COQ U E E N ’

MS M A

MUT H E M A T

NII C A L

CATORS U M M E R 2 0 1 5 An aperiodical issued by the

Department of Mathematics and Statistics Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada K7L 3N6

WELCOME FROM THE HEAD, RAM MURTY

Iwelcome readers of our newly designedcommunicator. Our last issue was published in the

Winter of 2012 and since that time, we have had threenew faculty appointments, Serban Belinschi, who worksin operator algebras, Bahman Gharesifard, who worksin mathematical engineering, and Francesco Cellarosi,who works in Dynamical Systems and Number Theory.We welcome them all to the department. You will findmore details below.

Several of our students, both graduate andundergraduate, have won numerous awards and we areproud of their achievements. Our postdoctoral fellowshave also been applauded for their exemplary teaching.Professors Leo Jonker, Morris Orzech, Ole Nielsen,Tony Geramita, and Leslie Roberts have officiallyretired, though they still continue to participate in ouracademic and seminar activities. We wish them all wellin their retirement life. Clearly, they are difficult to

replace and we are making every effort to expand ourfaculty recruitment. Greg Smith is our newundergraduate chair, and Jamie Mingo, our graduatechair. Ivan Dimitrov is our Associate Head and Abdol-Reza Mansouri our Mathematics and Engineeringprogram chair.

On a sad note, some former colleagues are no longerwith us. David Gregory passed away in 2013. Hiscontributions to the department and vivacious approachto mathematics were exemplary. In June 2014, there wasa meeting organized by our department and the FieldsInstitute to celebrate his work. Conference proceedingsarising from this event have been published by the FieldsInstitute. Jim Whitley passed away in January of thisyear. Jim was the master of the famous “Section J”engineers and though Jim has gone, their motto “In Jimwe Trust” will surely live on. Finally Doug Crawford,emeritus professor in the Faculty of Education as well asMath&Stats also died last January. Again more detailswill be found in this issue.

The department continues to face new challenges.Faculty recruitment is definitely one of our top priorities.Our class sizes and our teaching responsibilities are everincreasing and so this is all the more urgent. I am happyto report that still, our students say they find a friendlyatmosphere here in which to learn mathematics andshare their joy with fellow students. We are grateful to allour students and alumni for their continued support, sothat we can continue this time honoured tradition oflearning and teaching.

DEPARTMENT NEWS

TROY DAY was the 2012 winner of theCanadian Industrial and Applied MathSociety (CAIMS) Research Prize. He wascited for his work in Evolutionary medicine,particularly for his investigations of the bestway to use drugs and other interventions(such as vaccines) to treat disease. Troy alsoreceived a 2013 NSERC DiscoveryAccelerator Supplements. This awardprovides an extra grant of $40,000 per yearfor three years to researchers whose workexplores high-risk, novel or potentiallytransformative concepts and lines of inquiry,likely to have impact by contributing toground breaking advances. In 2013 Troyreceived a Queen’s University Prizes inResearch Excellence, and quite recently wasawarded a prestigious Killam Fellowship —one of only six awarded in Canada!

DAVID J. THOMSON received 2013Statistical Society of Canada Award for theImpact of Applied and Collaborative Work.This award was given to David both for hiscreation of the multitaper spectrumestimator and for its myriad applicationsincluding those to the related fields ofgeophysics, climatology andhelioseismology; especially in connectionwith his discovery of the existence of solar g-mode signatures in scientific data, to NuclearTest Ban Treaty verification and to theaccuracy of touch-tone phone signals againstnoisy backgrounds. David’s 1990 Nature and1995 Science papers were the first statisticalanalyses of climate data that conclusivelyshowed a relationship between globaltemperature and atmospheric CO2.

AGNES HERZBERG is the winner of the2014 Lise Manchester Award given by theStatistical Society of Canada. The awardrecognizes excellence in statisticalresearch which considers problems ofpublic interest and which is potentiallyuseful for formation of Canadian publicpolicy. Agnes was cited for her work inbringing together statisticians, scientists,politicians and public servants fromCanada and around the world annuallysince 1996 to tackle problems at theintersection of statistics, science andpublic policy at the Conference onStatistics, Science and Public Policy.

ELSA HANSEN, one of Troy’s PhDstudents, won the 2012 CAIMS DoctoralDissertation award. Her doctoral researchfocused on applying techniques fromoptimal control theory to understand theeffects of different intervention strategieson epidemics. Elsa is currently a ResearchAssociate at Penn State's Center forInfectious Disease Dynamics.

TAMÁS LINDER was elected IEEEFellow, in recognition of his contributionsto the area of source coding andquantization. He was also awarded a 2013NSERC Discovery Accelerator Supplement(see above). His research focuses on themathematical theories informationtransfer and storage as well as thedevelopment of efficient algorithms forinformation processing.

