South Carolina Zeta
Presbyterian College
2012-2013 Chapter Report

Chapter: South Carolina Zeta

Institution:Presbyterian College

Report Year: 2012-2013 Chapter Report

Advisor:Brian Beasley

Advisor's email address:bbeasley@presby.edu

PFC:

PFC's email address:

Officers: 2012-2013: President - Melinda Vasconcellos; Vice President - Edward Snead; Secretary/Treasurer - William Moore 2013-2014: President - Joy Eckert; Vice President - Madison Paff; Secretary/Treasurer - Karlee Taylor

Chapter URL:

Number of New Members: 11

Number of Continuing Members: 17

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

Since 2012-2013 was our first full year as a chapter, we would like to highlight three of our activities: (1) In September, Joy Eckert (a junior math major) gave a talk based on her summer research at NASA with the National Space Biomedical Research Institute. Her presentation, “Involvement of Medication in Vision and ICP Changes Seen in Spaceflight,” outlined some interesting connections between mathematics and biology, hopefully inspiring more students to pursue summer research. (2) In October, Dr. Latha Gearheart of PC’s Chemistry Department gave a presentation on “The Intersection of Chemistry and Math.” He noted the many common elements (pun intended) of math and chemistry and pointed out how Robert Boyle, the “father of modern chemistry,” applied math in his research. Dr. Gearheart concluded by demonstrating Boyle’s Law with the classic “balloon in liquid nitrogen” experiment. (3) In March, we welcomed 11 new members into our chapter. Our initiation ceremony included a talk by Dr. Curt Lindner of Auburn University, a 1960 PC alumnus. He gave a fascinating presentation of the history behind the Euler Officer Problem, with connections to the search for mutually orthogonal Latin squares (which exist for all n except n = 2 and n = 6). Afterward, we surprised Dr. Lindner with the announcement that we will honor him by naming our annual lecture series after him.

Do any of your chapter members plan to attend or present a paper at the 2013 PME national meeting at MathFest in Hartford, Connecticut?

Dr. Doug Daniel plans to attend MathFest this summer and give a talk.

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.

From the Class of 2012, the following students are attending graduate school: Caroline Burch (Clemson University, mathematics); Stewart Curry (Wake Forest University, mathematics); Wilson Harvey (University of South Carolina, mathematics); Alice Parish (Emory University, biostatistics). From the Class of 2013, the following students plan to attend graduate school: Micah Dowling (Medical University of South Carolina, dentistry); Edward Snead (Auburn University, polymer and fiber engineering); Melinda Vasconcellos (MBA, school to be determined); Ethan Woodard (North Carolina State University, electrical engineering).

If you were awarded a PME Lectureship, Conference, or Prize Grant within the past year, please briefly describe the results.