Letter from the Chair 2023
Alumni and friends of the Mathematics Department,
There have been a number of changes around here over the last year (quite apart from the upcoming change to semesters, which drives most of our recent faculty meetings). First our Administrative Coordinator Kara Hahlbeck was promoted to personnel analyst which involved a move across the building to the Dean’s office. If you swing by the office now, you’ll meet our new Administrative Coordinator Sabrina Thomas. Sabrina, who graduated from USC with a Bachelor’s degree in biology and Cal State LA with her MBA, comes to us by way of the ONELEGACY company in Los Angeles where she served as donor information coordinator. Together with Melissa Sunata, Sabrina is doing a great job keeping the office running.
Among the faculty we had three professors retire after Spring 2022: Matthew White, Linda Patton, and Marian Robbins all decided to hang up the chalk and are currently enjoying the freedom to pursue other interests. Additionally, Professor Stan Yoshinobu was offered a job at the University of Toronto and elected to make the move official. But don’t worry that our ranks our being depleted. Anticipating these departures, we were able to hire two new faculty members, Sean Gasiorek and Patrick Orson, who started this past Fall are currently in the midst of a search for another math ed specialist to join us in Fall 2023, and expect to pursue an additional hire next academic year. Watch this space for introductions.
The department is also hosting a post-doctorate for the first time ever. Professors Joyce Lin and Elena Dimitrova wrote a successful proposal to the Frost fund to support a two-year position, and invited Warren Roche to join the department in Fall 2022 right after finishing his PhD at the Waterford Institute of Technology in Ireland. Finally, we also hired one new full-time lecturer, Marvin McClendon, by way of a long career starting with a Ph.D. from Princeton, including a full professorship at Savannah College of Art and Design, stops in China and Dubai, and most recently the University of North Georgia.
All these new staff and faculty are helping us maintain the mathematical life and educational mission of the department. As well as active individual research programs, we provide rich coursework, supervise successful student research, and support both faculty and student travel to math conferences. So many of these activities are made possible by the generous donations to the department. These allow us to fund important initiatives that take place outside the classroom. We are incredibly grateful for the flexibility and opportunity provided by your generous gifts.
Please keep in touch and let us know what you’ve been up to. We'd love to see you at the department office if you're ever on campus.