PETER TAYLOR received the 2013Partners in Research MathematicsAmbassador Award. The award recognizesoutstanding contributions of a body of workover a period of time to the field ofmathematics and Canadians by a Canadianresearcher. He was also appointed as a 2014Fellow of the Fields Institute.

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DEPARTMENT NEWS

GREG SMITH received the 2012 CMSCoxeter-James Prize. “Dr. Smith has madesignificant contributions to many differentfields of mathematics and has demonstrateda strong sense for identifying problems in hiarea of research that are likely to be key forfurther progress,” said Lia Bronsard, Chair ofthe CMS Research Committee. Greg’sresearch centers on “combinatorial varieties,”the fundamental objects at the interfacebetween algebra, combinatorics andgeometry, an area has recently becomeimportant in its applications to quantumcomputing as well as in Computer Science,such as computation complexity.

ROLAND SPEICHER received the 2012CMS Jeffery Williams Prize. “Speicher is aninternationally recognized expert on thecombinatorial side of free probability,” saidCMS President, Jacques Hurtubise, whenannouncing the award. “His research in thispreviously unexplored branch of freeprobability has had a great impact on themathematical community.” Roland’s workfocuses on the combinatorial side of freeprobability, and the links he has exploredbetween different areas of mathematics haveled to the resolution of several mathematicalproblems that have long been in question.

SERDAR YÜKSEL received the 2013CAIMS/PIMS Early Career Award inApplied Mathematics. Serdar was cited “forhis contributions to the areas of informationand control theory, and the interfacebetween these. These are mainly in twoareas, in the study of control of systemsunder information constraints, and indecentralized control–situations in whichone has many agents whose behaviour oneis trying to control, but who do notcommunicate fully with one another.”

HECTOR PASTEN VASQUEZ, Ram’sPhD student, was the winner of the 2014Governor-General Academic Gold Medal forPhD studies, and subsequently won theCanadian Math Society Doctoral Prize. Histhesis title was “Arithmetic problems aroundthe ABC conjecture and connections withlogic.” Hector has taken a three-yearappointment as a Benjamin Pierce Instructorat Harvard University. He will also spend anacademic year at the Institute for AdvancedStudy in Princeton.

RAM MURTY was elected Fellow of the American Mathematical Society. The Fellows ofthe American Mathematical Society program recognizes members who have madeoutstanding contributions to the creation, exposition, advancement, communication, andutilization of mathematics.

In October of 2013 a conference, SCHOLAR — a Scientific Celebration HighlightingOpen Lines of Arithmetic Research, was held to celebrate Ram’s 60th birthday and inhonour of his mathematical legacy in the field of number theory.

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TEACHINGEXCELLENCEAWARD

ALAN ABLESON

LEO JONKERAlan Ableson and Leo Jonker both receivedthe 2012 Alma Mater Society Frank KnoxAward for Excellence in Teaching. Alan wasalso the guest speaker at the 2012 university-wide award ceremony. Alan was cited for hisenthusiasm and his patience and describedas always willing to go out of his way to helpa student. In his speech, Alan remarked thatwinning the award “is reenergizing andmotivating. It gives you the faith andencouragement you need to keep going withinnovative teaching methods.” In 2005, Leowas appointed the inaugural UniversityChair of Teaching and Learning, where hedeveloped initiatives to change howstudents learn so that they could get moreout of their formal education. This work wassignificant in bringing the art of teachingmore to the forefront at Queen’s.

APPLIED SCIENCE FIRST-YEARTEACHING AWARDS

Left to right: Andrew Hoefel Fall 2012, APSC 171. Andrew was a post-doctoral fellowworking with Tony Geramita, David Wehlau and Greg Smith. Patrick Reynolds Winter 2013,APSC 172. Patrick was a post-doctoral fellow working with Oleg Bogoyavlenskij. Peter TaylorWinter 2014, APSC 172.

