My Story
David Bressoud became the 53rd president of the Mathematical Association of America (MAA) on January 8, 2009. read more>>
Upcoming Events
Our Department Tea is every Tuesday from 2:45 to 3:15, at the 'Right Angle'. Please stop by for treats and good conversation.
Please check the calendar of events for our upcoming planned events and past events.
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Congratulations! Chad Higdon-Topaz received tenure! |
Latest News
| November 17, 2009 | Jessica Striker, Visiting Assistant Professor A Unifying Perspective on Alternating Sign Matrices and Other Combinatorial Objects (or How to Get Your PhD Using Magnetix toys) |
| November 12, 2009 | Macalester Information Technology Scholars (Mac IT Scholars) Program, sponsored by the Department of Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science, is now accepting applications for scholarships for Spring semester. Find out more information about the scholarships available and how to apply. |
| November 11, 2009 | Jeff Weeks, author of the groundbreaking text The Shape of Space. When we look out on a clear night the universe seems infinite. Yet this infinity might be an illusion. During the first half of the presentation computer games will introduce the concept of a "multiconnected universe". Interactive three-dimentional graphics will then take the viewer on a tour of several possible shapes for space. Finally, we'll see how recent satellite data provide tantalizing clues to the true shape of our universe. |
| October 31, 2009 | Students from around the region, including Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Iowa gathered to compete in the Associated Computing Machinery's Annual Regional Programming Contest on October 31. Macalester hosted one of many contest sites in the North Central Region, which includes teams from several other states and Canada. |
| April 23, 2009 |
Student awards were announced at the Senior Banquet. They are: Capstone Awards: Caroline Ettinger, Ryan Becker, and Peter Calhoun Competition Award: Mike Kapernaros The Ezra Camp Award for Computer Science: Jessica Blascak The Ezra Camp Award for Mathematics: Bernd Verst The Konhauser Award for Computer Science: Stiliyana Stamenova The Konhauser Award for Mathematics: Meng Wang |
| Summer 2009 |
Munadir Aziz Ahmed Dhaka, ('10, Bangladesh) is a math and physics major who did summer research with Professor James Doyle. Read more about his summer experience.
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| April 3, 2009 | Macalester students Jessica Blascak, Ji Choi, and Professor Karen Saxe attended the Career Options for Women in Mathematical Sciences workshop at the Institute for Mathematics and Its Applications, April 2-4. Sessions were led by leaders from industry, government, and academia. The work of the over 100 participants was highlighted in a poster session. Jessica presented her poster on “Recommender systems: incorporating time into movie recommendations,” work she is doing for her Capstone Project with Professors Victor Addona and Shilad Sen. |
| March 23, 2009 | Results for the 69th Annual Putnam Mathematical Competition, held on December 6, 2008 have been announced. Seven Macalester students participated in the 6-hour exam: Saad Anjum, Chen Gu, Henrik Hakonsen, Michael Kapernaros, Matthew Kusner, Stella Stamenova, and Hao Zou. A total of 3627 individuals from 545 schools in the US and Canada participated, and the Macalester team placed 89th. The Putnam is a highly prestigious, and very difficult, mathematical exam. The most common score is 0 out of 120 points, and 10 points places you in the top third! Macalester's top individuals were Michael Kapernaros, (who placed 619th), Chen Gu (719th), and Stella Stamenova (1196.5th). |
| March 17, 2009 | Douglas Mapondera, '11, was awarded a Davis Foundation "100 Projects for Peace" grant to purchase and install water pumps in a village in Zimbabwe, enabling them to irrigate the farm land and improve access to clean water for drinking. |
| March 1, 2009 | Professors Susan Fox and Libby Shoop were awarded a $586,500 grant from the National Science Foundation to support students majoring in Computer Science or minoring in Computer Science and majoring in another science field who demonstrate financial need. The grant will also support activities for the Macalester Information Technology Scholars (Mac IT Scholars) Program. Find out more information about the scholarships available and how to apply. |
| February 28, 2009 | The 17th Annual Konhauser Problemfest was held at Carleton College. The Konhauser Problemfest is an annual problem competition for three-person teams from Macalester, Carleton, St. Olaf, University of St. Thomas, Augsburg, and Gustavus Adolphus. It was started in 1993 in honor of the late Joe Konhauser, a long-time professor at Macalester who was a very active problemist. In this competition, teams of 3 students work on 10 problems over the course of 3 hours. The Macalester team of Saad Anjum, Chen Gu, and Henrik Hakonsen placed 2nd with 64 points (out of 100). A team from St. Olaf won this year's event with 67 points. Also competing for Macalester were Wanyi Li, Yiting Wang, Jingjiao Zhang, Stella Stamenova, Mike Kapernaros, Nikhil Gupta, Matthew Kusner, and Mo Liu. The event alternates between Macalester, Carleton, St Thomas, and St Olaf, and it will be held at St Thomas next year. |
| November 15, 2008 | Students from around the region, including Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Iowa gathered to compete in the Associated Computing Machinery's Annual Regional Programming Contest on November 15. Macalester hosted one of many contest sites in the North Central Region, which includes teams from several other states and Canada. |
Check the news archive for past events.
Why Math, Stats, and Computer Science?
- A recent analysis of 200 professions rates 'Mathematician' as the best job! Apparently, you will be very satisfied with your work if you major in any one of the areas represented in our department, since the top 6 ranked professions are: (1) Mathematician; (2) Actuary; (3) Statistician; (4) Biologist; (5) Software Engineer; (6) Computer Systems Analyst. We knew it! Read The Best & Worst Jobs from The Wall Street Journal, January 6, 2009.
- According the IEEE Computer Society, demand is up for several Information Technology jobs.
What are our graduates doing? Check out the Student/Alumni News.
Also see our Career Planning Information for ideas about what you might do with your Math, Applied Math and Stats, Computer Science, or Statistics degree.