FROM THE DEPARTMENT HEAD
In the face of a large number of recent retirements,
the task of recruiting new faculty was enormous and quite challenging.
The School did extremely well in this regard, thanks to the efforts of
 our
recruiting committee and the faculty. Through our normal hiring process,
we hired six faculty members: Maria-Carme Calderer and Peter Polacik (Full
Professors); Arnd Scheel and Alexander Voronov (Associate Professors);
Wojciech Chacholski and Markus Keel (Assistant Professors). In addition
to these, Professor Douglas Arnold was hired as the new director of the
IMA. The search for this position was conducted by a national search committee
headed by Professor James Keener from the University of Utah with me serving
as the liaison with the School of Mathematics. Another opportunity for
the School of Mathematics and the University presented itself when Dr.
Andrew Odlyzko from AT&T Laboratories indicated that he would be interested
in the directorship of the newly established Digital Technology Center
at the University of Minnesota. The search committee, headed by the Institute
of Technology Dean, Regents' Professor H.Ted Davis, made an excellent
decision in choosing him as the director of this center. Both Arnold and
Odlyzko are eminent mathematicians and the School is their tenure home.
I warmly welcome these new colleagues.
Professors Donald Aronson and Charles McCarthy
will be retiring this year after many years of highly distinguished service
to the School and the University of Minnesota. A dinner event in their
honor is scheduled on April 12, 2002.
Two conferences were sponsored by the School
of Mathematics and the IMA to celebrate the 60th birthday of Ordway Professor
Nicolai V. Krylov and the 75th birthday of Regents' Professor Emeritus
James B. Serrin. Many distinguished mathematicians spoke at these conferences
and joined us in the celebrations.
The School held a first department retreat
(with dinner) on November 13, 2001, to discuss various issues involving
graduate and undergraduate education and building a community of scholars.
The response from the faculty was extremely positive, and several focus
groups met in discussion and presented their reports to the faculty. Much
follow-up work remains to be done, but it was a great beginning. It is
my hope that this will become a tradition and we will hold such a retreat
every year in the fall semester.
One final note: as you may have noticed,
the newsletter has been undergoing an evolutionary change. The editorial
board now consists of Professors Donald Kahn, Willard Miller and Karel
Prikry (Chair). I wish to express my sincere thanks to them for their
tireless effort in the production of the newsletter. I would also like
to take this opportunity to thank Becky Johnston for the skillful and
esthetically pleasing layout of the newsletter.
Naresh Jain, Head, School of Mathematics
www@math.umn.edu
URL http://www.math.umn.edu/index.shtml
The University of Minnesota
is an equal opportunity educator and employer.
2000, The Regents of the University of Minnesota
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