“BLENDED LEARNING”by Peter Taylor

No doubt you’ve read about MOOCS more profitable. Of course some(massive open online courses) and considerable development work is

perhaps you’ve also heard of the “flipped required to present a course in this mannerclassroom.” These are just a couple of the and we (and the university) are well onways in which technology is having an our way to getting a good system in place.impact (in fact a transformative impact) on Already a number of our large introductorythe way we teach. This “transformation” courses are routinely videotaped. Doeshas a number of inter-related dimensions that mean a number of students don’t—two of which are high student/teacher bother to come to class as they can alwaysratios leading to many more large classes “watch the movie” later? The answer turnsand significant heterogeneity among the out to be no-students come and enjoy thestudents, both in terms of knowledge and more active environment, and later theylearning skills. What that means for our also watch excerpts from the tape to catchmany large first-year courses is that it’s things they might have missed. difficult to pitch our lectures at a level and

One thing you discover when, for example,pace that works for all the students-and ayou go to make a short video solution of amiddle-of-the-road compromise works math problem, is that making a video canfor no-one.be (ought to be?) a lot different from

The solution for many of us lies in the writing the solution down on paper. Thedirection of what is called blended non-linear “real-time” nature of the videolearning-a blend of technology, doing what allows and even encourages theit can do best (short video presentations of explanation to be freer, more visual andstandard technical examples), and formal more connected. In McLuhanesque terms,classes doing what they do best (playing as it’s a different medium and that seems tointeractively as possible with ideas and make a big difference for our students.techniques). In short, class time can be Anyway, they are always asking for more engaging and study time can be more videos.

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MARGE LAMBERT WINS A 2014 QUEEN’SUNIVERSITY SPECIAL RECOGNITION AWARD

MARGE LAMBERT

In honour of this award we present asampling of “Marge” comments from

faculty and staff:

Without getting into details, personnelproblems with office staff seemed largelyto disappear after Marge becameadministrative assistant.

Lorne Campbell, Head, Math & Stats 1980 – 1990

One thing I continue to appreciate inMarge is the way she is friendly withanyone who stops in to talk to her. Shetreats everyone with the same respect andwarmth, whether they are students, faculty,foreign or Canadian resident, prosperousor financially challenged. She keeps trackof, and shows an interest in, all the peoplewho come through the department, bothstudents and faculty.

Leo Jonker, Head, 1990 – 1995

Marge is one of those wonderful peoplethat makes the life of Head of Departmentmuch smoother than it would beotherwise. Her institutional knowledge isunmatched and she has built anexceptional, highly competent and stablestaff team around her.

Eddy Campbell, Head, 1995 – 2000

No one knows the inner workings of theDepartment better than Marge; no oneknows the pyramid of responsibilities inthe Department better than Marge; no oneknows how to get things done better thanMarge; no one can keep more balls in theair than Marge. No one has a clear idea onhow Marge accomplished what she did,and no one knows how we will managewhen she retires.

Bob Erdahl, Head, 2000 – 2004

Extraordinary folks come in two flavours.Some have extraordinary accomplish-ments, lead extraordinary lives and oftenget all kinds of awards. Others seem toperfectly understand the pulse of lifearound them and are always there toprovide the right support, advice and quietleadership at the right moment. MargeLambert is one of the latter.

Peter Taylor, Head, 2004 – 2008

Her conscientious dedication to her workand general working of our departmentgoes well beyond the nine to five workhours. I have seen her consistentlyworking late and often when I came in onweekends, she would be here dealing withdepartment issues. Her attention to detail,her knowledge of all the collectiveagreements has helped me immensely inmy role as department head.

Ram Murty, Head, 2008 – present

I came to the department in July 2008, andMarge was the first person who greetedme and showed me around in thedepartment. Soon after that, I realizedMarge was usually the first person to askwhen I had an administrative question, orsimply needed help. She always showscompassion and support the minute I walkinto her office, and she is ready to helpwith a smile and her graceful style.

Wenyu Jiang, Associate Professor

We used the word “caring” in describingMarge’s approach to the departmentsecretaries. The department has a sizableoffice staff. Marge has always beenconcerned to help everyone do their best.She has been masterful in understandingwho can do their best work in their ownspace and who needs a communal or moresupervised office environment, who isparticularly well-suited for dealing withstudents, or in acquiring new technicalskills in response to technological changes.The harmony that has prevailed has meantthat students and faculty have receivedexcellent assistance.

Norman Rice, Grace Orzech and Morris Orzech: former Undergrad Chairs

We know that most departments oncampus share the same work environmentas the Department of Mathematics andStatistics. However, we doubt that anyother can boast that their support staff'scombined years of service, under oneleader, exceeds one hundred years. Notethat we are not including Marge's years ofservice in this calculation. We think thisfact alone confirms the excellent workingenvironment we all enjoy and appreciatein the Department of Mathematics andStatistics.

