March 19, 2024

Esunge, Mathematics Department Host ‘The Life of a Mathematician’ Inaugural Talk

Professor and Chair of the Department of Mathematics Julius Esunge

Professor and Chair of the Department of Mathematics Julius Esunge

The Department of Mathematics hosted the inaugural talk in its new colloquium series, The Life of a Mathematician. This initiative of the new chair of mathematics, Professor Julius Esunge, featured Professor Larry Lehman as the speaker, with several students, alumni and colleagues in attendance. The series aims at addressing such pertinent matters as the factors that contributed towards the career choices of mathematics faculty, the tools they use in their research and the relevance of their work.

Professor Lehman who is in his 35th year at UMW presented a leisurely and engaging talk. The series continues in the spring with Professor Marie Sheckels as the speaker. This series will showcase the excellent work and background of departmental colleagues with a view to encouraging students.

Lehman Publishes Book in Dolciani Series

Larry Lehman, Professor of Mathematics.

Larry Lehman, Professor of Mathematics.

Larry Lehman, Professor of Mathematics, has had his book, Quadratic Number Theory: An Invitation to Algebraic Methods in the Higher Arithmetic, published by MAA Press, an imprint of the American Mathematical Society.  The book appears in the Dolciani Mathematical Expositions series, devoted to “mathematical elegance and ingenuity” in texts intended for undergraduate math majors.  It features innovations in notation developed during several directed studies and topics courses in algebraic number theory led by Prof. Lehman at the University of Mary Washington.

Mathematics Faculty Participate in Joint Mathematics Meetings

Eight members of the Department of Mathematics presented at the annual Joint Mathematics Meetings in Atlanta in January.  The JMM is the largest mathematics conference in the country, with registrations this year exceeding 6,000 participants.  Highlights of the meeting include:

  • Randall Helmstutler, chair and associate professor, presented the talk “Generalized dihedral groups in non-commutative cryptographic protocols,” based on research conducted with former student Chris Lloyd. Dr. Helmstutler also participated in a day-long workshop for mathematics department chairs.
  • Professor Debra Hydorn presented the talk “Small Teaching” in the MAA session on discrete mathematics in the undergraduate curriculum. Dr. Hydorn also exhibited two pieces in the Mathematical Art Exhibition and participated in several committee meetings.
  • Associate professor Leo Lee gave the presentation “DDM for SPDE” in the AMS contributed paper session on numerical analysis and computer science.
  • Professor Larry Lehman gave two talks on his research in number theory, “A Continued Fraction Algorithm for Quadratic Numbers, Forms, and  Ideals” and “A Formula for the Number of Solutions of an Arbitrary Quadratic Congruence.”
  • Lecturer Jennifer Magee presented the talk “Cryptology for first-year students” in the MAA session on cryptology for undergraduates, providing an overview of the department’s unique FSEM course in the field.
  • Professor Keith Mellinger delivered “The ingredients for a successful liberal arts course in quantitative reasoning,” a talk addressing the department’s innovative approach to a recently developed course offering, Math 120: Quantitative Reasoning for the Sciences.
  • Professor Marie Sheckels presented “Enhancing Quantitative Reasoning and Skills through Exploring Scientific Applications” in the session Innovative Strategies to Inspire and Prepare Potential STEM Majors.
  • Professor Suzanne Sumner gave the talk “Environmental Applications: Introduction to Mathematical Modeling” in the session Meaningful Modeling in the First Two Years of College.

Lehman Presents at National Conference

Larry Lehman, professor of mathematics, presented a paper titled “Seeding polynomials for congruences modulo prime powers” at Mathfest, the national meeting of the Mathematical Association of America, in Columbus, Ohio, on Aug. 6, 2016.

Lehman Presents at Math Conference

Larry Lehman, professor of mathematics, presented a talk titled “An Arithmetic View of a Classical Calculus Problem” at the Md.-D.C.-Va. Section Meeting of the Mathematical Association of America, in Farmville, Va. on Nov. 2, 2013.

Larry Lehman Publishes Research

Lehman_250Larry Lehman, professor of mathematics, published the article “Suborder Polynomials Modulo Primes” in the February 2013 issue of JP Journal of Algebra, Number Theory and Applications.  This article relates patterns in recursively defined sequences to the roots over finite fields of a certain class of polynomials.

Larry Lehman Presents at Regional Conference

Larry Lehman, professor of mathematics, presented a paper entitled “Suborders of Quadratic Polynomials Modulo Primes” at the fall meeting of the MD-DC-VA Section of the Mathematical Association of America, held at Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Va., in October 2012.

Larry Lehman

Larry Lehman, professor of mathematics, published the article “Recursive Sequences and Polynomial Congruences” in Involve, a journal dedicated to faculty-student research papers in mathematics.  The article was co-written with Christopher Triola ’09 and is based on an undergraduate research project performed during the 2007 Summer Science Institute at Mary Washington.