Michigan Iota
Grand Valley State University
2008-2009 Chapter Report

Advisor and Officers

Advisor: Paul Fishback

Co-Presidents: Tarah Jensen and Geoff Patterson

Number of New Members Inducted:

36

This year's new inductees into the Michigan Iota Chapter.

Number of Continuing Members:

5

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

The GVSU Mathematics and Statistics Club / PME Chapter hosted Calculus the Musical, a touring production put on by the Know Theatre of Cincinnati. The event was standing room only and attended by approximately 150 students and faculty members.

The club held its annual Pi-Day event, a fund-raiser in which the faculty member raising the most money was graced with a pie in the face on March 14th.

The PME chapter celebrated its 10 year anniversary by inviting charter members to renew their pledges, along with this year's new inductees at the department's annual awards banquet.

Do any of your chapter members plan to attend or present a paper at the 2009 PME national meeting at MathFest in Portland, Oregon?

Yes.

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?

David Szurley, GVSU '1997, was inducted into Pi Mu Epsilon at a special ceremony held as part of the university's 2008 Alumni in Residence Program. David completed his Ph.D. at Clemson University in 2005 and is currently an Assistant Professor of Mathematics at Francis Marion University, South Carolina.

Chapter co-president Geoff Patterson was named the university's Outstanding Graduate in Mathematics. Geoff received an MAA award at 2008 MathFest for his talk on voting theory and will begin graduate studies at the University of Hawaii this coming fall.

PME Charter Member, Amanda Peterson, an employee of the Department of Defense, has been accepted into the doctoral program in statistics at the University of Maryland. The DOD will pay for Amanda's tuition as she completes her degree in the area of data mining.