Anne Burns, Johana Ng, Jennifer Read, Cathy Smith, Office staff

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WE WELCOME THREE NEW MEMBERS OF FACULTYBAHMAN GHARESIFARD was appointed Assistant Professor in 2013. Bahman receivedhis undergraduate and master’s degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Shiraz University in2002 and 2005, respectively, and his Ph.D. in Mathematics from Queen’s University in 2009.He held post-doctoral positions with the Department of Mechanical and AerospaceEngineering at UC San Diego 2009-2012, and the Coordinated Science Laboratory at IllinoisUrbana-Champaign 2012-2013. His expertise includes systems and controls, distributedoptimization, social and economic networks, game theory, and geometric mechanics andcontrol. Already in his first year with us, he was shortlisted for the Frank Knox Award forExcellence in Teaching. In his spare time, he plays soccer and volleyball and reads the NewYorker, the New Republic, Harper’s, and the Economist.

FRANCESCO CELLAROSI received a B.Sc. and Ph.D. from Princeton University in 2011and he is currently completing a three-year Doob Research Assistant Professorship at theUniversity of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He was a member of the Institute for AdvancedStudy at Princeton for a semester in 2012 and of the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute(MSRI) in Berkeley for a semester in 2012 and 2015. He is an unusually gifted mathematicianin the areas of Dynamical Systems and Number Theory and so his appointment will greatlystrengthen the Department in these and related areas. He has been described as a talentedteacher with a strong record of student mentoring.

SERBAN BELINSCHI was appointed Assistant Professor in early 2012. He obtained hisPhD from Indiana University Bloomington in 2005 and came to Canada for a post-docposition at the University of Waterloo. From there he went to the University of Saskatchewan,won a prestigious Humboldt Fellowship and came to Queen’s. His expertise is in non-commutative probability from an analytic perspective, and various related fields. He was aco-recipient of the 2013 CMS Robinson Award for his joint paper “Free Bessel Laws,” whichappeared in the Canadian Journal of Mathematics. This paper has received attention from freeprobability and quantum group communities as it introduces promising new examples of acompact group.

LESLIE ROBERTS RETIRESBy Asia Matthews

In well-worn construction boots, LESLIE ROBERTS taught mathematics in a way that wasconcise and unembellished. Though he glowered at you if you asked a question, you sooncame to realize it was the face he made while patiently thinking up an insightful and preciseexplanation. Leslie’s many published works reflect this habit of precision and insight. Hemade a significant contribution to the Department through his years as Associate Head,particularly managing the demanding process of hiring new faculty. He arrived at work bybicycle in all weather and anyone who needed a spot of alcohol to thaw a frozen brake cableneed only seek Leslie out.

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RETIREMENTS OF LEO JONKER, MORRIS ORZECH AND OLE NIELSENBy Asia Matthews

Leo, Morris and Ole. The Department of Mathematics and Statistics has said goodbye to three outstanding professors, and they will bemissed. I know I’ll miss them. One is my supervisor. His is one of six portraits on the registrar’s wall of Queen’s professors acknowledgedfor their excellence in teaching.

LEO JONKER has been a professor atQueen’s since 1969, and was the head ofthe Department from 1990 to 1995. Ofcourse, he has taught a million courses, buthe also invented a course: MATH010,which is an advanced perspective ofelementary mathematics for studentsinterested in education. It’s an enormouslywell-received mathematics course thatincludes students' going out to localschools to teach weekly enrichmentclasses. He even received NSERC funds tohelp develop a similar course in Physics(Leo got NSERC funds for education!??!).Leo taught MATH010 for around ten years,but with his retirement the course issuspended, at the students’ loss. But who’sto say anyone could have taught it like hedid? In his tenure at the university, Leo hasreceived eleven significant honorsrecognizing his dedication to teaching. In2004 he received both the Excellence inTeaching Award of the CanadianMathematical Society and the prestigious3M National Teaching Fellowship. A 3MTeaching Fellow “embodies the highestideals of teaching excellence andscholarship with a commitment toencourage and support the educationalexperience of every learner”. There havebeen six 3M Teaching Fellows fromQueen’s in the past ten years, and half ofthem have been from the Department ofMathematics and Statistics. That is morethan statistically significant, it’s anomalous.Leo Jonker is one of these Fellows. MorrisOrzech is another.

MORRIS ORZECH came to Queen’s in1968 and over the years has inspired students with the natural ease of a trulydedicated educator. He has vast funds ofknowledge, not only about mathematicalproperties and relationships, but thehistory and development of these ideas. Itwas evident to students and university-types alike that Morris was really into whathe was teaching, and that he wasdedicated to giving students a broadunderstanding of mathematics by showingthem formal ideas within a context – bytelling them a story. It takes an exceptionaleducator to do this effectively, and it is alsomore fun. Morris has received manyteaching awards, including the OntarioConfederation of University FacultyAssociations Teaching Award in 1997, andin 2000 he was awarded the 3M NationalTeaching Fellowship. His is another ofthose six portraits that you see on theregistrar’s wall. Morris has been a frequentcontributor to Mathematics Educationseminars both at Queen’s and at otheruniversities and his own work and hisservice to the university never took awayfrom his focus on the students. In his firstyear as Undergraduate Chair (2004-2006)he was awarded the Chancellor A. CharlesBaillie Teaching Award, and in the lastyear, the Clarence F. Stephens Award forDistinguished Teaching, Presented by theSeaway Section (Upstate N.Y., Ontario,Quebec) of the Mathematical Associationof America.

