Hanqing Hu, who had a visiting position in the Department for the past two years, has moved into a tenure-track position as of this Fall.

Math 100 is being taught this semester by Michael Eames, who is teaching the course as an adjunct professor.

The Math Intern for the year is Yizhou Ding '22. The Math Intern offers help to students in intermediate and introductory mathematics courses. The position is usually held by a recent graduate of Hobart and William Smith Colleges.

Teaching Fellows are current mathematics or computer science majors who offer help to students in introductory courses. Our Mathematics Teaching Fellows for the semester are Aarushi Agarwal, Meryem Boumalak, David Corrales Marco, Lily Davis, Jonathan Garcia, and Ainsley Woods. The Computer Science Teaching Fellows are Kidus Asmare Ayele, Julia Cowie, Sayf Elhawary, Carter Morgan, and Reagan Wolf.

Colleen will be enrolled in the PhD program in Neuroscience at Penn State University this Fall.

Here is the abstract for her Honors thesis: "In 2014, John O’Keefe was jointly awarded a Nobel Prize for his 1971 discovery of place cells, neurons in the hippocampus that fire dependent on your position in your surrounding environment. Each place cell has a representative receptive field—the area in which the place cell fires when occupied by the organism—which, because of its overlapping structures, can provide us with information about an individual’s surroundings. Given a collection of firing patterns from place cells, tools from algebraic geometry can be used to uncover the overlapping relationships in the receptive field. The visualization of these overlapping structures gives insight into how signals of the brain contribute to the individual’s perception of their surroundings. For example, in mice exploring the area of a cage, their receptive field is minimally visualized in a two- or three-dimensionally embedded representation.

"In my honors thesis, I am proposing a pipeline to test actual neuronal recordings within established theoretical frameworks to uncover the computation of perception by the brain. Adaptation of this general pipeline will bridge a connection between theoretical models of computational receptive field work with actual sensory system experimentation. Taking electrophysiology data from open-source data sets, the dimensionality of a receptive field representation may lend itself to insight on the represented physical dimension that an individual may process and perceive different senses in. Obtaining the represented physical dimension of different senses allows us to better understand how the brain processes information to produce our perception of the world."

Here is the list of recipients of prizes awarded to students.by the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science for academic excellence in 2022:

• The Robert Beinert Prize, awarded to a a graduating Senior for excellence in Mathematics, to Colleen Boucher.
• The John S. Klein Prize, awarded to a graduating Senior to recognize excellence in Computer Science, to Lindsey Crowell, Isaac Savona, and Alexander Zaykowski.
• The Catherine Adele Rippey '35 Prize, awarded to a William Smith Senior to recognize excellence in Mathematics, to Lindsay Crowell and Kimberly Waldeck.
• The Glenn M. Lee Prize, awarded to the Hobart Senior who has been most proficient in mathematics and athletics, to Nicholas Plants.
• The Abigail Mosey Book Prize, awarded to a Hobart or William Smith Senior for generosity in helping others to learn and appreciate mathematical ideas, to Colleen Boucher.
• The William Ross Proctor Prize, awarded to the William Smith Sophomore who has achieved the highest rank in mathematics in her first two years at the Colleges, to Lillian Davis and Ainsley Woods.
• The Irving Bentsen Prize, awarded to the second year student at Hobart College who has the most outstanding record in mathematics and computer science, to Nathan Greenberg and Vuthy Vey.

We also note that Math minor Julia Bellamy '22 has been elected to Phi Beta Kappa.

Full descriptions of the prizes and lists of past recipients can be found on the department's Prize Page.

For the third time, the Department hosted a Natural Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) in Mathematics in the summer of 2021. Ten students came from colleges and universities around the country to live and work on our campus for nine weeks. The students experienced researching closely with a faculty member and a team of peers, practiced and honed their mathematical writing and presenting skills, participated in a colloquium series of invited speakers, and traveled to graduate schools (Cornell and the Rochester Institute of Technology) to learn about specific programs and the graduate experience in mathematics more generally. This summer the students worked with Prof. Jennifer Biermann in algebraic combinatorics, Prof. Jonathan Forde in mathematical virology, Prof. Yan Hao in neuron networks, and Prof. Erika L.C. King in graph theory.

At the end of the nine weeks, the students remained on campus to attend the Mathematical Association of America (MAA) conference MathFest, which was held virtually. Each of the four research groups gave a virtual talk. Their talks were among nearly one hundred undergraduate talks at the conference. Both Prof. Hao and Prof. Biermann’s groups won MAA Outstanding Student Paper Session Presentation Awards, and Prof. Forde’s group won The Andersen Prize, awarded in memory of Janet Andersen by the Special Interest Group of the MAA for Mathematical and Computational Biology, and recognizing an outstanding presentation and work in areas related to mathematical biology.

Pictured here are Professors Biermann, Forde, King, and Hao, in the front row, with their students at their end-of-the-program celebration at Seneca Lake.

The Department selects students to receive a variety of prizes for excellence in Mathematics and Computer Science. Full descriptions of the prizes and lists of past recipients can be found on the department's Prize Page. Here are the recipients for 2021:

• The Robert Beinert Prize, awarded to a a graduating Senior for excellence in Mathematics, to Connor Parrow.
• The John S. Klein Prize, awarded to a graduating Senior to recognize excellence in Computer Science, to Albright Dwarka and Mitchell Spring.
• The Catherine Adele Rippey '35 Prize, awarded to a William Smith Senior to recognize excellence in Mathematics, to Alexandra Low.
• The Glenn M. Lee Prize, awarded to the Hobart Senior who has been most proficient in mathematics and athletics, to Garrett McGowan.
• The Abigail Mosey Book Prize, awarded to a Hobart or William Smith Senior for generosity in helping others to learn and appreciate mathematical ideas, to Alexandra Low, and Connor Parrow.
• The William Ross Proctor Prize, awarded to the William Smith Sophomore who has achieved the highest rank in mathematics in her first two years at the Colleges, to Aarushi Agarwal, and Grace Bott.
• The Irving Bentsen Prize, awarded to the second year student at Hobart College who has the most outstanding record in mathematics and computer science, to Kidus Asmare Ayele and Andrew Barsky.

Several Mathematics and Computer Science prize recipients also received other awards, including: the William A. Howe II ’15 Award in Education to Alexandra Low; the Outstanding Biology Student Prize to Connor Parrow; and the Sutherland Prize in Natural Sciences to Albright Dwarka