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Mathematics is Focus of Two Grants CAMPUS CURRENT


Faculty Updates RESEARCH, AWARDS, ACTIVITIES


Su Elected MAA President The Mathematical Association of Ameri- ca—the largest professional society focused on undergraduate mathematics—elected Francis Su as president. When he begins his two-year term in 2015, Su will become the youngest president in MAA history (he serves as president-elect through 2014). The organization recognized Su with


awards in 2013, 2006, 2004 and 2001, including two for out- standing teaching. His research interests include geometric and topological combinatorics and applications to game theory and the social sciences.


Music Appreciation Learning how to appreciate the music of different cultures is the topic of Bill Alves’ book Music of the Peoples of the World, now in its third edition. A survey of 11 musical cultures, the text explores geography and history, allowing students to connect the music to its social context. Alves, a teacher, composer, scholar of non-Western music


and associate professor of music has been an active performer of non-Western music, mostly in various Javanese and Balinese gamelan orchestras but also West African drumming. He is co- director of the MicroFest Festival of Microtonal Music and direc- tor of the American Gamelan and Electronic Music ensembles at The Claremont Colleges.


Stronger Alloys Engineering Professor Lori Bassman is leading a National Science Foundation- funded project that pairs HMC with the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, to collaboratively investigate the development of stronger metallic alloys. The NSF grant is intended to support


undergraduate student involvement in the fabrication, study and modeling of high-entropy alloys.


HMC’s Fourth Alder Recipient Rachel Levy received the 2013 Henry L. Alder Award for Dis- tinguished Teaching by a Begin- ning Faculty Member. She is the fourth HMC faculty member to


receive this award from the Mathematical Association of America (HMC is notably the only college to appear more than once on the Alder Award list). Levy has served as chair of the HMC Teaching and Learning Committee, was recently appointed editor-in-chief of the online publication SIURO and is part of an HMC team investigating the effi cacy of an “inverted” classroom teaching model.


Lewis on NPR Colleen Lewis made a cameo appear- ance on a National Public Radio program spotlighting HMC’s success at inspiring women to study computer science. The May 1 broadcast was one in an ongoing NPR series called “The Changing Lives of Women,” and it aired on the network’s fl agship “All Things Considered” program.


An accompanying article NPR prepared for its website described a teaching technique Lewis employs to great effect: tying assign- ments to pop culture.


Reading Frenzy Shark-tracking research by Chris Clark, associate professor of engineering, trig- gered a reading frenzy when it appeared on the pages of two prominent science publi- cations: the May/June issue of The Journal of Field Robotics (“Tracking and Following a Tagged Leopard Shark with an Autono- mous Underwater Vehicle”) and the May


edition of Science World (“Shark Chasers” cover story). Clark is studying underwater robots with collaborators from California State University, Long Beach and the University of Delaware plus more than 10 student researchers, including physics graduate Chris Gage ’13.


continued on Page 10 Faculty News


SUMMER 2013 Har vey Mudd College 9


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