Department of Mathematics and Computer Science

Prize Recipients

Hobart and William Smith Colleges

Robert Binert Prize

Established in 1963 for excellence in mathematics. In memory of Robert Beinert, professor of mathematics at the Colleges. It is awarded annually by the Department to the Hobart or William Smith senior who has achieved the highest rank in mathematics in their four years at the Colleges.

John Klein Prize

The purpose of this prize is to recognize a senior at either College for excellence in computer science. The prize was established in 1988 with gifts from alumni and alumnae in honor of Professor Klein at the time of his retirement from full-time teaching.

Abigail Mosey Book Prize

Established in 1980 with gifts from alumni and alumnae in honor of Abigail Mosey, retired professor of mathematics. To be awarded to a Hobart or William Smith student for generosity in helping others to learn and appreciate mathematical ideas. Before 1980, this award was known as the Mathematics Book Prize.

Irving Bentsen '54 Prize

The purpose of this prize is to recognize the second year student at Hobart College who has the most outstanding record in mathematics and computer science. The prize was established with gifts from alumni and alumnae in honor of Professor Bentsen at the time of his retirement from full-time.

William Ross Proctor Prize

This prize was established in 1918 by William Ross Proctor to stimulate excellence in mathematics. It is awarded annually by the Department to the William Smith students that have achieved the highest rank in mathematics in their first two years at the Colleges.

Catharine A. Rippey Prize

This new pize (endowed December, 2002) is awarded annually to a member of the William Smith student body as a mathematics prize.

Phi Beta Kappa

Phi Beta Kappa (ΦΒΚ) is a national honor society with local chapters at many of the best colleges and universities in the country. Phi Beta Kappa recognizes students for their outstanding academic achievements as undergraduates. Election to Phi Beta Kappa as a junior is rare (and is indicated below by class year designation) and it is the highest honor the society can bestow. Majors and minors in the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science who were elected to membership since 1990 are listed here.

Honors Program

The Honors Program is a distinctive feature of the Colleges, open to qualified students who wish to achieve a high level of excellence in their departmental or individual majors. Working closely with an Honors advisor for the equivalent of one course per semester for two semesters, the student designs a project that is a focused scholarly, experimental, or artistic activity within the Honors field.

About midway through the the project, Honors candidates must take a written Honors exam which covers their major field of study. During the final semester, candidates in our department typically produce a long written description of the project. The last step in the process is a one-hour oral examination. It is conducted by an Honors Examination Committee consisting of a specialist in the field from outside of the Colleges, a faculty member from the candidate's department, and a member of the Colleges' faculty from outside of the candidate's division.

ADAM GIAMBRONE '08, honors in Mathematics: "A VERTEX-MAGIC EDGE LABELING GAME FOR GRAPHS WITH CYCLES." Advisor: ERIKA KING.

LINDSAY BROWN '05, honors in Mathematics and Education: "THE DEVELOPMENT OF A COLLEGE STUDENT TUTORING PROGRAM FOR MIDDLE SCHOL MATHEMATICS: LAUNCHING AMERICA COUNTS AT HWS." Advisor: JAMES MaKINSTER (Education Department).

OSCAR BARNEY '04, honors in Computer Science: "THE GENETIC ALGORITHMS APPROACH FOR FINDING APPROXIMATE SOLUTIONS TO NP-COMPLETE PROBLEMS." Advisor: DAVID ECK.

EVAN HOURIGAN '04, honors in Computer Science: "USING THE GENETIC ALGORITHM TO EVOLVE COOPERATIVE BEHAVOIR." Advisor: DAVID ECK.

LEYA TESMENITSKY '04, honors in Mathematics: "VERTEX MAGIC LABELING." Advisor: ERIKA KING.

MARGRETHE FLANDERS '00, honors in Mathematics: "EMPOWERING MIDDLE SCHOOL GIRLS IN MATHEMATICS." Advisor: ANN OAKS.

DANA OLANOFF '99, honors in Mathematics: "EVIDENCE OF A DUAL CONCEPTION OF MATHEMATICS IN COLLEGE STUDENTS." Advisor: ANN OAKS.

WILLIAM SIMONS '99, honors in Computer Science: "ARTIFICIAL NEURAL NETWORKS: AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE THEORY AND APPLICATIONS OF PERCEPTRONS AND BACK PROPOGATION NETWORKS." Advisor: CAROL CRITCHLOW.

DOMINIK WEIS '99, honors in Computer Science: "NETWORK SECURITY." Advisor: DAVID ECK.

E. IVAN FLORES '96, honors in Mathematics: "ART AND SCIENCE OF ENCRYPTION: FACTORIZATION, PRIMALITY TESTING AND THE RSA ALGORITHM." Advisor: CAROL CRITCHLOW.

HIROKI KOBAYASHI '96, honors in Computer Science: "GENETIC ALGORITHMS: USING COMPUTERS TO SIMULATE EVOLUTION AND TO SOLVE HARD PROBLEMS." Advisor: DAVID ECK.

JUDE SYLVESTRE '95, honors in Computer Science: "THE BIG SQUEEZE: AN EXPLORATION IN FRACTAL IMAGE COMPRESSION." Advisor: JOHN VAUGHN.

CHARLES B. RUTSTEIN '94, honors in Computer Science: "FIGHTING THE CODE WAR: COMPUTER VIRUSES AND ANTIVIRUS ENGINEERING." Advisor: JOHN VAUGHN.