OLE NIELSEN took over from Morris asthe Department’s Undergraduate Chair(2006-2012). He began teaching at Queen’sin 1970 and his service to both thestudents and to the university throughouthis tenure has been remarkable. Hebecame the chair of the Arts and ScienceFaculty Board in 2000, holding the positionuntil 2009, and, according to colleaguePeter Taylor, he was “known for his wiseviews on many matters affecting theuniversity”. Ole is one of those professorsthat inspires students, and one of thereasons for this is that his teachingincluded doing mathematics in the classroom.Now, this may sound funny to you, butthere is a distinct difference between doingmathematics and presenting mathematicsthat has already been done. Ole was ableto communicate to students what it lookslike to engage in higher mathematics, andthis is an important part of learning how tothink mathematically. In 2002 Ole wasawarded the highest honor given byQueen’s students to instructors: the FrankKnox Award for Excellence in Teaching, aswell as the Golden Pillar Award from theEngineering Society.

These three mathematics professors are all kind, thoughtful, and dedicated mathematicians, respected and admired by many students,whose service to undergraduate mathematics education has made a noticeable difference. Their retirement will be felt across theuniversity. Nevertheless, their dedication will also be felt outside the university in the years to come, where we can imagine theemergence of new, exceptional teachers who have had as their role models, Morris Orzech, Leo Jonker, and Ole Nielsen. In that regard, allthree are happy to hear from former students, and current emails can always be obtained from the Math & Stats Dept.

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TONY GERAMITA RETIRESBy Asia Matthews

TONY GERAMITA was a constant contributor here at Queen’s and to the University ofGenova in his beloved Italy where he had a part-time appointment and spent half of thelast ten years. He had a formidable international reputation with well over 100 invitedlectures and colloquia in Canada, USA, Europe and Asia. And he was an enthusiasticteacher. He had a way of drawing you in with explanations, helping you to visualize thelarger machinery so that you were inspired to become interested in details. Hisenthusiasm and generosity (he invited students to his house for Wednesday dinners)flowed freely and is recognized globally. The annual Route 81 conference series (seearticle below!) held at Queen’s in October 2012 was nicknamed TonyFest to celebrateTony’s 70th birthday (auguri, caro!).

TONYFEST! – OCTOBER 19-21, 2012

The “Route 81” conference series rotateseach year between Cornell, Queen’s and

Syracuse Universities and the 2012conference was held at Queen’s October 19-21 and was informally known as“TonyFest” in celebration of the 70th birthdayof Tony Geramita. The interactions betweencommutative algebra and algebraicgeometry have been of great interest to Tonythroughout his career, and the talks focusedon many aspects of this relationship, mostnotably, secant varieties, properties of fatpoints, and homological invariants.

Two of the four co-organizers were GregSmith at Queen’s and Adam Van Tuyl atLakehead. Adam was a grad student here(MSc 1997 Ernst Kani and PhD 2001 underTony). He is past Chair of MathematicalSciences at Lakehead and is now anAssociate Professor at McMaster University.The 50 participants included many from the“Route 81” area as well as others fromdifferent parts of Canada, the US, and Italy.

Adam Van Tuyl and Ted Hsu (2nd and 3rd fromleft) talking with Tony. Ted is our current MP andLiberal Science Critic and was a member of our1983 Putnam team.

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IN MEMORIAM

DAVID GREGORY (1942 — 2013) by Peter Taylor

David embodied what goodmathematics ought to be; he was

elegant and understated. Often when wewere talking about a problem David wouldsuddenly say “stop.” He understood afundamental principle of learning math,one that we both learned from Halperin,that you have to know when to put thebook aside or stop listening, and pick thepencil up.

David led the way for me as anundergraduate at Queen’s. He was a yearahead of me and demonstrated that it waspossible to do a math degree in threeyears. In fact Norm Rice had alreadydiscovered that path a couple of yearsearlier. It wasn’t so hard in those days; thebooks were a lot thinner, the professors,Coleman, Fixman, Ribenboim, Halperin,Kemp, Obreanu, let us learn in our ownway, and there wasn’t any technology toslow us down. Bob Kemp used to have usmark our own assignments and then hecalled the roll in class and we reported ourmark out loud.

