50 Years of Mathematics at UWM!

  • Craig Guibault, Lauralee Guibault

On the weekend of October 21, 2016, Mathematical Sciences hosted an event-filled weekend celebrating its 50 years as a Doctoral Research department. The weekend took place not only to celebrate the 50th anniversary of graduate studies in the math department, but also to celebrate all of those who made those years possible. Alumni, Faculty, Staff, and anyone who wished to attend was invited to celebrate with the department.

The weekend was comprised of multiple different events, kicking off with a mathematics lecture given Friday night by freelance geometer Jeff Weeks titled “The Shape of Space”. This event was open to the entire university, and attracted over 200 people.

Saturday morning started off with research group special sessions given in multiple different areas of study. These areas were Algebra, Analysis, Applied & Computational Math, Statistics, and Topology. Multiple talks were given at each breakout session, and all were well attended.

The titles and their abstracts can be read here.

Following these sessions, a Panel Discussion was held discussing the non-academic career paths five alumni have taken, ranging from Software Developer to Editor of a mathematical review.

The panel and their biographies can be read here.

An Italian-Style banquet was thrown for the alumni Saturday night following a long day of discussion. At the banquet, booklets were handed out that included updates on many alumni and a compilation of the history of UWM’s 50 years as a Doctoral Research department titled “A Blast from the Past”. This information was compiled by Eve Detwiler and Steve Schwengels.

“A Blast from the Past” will be available soon.

The weekend festivities ended Sunday morning with a tour of Lake Park given by Emeritus professor Gil Walter.

“I had a great time to meet all my old friends,” Dr. Robert Kreczner (Ph.D, 1988) said. “I also look forward to celebrating a next anniversary. Maybe 55th one, to be more realistic, because the 100th one might not work for me!”

This Celebration of Mathematics was funded by the UW-Milwaukee Graduate School and the Mathematical Sciences Foundation. The department also received assistance from the UWM Alumni Association and the College of Letters and Science.

As part of a continuing celebration of this important milestone, UW-Milwaukee will also be hosting the Mathematical Association of American Wisconsin Section Meeting in April 2017. Professor Fredric Ancel will be giving a UWM Science Bag presentation on the weekend of that conference.

We hope to continue holding events such as this one, to celebrate everyone who has made the Department of Mathematical Sciences a success.

 

Take a look at the photos from this weekend on our Facebook page.