SCOTT DAVIDSON '92, honors in Mathematics: "FRACTALS, DIMENSION, AND ITERATED FUNCTION SYSTEMS." Advisor: DAVID ECK.

NATHANIEL D. POOR '92, honors in Mathematics: "MATHEMATICS OF THE MIND: LANGUAGE, MEANING, AND THE NATURE OF INTELLIGENCE." Advisor: DAVID ECK.

DIANNE L. STREAMS '92, honors in Mathematics: "LAGRANGE MULTIPLIERS IN DYNAMIC OPTIMIZATION, WITH ECONOMIC EXAMPLES." Advisor: DAVID BELDING.

ELAINE A. BRUNO '91, honors in Mathematics: "EUCLIDEAN AND NON-EUCLIDEAN TESSELATIONS." Advisor: KEVIN MITCHELL.

JAMES LA MONICA '91, honors in Computer Science:. in 1991 "DATABASE THEORY, IMPLEMENTATION, AND APPLICATIONS." Advisor: DAVID ECK.

D. VINCENT CASSANO '91, honors in Mathematics:. "DIFFERENTIAL GEOMETRY AND THE GEOMETRIZATION OF PHYSICS." Advisor: DAVID ECK.

STEVEN M. COLEY '89, honors in Computer Science: "SCARP: THEORY AND IMPLEMENTATION OF AUTOMATIC THEOREM PROVING." Advisor: JOHN VAUGHN.

IHSAN MAHMOUD ES-SAID '89, honors in Mathematics: "HYPERBOLIC AND NON-HYPERBOLIC TESSELATIONS." Advisor: KEVIN MITCHELL.

MALCOLM S. GATELY '89, honors in Mathematics: "MATHEMATICS OF MUSICAL SOUND SYNTHESIS." Advisor: DAVID ECK.

JUDITH ANNE GREGG '89, honors in Mathematics: "TILINGS OF THE PLANE: FROM PERIODIC TO APERIODIC." Advisor: KEVIN MITCHELL.

DAVID N. MARTIN '89, honors in Mathematics: "NONLINEAR DYNAMICS AND CHAOS." Advisor: DAVID ECK.

THOMAS C. MALIN '88, honors in Computer Science: "MINIX: A STUDY IN OPERATING SYSTEM IMPLEMENTATION." Advisor: JOHN VAUGHN.

WILLIAM S. MERRICK '88, honors in Computer Science:. "THE FORMAL SYNTAX AND SEMANTICS OF PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES." Advisor: DAVID ECK.

RICHARD MITCHELL '88, honors in Computer Science: "MY ROBOT: A STUDY IN APPLIED LOGIC." Advisor: JOHN VAUGHN.

JODELLE S. WUERTZER '88, honors in Mathematics: "NORMAL LINEAR TRANSFORMATIONS: DIAGONALIZATION AND SPECTRAL DECOMPOSITION." Advisor: LARRY SMOLOWITZ.

MICHAEL F. NOLAN '81, honors in Mathematics: "PRE: A RATFOR-FORTRAN PREPROCESSOR." Advisor: ROBERT MAYO.

MARK D. HALSEY '79, honors in Mathematics: "GENERALIZATIONS OF THE GEOMETRIC CONSTRUCTION OF THE INTEGERS." Advisor: LARRY SMOLOWITZ.

JEFFREY A. SUMMERS '79 and JOEL JENNINGS '79, honors in Mathematics: "SPUD: SOFTWARE PACKAGE FOR USER PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT (PROGRAMS WITH APPEAL)." Advisor: BRUCE SMITH.

THOMAS FRANK '78, honors in Mathematics and Economics: "THE COPPER INDUSTRY: A SYSTEM DYNAMICS STUDY." Advisor: RICHARD ALBRIGHT.

JEFFREY W. NESLEN '74, honors in Mathematics: "THE WEIERSTRASS THEOREM AND FURTHER RESULTS." Advisor: RICHARD ALBRIGHT.

JOHN R. YONKIN '73, honors in Mathematics: "FIXED POINTS." Advisor: RICHARD ALBRIGHT.

KIRK E. JORDAN '72, honors in Mathematics: "FOURIER SERIES: SOME CONVERGENCE CRITERIA FOR REAL VALUED FUNCTIONS." Advisor: JOHN KLEIN.

PAUL CHRISTOPHER WHITE '72, honors in Mathematics: "LAGUERRE TRANSFORMS." Advisor: JOHN KLEIN.

RICHARD PELLER '71, honors in Mathematics: "THE THEORY OF INSEPARABLE FIELD EXTENSIONS." Advisor: IRVING BENTSEN.

GLENN JAY SATTY '70, honors in Mathematics: "THE SPECTRAL THEOREM FOR BOUNDED HERMITIAN OPERATORS IN HILBERT SPACE: AN ALGEBRAIC APPROACH." Advisor: LARRY SMOLOWITZ.

JOHN CHRIS LUBENSKY '69, honors in Mathematics: "LAPLACE AND HANKEL TRANSFORMS." Advisor: JOHN KLEIN.

SIMEON JACOB ELIAS GRATER '66, honors in Mathematics: "GAME THEORY AND A DESCRIPTION OF AN ORIGINAL GAME." Advisor: JOHN KLEIN.

LEROY EIMERS '63, honors in Mathematics: "SOME PROPERTIES OF TENSORS." Advisor: I. A. BICK.

EARL R. WILLARD '56, honors in Mathematics: "HYPERBOLIC ANALYTIC GEOMETRY." Advisor: ROBERT BEINERT.