David went to Michigan for his Ph.D. anddid topological vector spaces with M.S.Ramanujan. I recall getting a letter fromhim describing the Thanksgiving dinner hehad at the Halmos’. I came back to Queen’s

on staff in 1969 and at 9:50 on my firstmorning David appeared and observedthat there was probably coffee by now inthe lounge. In those days it was a largesilver percolator that one of the secretariesstarted up at 9 o’clock.

David started his career in analysis, butsoon switched to discrete math. David,Norm Pullman and Dom de Caen formed athriving research group in what was astrong Departmental offering. David had adozen graduate students, for example JianShen, who won the Governor General’sGold Medal and the CMS Doctoral Prize,and Kevin Vander Meulen, now atRedeemer College, and Randy Elzinga,now at RMC. The most colourful, in mymemory, was Lee Jeff Bell whose thesiswas published in Gambling Times. Iremember him trying to convince anyonewho would listen to lend him $10,000which was the stake he needed toimplement his theory on the Las Vegastwo-arm bandit and win $50,000 dollarswith probability 95% after 72 continuoushours of pulling the two handles in a fixedpattern at 5 seconds per pull. [Sounds likefun? – he actually went down with somefriends and did it, taking shifts, but theydidn’t take along a big enough stake.]

David became a Full Professor in 1988. Atthat time he was Communicator Editorand coach of the Putnam team. He wasknown as a superb teacher and manystudents and I can attest to that. Probablyboth the elegant and the understated are atwork there.

Fourteen years ago David was diagnosedwith cancer and it got serious very quickly.He retired and put his psychic energiesinto fighting the disease. The class he leftbehind asked about him almost everyweek. There were rough times, but in ayear there was huge progress and after 18months he was his old self again, out onthe lake in his kayak.

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IN MEMORIAM

JIM WHITLEY (1931 — 2015) “IN JIM WE TRUST”by Peter Taylor

Jim started teaching mathematics atQueen’s in September 1963. From 1966

to 1974, in addition to his teachingworkload, he served as executive assistantto the dean of Arts and Science, and later,as assistant to Principal John Deutsch. Hewas the 2001 recipient of the AlumniAward for Excellence in Teaching, givenannually by the Queen’s UniversityAlumni Association.

“Jim demystified Mathematics with hisunique teaching style.” (Globe and MailJan 6 2015). He certainly did. His fame wasgreatest for his extraordinary success withhis “Section J” students. These were theapplied science students who did poorlyenough in the fall of their first year (why amisjudgment, not being quite ready?) thatthey were put into a section that movedmore slowly and went from January till

June. Jim worked them relentlessly andmet with them Saturdays and eveningssomehow cultivating an awesomeenthusiasm for their studies and for thewonder of mathematics. Often, when Junefinally arrived, their resulting marksexceeded those of the regular students andthey graduated successfully and on time.They revered Jim, and Jim in turn tookevery opportunity to sing their praises.

DOUG CRAWFORD (1921— 2015)by Norm Rice

Doug Crawford, a professor ofMathematics Education, died January

19th, in his 91st year. Doug was born inScotland, and long maintained his passionfor Scottish dancing. However, heimmigrated to North America andcompleted a PhD in mathematicseducation at the University of Syracuse.

In 1962 he joined the Department ofMathematics at Queen’s University, withhis focus primarily on math education and

secondarily on statistics, and subsequentlyjoined the Queen’s Faculty of Educationwhen it was founded in 1968.

As well as his regular teaching he washeavily involved until his retirement in1988 in numerous studies and reports onschool mathematics (again, oftenconcentrating on statistics), most often incollaboration with the Ontario Institute forStudies in Education (OISE).

Both at work and at church Doug had awide range of strong opinions, and was notshy about sharing them, but always well-reasoned and articulated (even if notalways persuasive). He was a voraciousreader with many areas of interest, andthis naturally went along with a sharpnessof mind that stayed with him right to theend. Indeed, almost his only complaintabout the nursing home where he spenthis last years was what he felt was rather alack of intellectual stimulation.

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QUEEN’S NEW BUDGET MODELby Peter Taylor

As you may know, Queen’s is in theprocess of implementing a new budget

model based on revenue attribution––money should flow, as much as possible, indirect proportion to salaries and activitiesthat support the academic mission of theuniversity. We in Math&Stats are quiteinterested in how this might affect our ownbudget and in particular our capacity tohire new faculty. Let’s point out that facultyhiring is the big ticket item here as it is byfar the biggest potential factor behindenhanced research performance andteaching effectiveness. This is particularlytrue in Math&Stats as we haveexperienced many retirements over recent years and significant increases instudent numbers.

