Three UMW students presented results of their research projects at the fall regional meeting of the Mathematical Association of America held at Christopher Newport University in November. Catherine O’Doherty presented “Explanation of the Matrix Exponential,” a work based on her project under the direction of Dr. Julius Esunge. Ryan Vaughn’s presentation, titled “On the Contractibility of Finite coH-Spaces” extends his work with Dr. Randall Helmstutler which began during the Summer Science Institute of 2011. Finally, Kelly Scott presented “Anti-Blocking Sets” based on her honors project currently in progress under the direction of Dr. Keith Mellinger.
Julius Esunge Published in “Communications on Stochastic Analysis”
Julius Esunge, assistant professor of mathematics, had his article “Density Dependent Utilities with Transaction Costs” published in the December issue of the journal Communications on Stochastic Analysis.
Leo Lee Publishes Two Articles
Leo Lee, assistant professor of mathematics, published two articles this fall. His article “Error Estimates of Stochastic Optimal Neumann Boundary Control Problems” appeared in the SIAM Journal on Numerical Analysis (http://epubs.siam.org/sinum/resource/1/sjnaam/v49/i4/p1532_s1?isAuthorized=no).
Dr. Lee’s second article, “Finite Element Approximations of Stochastic Optimal Control Problems Constrained by Stochastic Elliptic PDEs,” appeared in the Journal of Mathematical Analysis and Applications (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022247X10006062).
Holly Schiffrin to be Featured on Public Radio Program
Holly Schiffrin, associate professor of psychology, discusses how lifestyle changes brought on by the recession might be better for one’s well-being during an interview on the “With Good Reason” public radio program. The interview originally aired in January 2011 on public radio stations across Virginia.
Her interview will be re-aired during the week of December 24 and is available online at http://withgoodreasonradio.org/2011/12/the-end-of-obesit/.
Claudia Emerson to Release New Collection
Claudia Emerson’s latest collection of poetry Secure the Shadow will be released in February 2012 by Louisiana State University Press. The collection contains historical pieces as well as poems centering on the deaths of the poet’s brother and father.
Emerson’s five books include “Late Wife,” winner of the Pulitzer Prize, and most recently, “Figure Studies.” Emerson has been awarded fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Library of Congress and the Guggenheim Foundation. Former poet laureate of Virginia, she holds the Arrington Distinguished Chair in Poetry at UMW.
Chad Murphy to be Published in the Journal of Politics
Chad Murphy
Chad Murphy, assistant professor of political science, will have his paper “Hostile Media Judgments, Polarized Political Communication, and Selective Exposure” published in a future edition of The Journal of Politics. Co-authors of the article include Kevin Arceneaux and Martin Johnson.
One of Murphy’s former students, Nick Jacobs, has had two of his papers accepted for publication in Education and Urban Society. The articles, “Racial, Economic, and Linguistic Segregation: Analyzing Market Supports in the District of Columbia’s Public Charter Schools” and “Understanding School Choice: Location as a Determinant of Charter School Racial, Economic, and Linguistic Segregation,” are available at http://eus.sagepub.com/content/early/recent.
Jim Groom Featured in Times Higher Education
Jim Groom, director of the Division for Teaching and Learning Technologies, is featured in the article “DIY, says ‘edupunk’ star. Distortion and sellout, say critics” in Times Higher Education. In the article, which appeared in the Thursday, Nov. 17 issue, Groom discusses the ideas behind the word “edupunk” and how they have evolved in the past few years.
Home Sweet Home
Presently on sabbatical in Italy, Federico Schneider is a visiting scholar at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore of Milan, where he is working on his second book project “The Inconspicuous Art of the Libretto.”
He has been featured on National Swiss Radio (RSI, Rete Uno): “Incontro con Federico Schneider. Dal Jazz a… Dante” http://reteuno.rsi.ch/home/networks/reteuno/oraDelTe/2011/01/25/Federico-Schneider-1.html.
He has presented a paper entitled “Musica e dramma nella Commedia,” at Ritrovarsi alla Badia di Ganna, Lecture Series 2011, Ganna (VA), and has been invited to deliver a lecture entitled “L’arte nascosta nel libretto d’opera” at the Università degli Studi of Turin. 
.
Xiaofeng Zhao Presented at Decision Sciences Institute’s Annual Meeting
Xiaofeng Zhao, assistant professor in the College of Business, chaired a session and presented two papers at the Decision Sciences Institute 2011 Annual Meeting in Boston. The papers, “The Effects of the Variation on Queuing Systems in Supply Chain Management” and “Understanding Process Flow and Waiting Time Variance: A Spread Sheet Approach,” are published in the peer-reviewed conference proceedings.
“Estimating the Variance of Waiting Time in the Delivery of Healthcare Services,” a paper co-authored by Zhao, has been accepted by the International Journal of Decision Sciences.
Charles Shields Featured in The New York Times Book Review
Charles J. Shields, associate director of the Chappell Great Lives Lecture Series, is featured in the Sunday, Nov. 27 edition of The New York Times Sunday Book Review. The article, “How It Went,” is a review of Shields’ book, And So It Goes: Kurt Vonnegut, A Life.