Chair's Column

Dear Members and Friends of the UNT Math Department,

This academic year took an unexpected early turn when, without much warning, the upper administration announced that, maybe, the Mathematics Department should be split into two. Evidently, the motivation was to "do something" about stubbornly high DFW rates in lower level math classes, a problem shared by all other mathematics departments in the country. These contemplations caused a fair amount of stress and anxiety among our faculty, as well as a certain level of indignation in light of what appeared to be an unfamiliarity with the realities on the ground. A precise plan was never revealed, but a few good pieces of gallows humor emerged: "Do they realize that splitting the department in half will not split the DFW rates in half?"

At the same time we faced internal turmoil as well, when our professional faculty rightly demanded voting rights on departmental matters; until this point, according to our Charter, only tenure-system faculty could vote. A closer look at the Charter revealed several other problems, starting with the name itself: Apparently, such departmental documents should be called "bylaws". We created a Bylaws Committee consisting of two professional and two tenure-system faculty, tasked with drafting a new foundational document. The first draft was ready after Spring Break. Some modifications were made after a comment period, further discussions and faculty meetings, and some guidance by the Dean. The final draft was adopted on 4/26/2024 by a lopsided vote of all faculty.

Besides voting rights for all faculty, a cornerstone of the new constitution is that instead of one Executive Committee consisting entirely of T/TT faculty, we now have two elected committees, the Professional Faculty Affairs Committee and the Tenure-System Faculty Affairs Committee. These will serve as the personnel affair committees for the respective groups of faculty. The first elections to the new committees took place at the end of the spring semester. Thus the EC is dead - long live the PFAC and the TFAC.

Regarding the DFW drama, again after faculty meetings and discussions, we submitted a number of ideas on how to boost student success. In many ways teaching math is more difficult than math research, and nobody can claim to have it all figured out. But we will put the structures in place to experiment and improve. We will see how it all turns out, but for the time being at least, the department is still in one piece.

Despite such tempests we are looking back at a good year. We had a successful hiring season, with three new Assistant Professors, one Lecturer and one Visiting Assistant Professor joining us next year. Faculty organized no less than three conferences at UNT this spring, Blast 2024, TORA XIII, and Dynamical Systems and Fractal Geometry, bringing much positive exposure to the department. We had 21,879 enrollments in MATH classes, more than ever, from developmental math students to PhD students expanding the frontiers of knowledge. It is a big operation, ever changing, and never boring.

Ralf Schmidt
Chair

Mariusz Urbański Awarded SIERPIŃSKI MEDAL

Mariusz Urbański is the recipient of the prestigious 2023 Sierpiński Medal. This international award is given to outstanding mathematicians with Polish associations. It is the highest honor presented by the University of Warsaw together with the Polish Mathematical Society since the medal's inception in 1974. In celebration of the award, Dr. Urbanski delivered the 2023 Sierpiński Lecture on May 11, 2023. Dr. Urbański says it is amazing to be among recipients that include great mathematicians, and he is full of joy and gratitude for the Polish mathematical community. Congratulations, Mariusz! The news is also posted here.

Texas Success Initiative Summer Bridge Program Won a National Award

The Texas Success Initiative (TSI) Summer Bridge Program at the University of North Texas was recognized with a national award at the 48th Annual NOSS (National Organization for Student Success) Conference as a Program of Promise. It offers all newly admitted first year students the opportunity to skip their developmental math courses prior to their first fall semester. The program runs in two modalities, one residential program in which students are housed on campus, giving them access to resources on campus as well as in-person instruction, and one online program where students complete the coursework online while still having access to live, remote mathematical support when needed. The modality in which students participate depends on their placement scores. The National Organization for Student Success recognizes programs that are using effective and/or promising practices that promote student success and development. According to the president of NOSS, the TSI Summer Bridge Program provides "holistic support to facilitate student success, retention, and completion." President Neal Smatresk held a reception on March 20, 2024 to honor the TSI Summer Bridge program for this recognition.

BLAST Conference

BLAST is an acronym for the annual conference on Boolean Algebras; Lattices, Algebraic Logic, and Quantum Logic; Universal Algebra; Set Theory; and Set-theoretic and Point-free Topology. This conference is based in the mountain/western/midwestern region, and circulates between different universities. This year, it was held here at UNT on Apr 6-9. Its organizers included Dr. Stephen Jackson, Dr. John Krueger, and Dr. Nam Trang. There were sixteen invited speakers from various well-known universities. The conference is partially supported by the NSF and the University of North Texas.