In fact we are a spectacular outlier on anychart of student number against faculty

size. For example here is arather rough approximateof the “teaching” student-faculty ratio in the Facultyof Arts & Science atQueen’s. I say“approximate” becausethere are many ways to dothe counting which giveslightly different numbersbut essentially this gives ameasure of average classsize. The red line is Math &Stats and the blue is anaverage of all otherdepartments in the Faculty.One thing that hascertainly “saved” the Department in thesepast years is the Coleman PostdoctoralFellows program. When we started our

search for donors 15 years ago (whentimes were much better) little did werealize what a life-saver this would be.Thanks to Jamie Mingo for this graph.

MATH INVESTIGATIONSThe team of tutors are(L to R) Floyd Shou,Andrew Van DenHoeven, Nicole Pashley,Greg Chung.

Math Investigations is an enrichmentprogram for first year students in

Math 121 and 120. It meets once a weekand grapples with interesting investigativeproblems from various areas ofmathematics. The program is funded byThe Norman Miller Assistantships inMathematics Education, established in 2003-04 to provide exceptional teaching andlearning opportunities for third or fourthyear undergraduate students. NormanMiller was a member of the Queens’ MathDepartment from 1919 to 1959. Through

his clear lectures, his encouragement ofable students to take up the teaching ofhigh school mathematics, his activeparticipation in a succession oforganizations of mathematics teachers andhis co-authorship of high school textbooks,Norman Miller made an enormouscontribution to the teaching ofmathematics in Ontario. He wasundoubtedly one of the most beloved andrespected teachers of mathematics inCanadian universities. [Queen’sMathematical Communicator, Jan. 1985.]

RYAN KAVANAGHOne of our senior undergraduates, RyanKavanaghwon the 2014 NSERC-CMSMath in Moscow Scholarship.

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QUEEN’S MATH CAMP FOR GIRLS

Last year marked the beginning of anextended version of our Queen’s Math

Camp for Girls, which we have held eachAugust for the past four years for some 15local girls entering grades 9 to 11. Initiatedand nurtured for the first three years by

Maja-Lisa Thomson, and with the supportof an alumni donor, we incorporated aresidential structure and were able toaccept campers from far and wide. Theemphasis is on problem solving and onlearning about areas of mathematics that

are not normally covered in the schoolcurriculum and the counsellors come fromthe ranks of our own wonderful graduateand senior undergraduate students.

MATH QUESTby Siobhain Broekhoven (including photos)

Words fail me when I try to expresshow pleased I was when Peter Taylor

approached me about expanding theQueen’s Summer Math Camp for Girls intoa residential program: more time, moremath, more instructors, more girls. Just awonderful project from tip to toe. Thecamp was started by Maja-Lisa Thomsonunder the name “Explore Mathemagics.”Maja-Lisa’s labour of love was sponsoredby both the Department and the CanadianMathematical Society. Next, a Jefferyalumnus, Tom Higgins, wanting to createopportunities for youth through extracurricular math, stepped up to start the“Peter Taylor Math Camp Fund” and ourfuture was secured.

I am very grateful for the support from thecommunity in promoting our camp. Localpapers ran articles; our posters went up atdojos, gyms, libraries and communityboards. (One camper found our campbecause our poster was decorating a horsetrailer at an equestrian event.) Our MP forKingston and the Islands – also a Queen’salumnus, Ted Hsu, posted our event on hiscommunity Facebook Page. AlumnaShelley McLean, math coach for a localschool board and now a math departmenthead, was one of many local math teacherswho also promoted our camp. (Shelley is aformer student of Peter’s; she also used tobring high school students to Peter’s “everyother Wednesday” Enrichment Sessions.)The Queen’s University Alumni

Association sponsored a camper. TheCamp Fund provided many more bursariesfor girls to attend. The new website I built,along with more Internet presence, led toinquiries from BC, Alberta and the US. Thelogo was designed by Peter, Carly and me,and incorporates the rational Q logodeveloped by Harry de Valence (currentlydoing his master’s here) and theDepartment Student Council (DSC), at oneof our regular “brainstormy” weeklymeetings back in 2012. This logo can oftenbe seen on departmental clothing andmerchandise sold by the DSC to fundundergraduate events. There are manymore who shared ideas, resources andspread the word. I thank all of you. With somany people contributing, it is no surprise

Continued...

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MATH QUEST

photo by Leo Jonker...Continued

that a final survey shows that our camp metor exceeded every camper’s expectations.

Each summer this camp has uniquematerial so that campers may return for

new adventures in math. Activities aredeveloped by our awesomely talentedgraduate and undergraduate students to beespecially appealing to young women who

are currently under represented at mathcamps. (In 2013, only 21% of participants inCMS math camps were female.) Activitiesare designed to be hands-on, collaborative

Continued...

