News: page 20

Meet one of our undergraduates and summer research interns, Pavel Javornik!

This summer I will be continuing my work under the mentorship of Dr. Patrick Hooper. Our current project is to describe the dynamical properties of geodesic flows on non-compact surfaces composed entirely of boundary unions of various polyhedrons. Certain characteristics of these infinite surfaces, such as the symmetries of the canonical forms of their quotient spaces, determine the behavior of geodesic flows given properties of said flow (such as their initial trajectories). The goal this summer is to adapt various methods used in studying infinite surfaces constructed from compact translation surfaces to better understand surfaces that might admit transformations of geodesic flows in the form of rotations. Much of the study of Veech surfaces is applicable to certain rational billiards problems on infinite surfaces like the Ehrenfest-Wind Tree Model, but these transformations often admit reflections off of boundaries in the form of perfectly elastic collisions. The translation surfaces and (consequently) Veech groups of these infinite surfaces have symmetrical properties unlike those of surfaces constructed of polyhedrons. Understanding how these boundaries might affect geodesic flow on flattened structures is key to understanding their dynamical properties.

What drives my work is my love for mathematics. Studying the underlying structures of objects such as manifolds fascinates me. With low-dimensional topology there is a geometric intuition when trying to characterize these kinds of surfaces. Describing the homology classes of non-compact, infinite (possibly infinite genus) surfaces in the form of their compact covering/translation spaces is a somewhat novel undertaking. There's an extraordinary number of possibilities in this realm of mathematics and they all begin with asking simple questions that begin to unravel the mysteries of the objects we study.

Eleven students finishing their MS degrees in Spring 2017 will begin doctoral programs in Fall 2017 with institutional financial support at a number of excellent institutions, including the University of Minnesota, the University of Waterloo, the University of Illinois, Arizona State University, Syracuse University, the CUNY Graduate Center, the University of Pennsylvania, and Stevens Institute of Technology.

The mathematics department congratulates all graduates!

The Putnam examination is a nationwide mathematics examination requiring exceptional ability and creativity to achieve a non-zero score. Two CCNY seniors, Allen Kim and Gautam Ramasubramanian, did exceptionally well, placing 408th and 813th nationwide. Congratulations to both, who will graduate in Spring 2017!

Prof. Brooke Feigon is the recipient of the President's Outstanding Service Award. This award recognizes both the creativity and commitment of a full-time faculty member and the impact that s/he has had on student learning through a combination of innovative approaches in mentoring, research, teaching and/or scholarship. Awards will be made annually to up to three faculty members who have demonstrated extraordinary service to students, to scholarship and to the College. This award recognizes the importance of faculty participation in the governance of the institution and its significant impact on the College and the greater College community.

Happy SPRING!!!!! Let's celebrate Pi Day!!!!!!!!!!

When: Tuesday, March 14, 12:15-1:50pm
Where: Room NAC 6/114

On the afternoon of Tuesday, March 14, 2016, participate in pi-related activities. This comes on a very busy exam time, a time when everyone needs comfort, and what is more comforting than a mathematical constant? Oh, I know! A sweet dessert of the same name! Jokes aside, we have a lot of cool events, origami, and a competition with exercises that our friend pi shows up