Dynamical Systems and Fractal Geometry Conference

The Dynamical Systems and Fractal Geometry conference was held at the University of North Texas on May 14-17. It brought together a diverse group of experts in a range of subfields of Dynamical systems, such as Complex Dynamics, Fractal Geometry, Thermodynamic Formalism, Open Dynamical Systems, and Random Dynamical Systems. The organizing committee includes Dr. Pieter Allaart, Dr. Kiko Kawamura, Dr. Kirill Lazebnik, and the graduate student Nathan Dalaklis. There was also a celebration for Professor Marius Urbański receiving the 2023 Sierpiński Medal during the conference dinner. This meeting is supported by the NSF and the University of North Texas.

TORA XIII Conference

Texas-Oklahoma Representations and Automorphic forms (TORA) is a series of conferences for the automorphic forms and representation theory community of the South Central region. It is hosted in rotation by Oklahoma State University, the University of Oklahoma, and the University of North Texas. TORA XIII was held at the University of North Texas on April 12-14, 2024. The local organizers included Dr. Lea Beneish, Dr. Olav Richter, Dr. Anne Shepler, and the graduate student Erin Pierce. TORA invited Dr. Scott Ahlgren from UIUC and Dr. Dinakar Ramakrishnan from Caltech as plenary speakers, and Danielle Wang from MIT as graduate student speaker. It is funded by UNT, the Journal of Number Theory, the Number Theory Foundation, and the NSF.

MS Program with Mathematics Education Concentration

The Master of Science in Mathematics Education program focus is on the study of Mathematical content coupled with pedagogical strategies. It provides certified secondary mathematics teachers with the course work to teach dual-credit mathematics. It is a 3-year program with flexible scheduling of courses (such as summer/hybrid courses). It is grounded in the context of classroom teaching and has a deep focus on content knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, and research methods. The program provides opportunities for potential career advancement in college-level teaching, research, and leadership. More details can be found here .

New Faculty Members

Lea Beneish

Lea Beneish joined the department in Fall 2023 as an Assistant Professor. Lea received her PhD from Emory University in 2020. From 2020-2021 she was a CRM-ISM Postdoctoral Fellow at McGill University and from 2021-2023 she was a Morrey Visiting Assistant Professor at UC Berkeley. Lea works in number theory and is particularly interested in problems in geometric arithmetic statistics and in studying properties of modular generating series. She is excited to teach the graduate algebra core course in the Fall.

Junhyeon Kwon

Junhyeon Kwon joined UNT in 2023 as an Assistant Professor. Junhyeon previously served as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Houston from 2021 to 2023. He earned his Ph.D. in Statistics from Seoul National University in August 2021. His research is broadly focused on the development of statistical methods for spatio-temporal data analysis, multivariate statistics, and environmental statistics. One of his goals in the field is unraveling the inhomogeneous characteristics present in natural phenomena through adaptive modeling of local data structures. Junhyeon also enjoys learning new languages such as Japanese, Spanish, and Chinese.

Kyranna Kioulafa

Kyranna Kioulafa joined UNT as a Lecturer in Fall 2023. She previously worked as an adjunct at UNT. Kyranna earned her first mathematics degree from the University of Athens, Greece, in June 2012, and continued to acquire MS degrees in Pure Mathematics and Didactics & Methodology of Mathematics. In June 2021, she earned her PhD at the University of Athens. Kyranna is looking forward to teaching students ways to approach mathematics as an element that is interwoven in our daily lives. She is also fascinated by the rhythms of Piano and classical ballet.

Shafeena Khan

Shafeena Khan joined UNT as a Lecturer in Fall 2023. She was previously an adjunct at UNT, after graduating with an MS degree from Texas Woman's University in Spring 2022. She completed her first Bachelors degree in mathematics, computer science and physics (PMCS) from Bangalore University India. She received her second Bachelors degree in mathematics at UNT in 2019. After teaching Math 1100 and Math 1180 TSI incomplete classes, she is looking forward to teaching elementary statistics next year. She also enjoys cooking and trying new recipes from the various cultures she has encountered during her time in Denton.

Shuang Liu

Shuang Liu joined UNT in Fall 2023 as an Assistant Professor. During January 2021 and June 2023, she was a SEW Assistant Professor in the Department of Mathematics at the University of California, San Diego. Before that, she was a postdoctoral research associate at the applied mathematics and plasma physics group at Los Alamos National Laboratory. She received her PhD in 2019 from the Department of Mathematics from the University of South Carolina. Shuang's current and future research plan concentrates on interdisciplinary research in biological and life sciences based on experimental data, by working closely with biologists, chemists, and engineers in the application of moving boundary problems.

Jackson Morrow

Jackson Morrow joined UNT as an Assistant Professor in Fall 2023. Jackson went to Emory University in Atlanta, GA for his Bachelor's, Master's, and Ph.D. After graduation, he spent a year in Montreal as a member of a special semester at the CRM, and after that, he spent two years at the University of California, Berkeley as a postdoc. Jackson conducts research in arithmetic, algebraic, and non-Archimedean geometry. The goals within this field are to understand rational solutions to general systems of polynomial equations using their geometric structures and non-Archimedean analysis. Jackson also played soccer in college, and he still follows most of the European soccer leagues, especially the Premier League where his favorite team is Chelsea.