Suzanne Findleton’s drum circle at the waterfront near Victoria Hall

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MATH QUEST

Maja-Lisa Thomson tells campers about her early days in Bell Labs at a lunch at the Ban Righ Centre supporting the continuing education of women.

...Continued

and project based. Some of our sessionswere Topological bagel carving with AsiaMathews, probability theory, TexasHoldem’ style, with Joanna Hansen, grouptheory through braiding with SuzanneFindleton, and the always popularcryptography with Emilie Wheeler. Newlast year, the Electrical and ComputerEngineering department (through EvelynMorin) let us use their resources to get ourcampers into coding. Carly Rozins lead theway, and with Tyson Mitchell, had campersmanipulating and writing code in RobotCto make Lego Robots dance and twirl.Evening activities included YuliyaNesterova’s math bingo and Suzanne’sdrum circle.

Math Quest 2015 took place Aug 10-13,2015. For more information or to viewmore photos, please visit our website,www.mast.queensu.ca/~mathquest orcontact us at mathquest@queensu.ca.

For further reading, please see the spring2015 issue of the Alumni Review:

queensu.ca/alumnireview/creatingopportunities-kids-shine.

Mike Cabral and Carly Rozins after Math Quest’s Amazing Race, an activitydesigned by Natalie Corneau. Carly is the outgoing President of the Queen’s

Graduate Math Society. Mike is the elected 2014-2015 GMS President.

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SHAD VALLEY ULTIMATUM GAME 2015By Peter Taylor

Agame, much studied by psychologists, economists andbiologists is the Ultimatum Game. In the basic version a

proposer P is “given” a sum, (say $100) to split with a responderR. The proposer announces the split, say, “I’ll keep 75 and youget 25,” and the responder either accepts the division (in whichcase that’s what happens) or refuses, in which case both partiesget nothing. So in a one shot game, what would you as theproposer do? There are interesting stories and articles onlineabout what happens, with adults, with preschoolers and withchimpanzees. One might ask what the Nash equilibrium is.

In July we played a version of this game with 48 high schoolstudents at the Queen’s Shad Valley Camp. We put them into 24boy-girl teams and each team played many rounds against otherteams, half the time in each role, P and R. The objective was tobe the winning team. A group of our undergrad students set upa computer system to allow the total score of each of the 24teams to be posted as the tournament progressed. In the pictureat the right the game is in progress and you can see the currentscores displayed on the screen. We found that many teamschose their strategy according to the current score of the teamthey were playing.

Here’s the variation we used. The R-team first makes a demand:“We will accept no less than X”. The P-team then makes an offer Y.The R-team then reveals its predetermined (and secret)MinAccept value Z (which they could change from round toround). If Z ≤ Y then the R-team gets Y and the P-team gets 100–Yand these scores are added to each team’s cumulative total. If Y <Z both teams get a zero score for that round. That is, if the offer of the P-team does not meet that secret MinAccept, neither teamgets anything.

You can think about what you’d expect to happen but what didhappen quite surprised us. The teams that did the best tended toplay a “fair” strategy with a Proposal and MinAccept not too farbelow the midpoint 50.

At the end, the teams that placed 1st and 2nd played off for a realpot of 20 dollars. What do you think they did?

The R-team (at the left) made a demand of $11. The P-teamproposed $9. In the picture you can see the look of dismay onevery face as the MinAccept was revealed as $10. Both teams wentaway empty-handed!

15mast.queensu.ca

NEW PROBLEM (Thanks to Jamie Mingo)

The hour hand of a clock has length 3 and the minute hand has length 4. (a)What is the angle between them when the two ends are moving apart at a

maximum rate? (b) Your answer has a simple and striking geometric interpretation. Does this

remain true in general-if the hour hand has length a and the minute handhas length b?

b z

a0

Send solutions or new problem suggestions to peter.taylor@queensu.ca.Solutions to past Communicator problems can be found at:

www.mast.queensu.ca/communicator_soln.php

OPPORTUNITIES FOR MAKING A GIFT TO THE DEPARTMENTThere are lots of quite interesting opportunities for participating in the life of the Department by making a gift. And it’s easy. Go to theOffice of Advancement’s secure website: www.givetoqueens.ca/mathstats

Queen’s Mathematical CommunicatorEditor: Peter Taylor

Production Manager: Cathy Smithmathstat@mast.queensu.ca

mast.queensu.ca

If you are a Queen’s Math&Stats or Math and Engineering graduate and are not receiving notification of this publication, our alumni records might nothave your email address. You can update that information by emailing records@queensu.ca.

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