Michigan Iota Chapter
Grand Valley State University
2002-2003 Chapter Report


 

Advisor and Officers

Advisor: Professor Paul Fishback

President: Lynn Szynal

Number of New Members Inducted:

18

Number of Continuing Members:

8

Do any of your chapter members plan to attend or present a paper at the PME national meeting at MathFest in Boulder, Colorado?

Not at this time, but I will push this heavily with students in our department this summer.

Describe the two most interesting or unusual chapter activities this year:

I will be the first to admit that while our MAA Chapter has been extremely active, our PME chapter has not. This has been a cause of concern for me the past year or so, and I hope to take steps to address this fact during the coming year.

The MAA Chapter has been very active this past year. Events included a "road trip" to Notre Dame to check out their graduate program, a club talk by Aparna Higgins, and participating in "Super Science Saturday," a science-promoting event at our local IMAX theater.

Do you have any news about current students or recent graduates? For example, scholarships or other awards, acceptances to graduate school, paper presentations at conferences. :

Christopher Frayer, a 2002 inductee has recently been named the recipient of GVSU's Niemeyer Award. This award is given to one GVSU student each year who has excelled in the classroom and has enriched the university through participating in extracurricular activities. Chris has participated in three undergraduate research projects, including the Oregon State REU program last summer. He is also a varsity swimmer and has taken virtually every course we offer, and then some. This past semester he completed independent studies in knot theory and graduate level analysis. After teaching at the Choate-Rosemary Hall school this summer, Chris will begin doctoral work in math at the University of Kentucky.