Jayshree Medtia

Jayshree Medtia joined UNT as a Lecturer in Fall 2023. She previously taught as an adjunct at UNT and has a solid academic foundation that includes a Bachelor of Education in Science and Mathematics and a Master's in Mathematics. Her experience spans over 15 years of teaching college mathematics online at Davenport University's Global Campus and 6 years of teaching high school mathematics in India, where she prepared students for competitive exams like the SAT, ACT, and GRE. Jayshree teaches on our Frisco campus, where she had the opportunity to teach a wide range of mathematics courses. As a married individual with a son serving in the US Marine Corps, Jayshree deeply appreciates the importance of a supportive family environment in enabling personal and professional growth.

Jiajie Zheng

Jiajie Zheng joined the mathematics department in the Fall of 2023 as a Visiting Assistant Professor. He defended his Ph.D. in the summer of 2023 at Brandeis University. He completed his undergraduate degree at Wake Forest University. His research is in dynamical systems and Diophantine approximations. Jiajie is currently working on problems in this field with his mentor Dr. Lior Fishman. He is excited to be back in the south!

First Clinical Associate Professor in Math Department

Kiko Kawamura became the first Clinical Associate Professor in the UNT Mathematics Department this year! Kiko received her PhD from Nara Women's University in Japan. After her PhD, Kiko came to UNT as a postdoc and enrolled as a student in courses at the IELI. Since being at UNT, she has won numerous teaching awards. To name just a few of these, she recently received the Teacher of Merit Award by the Regeneron Science Talent Search, the College of Science Faculty Award for Teaching, and a Teaching Excellence Spotlight Award from UNT's CLEAR. Her research is in fractal analysis. Specifically, she is interested in problems about deterministic fractal functions, and one of her research goals is to find new techniques to analyze fractal functions.

Grants

• Nirmala Naresh was awarded an NSF Noyce Grant "Recruitment, Readiness, and Retention of Engineering, Mathematics,and Science Teachers".
• Joseph Iaia was awarded a Simons Collaboration Grant for Mathematicians.
• Kirill Lazebnik was awarded an NSF standard grant "Approximation Theory and Complex Dynamics".
• Serdar Bozdag was awarded an NIH grant "Integrating multi-omics datasets to infer phenotype-specific driver genes, regulatory interactions and drug response".
• Pieter Allart, Kiko Kawamura and Kirill Lazebnik received an NSF grant for the conference "Dynamical Systems and Fractal Geometry".
• Lea Beneish, Olav Richter and Anne Shepler received an NSF grant for the conference "Texas Oklahoma Representations and Automorphic Forms XIII".
• Shuang Liu received a Texas Section Project NExT Fellowship Sponsored by the Mathematical Association of America (MAA).
• Jodi Acker, Mary Ann Barber and Lauren De La Rosa received funding for their college-level at-risk retention proposal "Comprehensive Intervention Strategies for Improving Student Success in First-Year College Math Courses".
• Nirmala Naresh received support from UNT for "Artificial Intelligence in Mathematics Education (AI-MATE)".
• Allen Mann received support from UNT for "MATH 1680 Lab Projects". Allen is also named SI Faculty of the Month (Oct 2023) by the SI leaders in the Learning Center.
• Giordano Tierra-Chica received support from UNT for "Investigation of structure-function relationships for improving ion transport in liquid crystal-based ion transport devices using thin-film directed self-assembly".

New Staff Members

Audrey Boltwood

Audrey Boltwood joined the Department of Mathematics as Office Support Associate in August 2023. Prior to this, Audrey worked for UNT as a student since October 2018, both for UNT Starbucks and for UNT System ITSS Operations. She graduated magna cum laude from UNT in August 2023 with a bachelor’s degree in history with minors in Japanese and English and a certificate of Medieval and Renaissance studies. In Fall 2024, Audrey will begin the Master of Information Science program at UNT and attend classes online while continuing to work as full-time staff. Audrey is interested in information organization systems, archiving, and librarianship and she is looking forward to earning an ALA-accredited master’s degree. Audrey has many jobs in the department and keeps it running efficiently with her organization and attention to detail; we are very lucky to have her. Welcome to the UNT Math Department, Audrey!

