colloquium talks. Fouque also initiated discussions about reducing the teaching load for faculty active in research to 2--1 (two courses one semester and one the next, or visa-versa). This seems to be the norm at other research oriented departments throughout the nation.
Fouque relinquished his duties as head of the department when Mair returned on July 1, 2003. However, Dean Solomon decided to keep John Franke on as a permanent Associate Department Head. During the six months Mair was on leave the financial situation in the State of North Carolina had turned into a severe budget crisis, and the university budget reflected this crisis. Mair was forced to cut back severely on all fronts. No money was available to start any new initiatives or to hire any new faculty.
Mair continued the previous efforts of Burniston and Fouque to push for a new mathematics building. In the fall of 2003, Lisa Johnson, Associate University Architect submitted a draft report to Ray Fornes recommending that Harrelson Hall be replaced rather than renovated. It states, in part:
"As this study has indicated, the renovation of Harrelson Hall will cause a loss of usable space and classroom seating capacity, and still not achieve the goals of correcting accessibility deficiencies, and improving classroom capacity and quality standards. NC State University recommends removal and replacement of Harrelson Hall with a new, 100% code-compliant general classroom building that meets the current instructional needs of NC State's faculty, and students and is designed to be flexible to better meet the needs of the classroom of the future."As of Spring 2004, the proposal for a new classroom and mathematics building has been approved by the Dean and the university administration. It is in the hands of the central administration of the State University System and the State Legislature. The new building would likely be built on the site of the old Riddick Stadium and parking lot.
Mair would like to keep building the department in applied and industrial mathematics and would like to increase cooperation in research and instruction with other departments in engineering and computer science. In addition, he feels that the faculty should broaden its research areas somewhat. More people are needed in analysis and optimization. Faculty are also needed in mathematical logic and geometry. There were no funds for new faculty in 2004. However, when the budget situation improves, Mair hopes that the faculty can address some of these needs.
In March of 2004, Lavon Page was appointed by the Provost to head the implementation of LITRE (Learning in a Technology Rich Environment). This program aims at enhancing the extensive learning with technology opportunities available to students at NC State. Page is well versed in the use of technology in instruction. In 1997 he headed the university's "Project 25", which sought to get 25 courses on-line by the fall of 1997. He developed three such courses himself. From 1994 until 2003 he was Director of the Multimedia Center in the Mathematics Department which managed the undergraduate computer resources of the department. Page helped in the implementation of the symbolic computation program MAPLE into the undergraduate curriculum and use of Web-Assign, a web-based homework delivery, collection, grading and recording system.
By almost every measure the faculty continued to be very productive in research. During the calendar year 2003 there were 89 faculty publications and 145 talks given at professional meetings. The new research grants for 2002-2003 academic year totalled $2.9 million [From data supplied by Ray Fornes] and the total research expenditures was $4.05 million for the same period. Although the number of Ph.D. graduates nationwide is rather flat the mathematics department Ph.D. output is growing. There were 10 Ph.D. graduates in calendar year 2002 and 16 in calendar year 2003.
In 2004 the faculty contained 40 Full Professors: H. T. Banks, S. L. Campbell, M. T. Chu, E. N. Chukwu, L. O. Chung, J. D. Cohen, A. Fauntleroy, J. P. Fouque, J. E. Franke, R. O. Fulp, R. E. Hartwig, A. Helminck, H. Hong, I. Ipsen, K. Ito, N. Jing, E. L. Kaltofen, C. T. Kelley, A. Keyfets, K. Koh, J. R. Kolb, X. B. Lin, B. Mair, R. H. Martin, N. Medhin, C. D. Meyer, K. Misra, E. L. Peterson, M. Putcha, S. Schecter, J. F. Selgrade, F. H. M. Semazzi, M. Shearer, C. E. Siewert, J. W. Silverstein, M. F. Singer, R. Smith, E. L. Stitzinger, H. T. Tran, R. E. White; one Adjunct Professor: E. M. Peck; 13 Associate Professors: G. D. Faulkner, P. Gremaud; T. J. Lada, Z. Li, S. Lubkin, L. K, Norris, L. B. Page, S. O. Paur, R. T. Ramsay, J. Rodriguez, J. S. Scroggs, S. Tsynkov, W. M. Waters; 9 Assistant Professors: R. Buche, H. J. Charlton, A. Chertock, M. A. Haider, M. Kang, M. S. Olufsen, T. Pang, A. Szanto, D. Zenkov; 4 Lecturers: J. R. Griggs, R. Kenney, M. S. McCollum; B. Burns-Williams; several emeritus professors remained active in the department: 6 Professors Emeriti: J. W. Bishir, R. E. Chandler, J. Dunn, L. B. Martin, C. V. Pao, N. J. Rose; and one Assistant Professor Emeritus: D. J. Hansen.
The faculty contained 5 African-Americans and 10 women.
As this History was just about ready to go to print, the department received the following e-mail from Dr. Mair dated May 28, 2004
"As the (fiscal) year draws to a close, I would like to congratulate you on doing a fine job throughout the past year. Despite the many challenges, many of you have demonstrated outstanding service and commitment to the faculty, staff and students who depend heavily on the services you provide. There is no doubt in my mind that this department has a great future and will continue its rise in national prominence and stature, especially with the new building that is being planned. However, for family and personal reasons I have decided to resign from my present position, effective June 30, 2004. I will be rejoining the faculty at University of Florida.Dean Solomon consulted with the faculty and staff and announced his decision on June 24 with the following e-mail:"Thank you for the opportunity to serve the department for the past year, and I wish you the best for the future. The dean will be sending a message shortly concerning the future of the departmental leadership."
"I am delighted to announce that Jean-Pierre Fouque has agreed to serve as Interim Department Head affective July 1, 2004. Jean Pierre's experience and his strong reputation in the international mathematics community will serve the department well. The Department has made great strides in recent years and is on the verge of moving to the top tier nationally. The College pledges its support in pursuit of that goal."On July 1, Dr. Fouque sent his first message to the faculty as Interim Head:
"I officially become the interim head of the department today for the year to come and I want to take this opportunity to let you know that I intend to put all my energy in this position. It is also a good time to ask you to join me in thanking Bernard Mair for his tenure and wishing him the best in the future.This History now comes to a close. The author wishes the best for Dr. Fouque and the Department in the years ahead."One of my priorities will be a significant improvement of the well deserved visibility of our department at all levels. Initiatives in that direction, such as the new committee "Awards and Publicity" chaired by Michael Singer, will find my full support.
"I also intend to work closely with the Faculty Advisory Committee to which I am appointing Michael Shearer who is leading our efforts in getting the best new building for the department. Larry Norris will organize the election of a FAC member to replace me.
"It is a pleasure to announce that Loek Helminck has accepted to become interim associate head and extend his responsibilities as chair of the computer committee to other departmental administrative responsibilities. I count on Loek to lead and implement some of the changes and improvements needed in order to be recognized as a top department.
"I would like to take this opportunity to thank John Franke for the great service he has provided to the department in the position of associate head during these past months. I am sure that John will continue to play an important role in our efforts to improve the department.
"I wish you all an excellent Summer and a great year 2004-05, and I am looking forward to working with all of you."