Azusa Pacific University Department of Mathematics, Physics, and Statistics

Last week, APU hosted the 23rd Biennial Conference of the Association of Christians in the Mathematical Sciences. Over 150 scholars from Christian institutions all over the country attended the week-long conference to discuss math, faith integration, pedagogy, and other interesting topics. It was a great event :)

Congratulations to MPS’ very own, Dr. Sándor Volkán-Kacsó, on his CLAS Award of Distinguished Research, and also Kim Bartlett, on winning the CLAS Award of Distinguished Service!

Yesterday, the MPS department hosted the first in-person graduate reception since Spring of 2019 to celebrate the math, applied math, and physics graduates with their families and friends. Congratulations, Class of 2022!

Kim Bartlett, our incredible program coordinator (aka department mom), is retiring after this semester. Kim started working at the MPS department in 2004, and has been a great asset to the department and the university ever since. The MPS department would like to thank Kim for all the hard work and contribution she has made over the years, and we wish her a wonderful retirement! Kim will be dearly missed by everyone here at MPS.

Anyone who has met Kim before are welcome to drop a message below to show your appreciation 😀

Research Highlights in Math, Physics, & Statistics at APU

On Friday, April 8, student researchers, Kate Tickle, Nathan Suiter, and Emily Gottry shared their projects and discussed their research experience at APU with visiting high school students and their parents.

You can watch the event recording APU UG Research Highlights - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1H4_7kFRCb8fWm4cyTR8d8aiIFOMdxVBg/view?usp=sharing_eil_se_dm&ts=6251ea7f

Congratulations to Dr. Kaitlyn Fitzgerald, for being selected as a Fellow for Mathematical Association of America (MAA) Project NExT. She will begin the one-year program at MAA MathFest 2022 in Philadelphia this Summer. We wish you a fruitful endeavour, Dr. Fitzgerald!
Azusa Pacific University Department of Mathematics, Physics, and Statistics

Calling 1st to 5th graders! Are you interested in learning science and having fun doing so? Sign-up for the in-person 2022 Brilliant STEAM Day at Azusa Pacific University on April 9, from 9:30am-12:30pm. Early bird discounted registration has started and spaces are limited. Hope to see you then!
https://formstack.apu.edu/forms/brilliant_stem_day_at_apu_copy_1

On Saturday, December 4, four students represented APU in the 82nd Putnam Competition, the preeminent mathematics competition for college students in the United States and Canada. Geneva Boersema, Emily Gottry, Kathryn Tickle, and Benet Zheng competed for six hours alongside thousands of students at hundreds of colleges and universities.
Two of the twelve problems are reproduced below:

A1: A grasshopper starts at the origin in the coordinate plane and makes a sequence of hops. Each hop has length 5, and after each hop the grasshopper is at a point whose coordinates are both integers; thus, there are 12 possible locations for the grasshopper after the first hop. What is the smallest number of hops needed for the grasshopper to reach the point (2021, 2021)?

A3: Determine all positive integers N for which the sphere x^2+y^2+z^2=N has an inscribed regular tetrahedron whose vertices have integer coordinates.

Please join us in congratulating these students for their brave efforts! We look forward to receiving the results in late February. Kudos to Dr. Bryant Mathews for organizing and supporting the APU Putnam team along with Dr. Sharon McCathern for assisting on the day of the competition.

Congratulations to Dr. Kaitlyn Fitzgerald (Statistics) who recently received the Young Alumni Award from her alma mater, Olivet Nazarene University, for demonstrating exemplary leadership in her career within 10 years of graduating from ONU. More information about this award can be found here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1aObaoKUCNev131ZjW7-o46BfIBDv1Z7w/view?usp=sharing



Azusa Pacific University Department of Mathematics, Physics, and Statistics

The 2021 in Physics was awarded to researchers who've helped develop models of Earth's climate and improved our understanding of and ability to predict the behaviour of complex systems: https://www.compoundchem.com/2021/10/05/2021nobelphysics/