Tonya King

Tonya King joined the department as the Math Placement and Testing Coordinator in Summer 2023. Before joining UNT, Tonya held positions at HomeLight, WIS International, and The Cincinnati Enquirer. Tonya is an alum of Liberty University, where she majored in Psychology with an emphasis on Christian Counseling and minored in Business Management. In the UNT Department of Mathematics, Tonya coordinates all of the math placement tests for incoming UNT undergraduates to determine which is the appropriate first math course for them to enroll in. In addition, she coordinates all makeup exams for students. This year, Tonya helped redesign the brochure for UNT’s graduate program. Tonya says she loves her job here at UNT in the Math Department and especially enjoys interacting with the staff and faculty each and every day. She says she has learned a lot since she started, and always feels supported whenever she has any questions about anything. Tonya says "Thank you all for being so kind." We are thrilled to have Tonya in the UNT Math Department family!

Awards

Kelli Chase has been with the math department since July of 2018. She was awarded the October 2023 Excellence in Mastering Challenges Continuously (E=mc^2) Award from the College of Science. This award was established by Dean Quintanilla to recognize outstanding efforts among full-time staff members within the College of Science and its departments. Among the many things Kelli does for our department, as the Scheduling Assistant and Math Quest Center Manager, Kelli keeps the Math Quest Center running smoothly, handles textbook adoptions for the department, orchestrates student workers, makes room reservations for colloquia, seminars, and conferences, and enrolls students in reading courses. Kelli says "My favorite thing about my job is the people I work with and the friendship that we have, even outside of the office." This year, Kelli also received her award for 5 years of service. Congratulations Kelli!

2024 Integration Bee

The 2024 Integration Bee was held on April 5. In this contest students attempt to solve challenging indefinite integrals within a fixed period of time. This year we had 69 competitors, and as always – we had great cake! In between rounds we had some interesting trivia questions such as who is Johanna Iaia’s favorite character from "Finding Nemo"? (Dory) and what famous 1960’s-1970’s singer from Port Arthur, Texas participated in slide rule competitions when she was in high school? (Janis Joplin) Here is the photo of the winners of the Bee. They are from left to right: Matthew Li, Xavier Ayala, Rishabh Mallidi, and Alex Evangelopolous. Matthew, Rishabh, and Alex are TAMS students and Xavier is a UNT sophomore. Congratulations to all the winners and participants!

Math Club

The Math Club is devoted to promoting interest in mathematics and fellowship among students of all mathematical backgrounds. Meetings are held in GAB 473 to discuss math, play games, prepare for the Putnum exam, and to plan departmental picnics. The semester picnics take place at Northlakes Park. The officers in this academic year's Math Club are: Victor Lin (President), Seth Robinson (Vice President), and Rita Xing (Treasurer). Victor and Rita are TAMS students while Seth is a UNT junior.

Putnam Competition

The 84th William Lowell Putnam Exam was on Saturday December 2. Krushna Dash and Victor Lin were our competitors this year! The William Lowell Putnam exam is offered every year on the first Saturday in December to undergraduates. The problems are quite challenging; getting even one question correct is an achievement! Last year Dr. Iaia has taught Math 3010 – a one credit hour problem solving class which helps undergraduates prepare for the Putnam exam.
If you are interested in learning more about the exam, please check out www.maa.org/math-competitions/putnam-competition and kskedlaya.org/putnam-archive/ (problems and solutions from 1985-2023).

Problem of the Month

Every month during regular semesters, the math department and the math club feature the problem of the month competition. This contest is open to all currently enrolled undergraduate students. Students who submit correct solutions receive cash prizes and certificates of excellence. For more information, please see math.unt.edu/problem-of-the-month. The winners of the Problem of the Month Competitions from September 2023 through March 2024 were: Orion Jordan (3 times), Matthew Li (twice), Victor Lin (5 times), and Rishabh Mallidi (twice).

Faculty Awards

• Faculty Research Award: Stephen Jackson
• Faculty Teaching Award: Mary Ann Barber and Giordano Tierra Chica
• Faculty Service Award: Jodi Acker and Joseph Iaia
• Outstanding Adjunct Award: Chad Marlow

Graduate Awards and Scholarships

• Outstanding Graduate Student: Erin Pierce (also named SI Faculty of the Month for April 2024)
• Academic Excellence Award: Eduardo Martinez
• Outstanding Teaching Fellow: Tekendra Bhatt

• John Ed Allen Scholarship: Thomas Matheos
• Dan Mauldin Scholarship: Brandon Duebel
• John Neuberger Scholarship: Rohan Srivastava

Undergraduate Awards and Scholarships

• Outstanding Undergraduate Student: Ethan Karpeles
• Outstanding Student in Actuarial Science: Amani Morrow
• Outstanding Student Math Lab Tutor: Elle Boehme-Leal

• David Dawson Scholarship: Erica Lavoie
• E.H. Hanson Scholarship: Jair Martinez
• Mildred Masters McCarty Scholarship: Katerina Nordheim
• Roger L. Perry Scholarship: Miguel Gonzalez Carriedo
• Ram Lal Seekri Scholarship: Noah Cobble