On the positive side, one of our teams, consisting of Adam Clay and Micah McCurdy, came in third among the 17 teams from across the region who wrote the competition; they missed second place by just an "epsilon". The other teams, consisting of Josh Knauer and Marc Humber, Jana Archibald and Chris Kao, and Steve Howie (who had to write by himself, due to the circumstances) all did a respectable job.

Another student from our department (joint with CS) was successful: Sarah McKinnon-Cormier won the prize for best student paper in CS in her session; her supervisor was Ray Spiteri.

Please join me in congratulating Adam, Micah, and Sarah for their successes.

I would also like to mention that this year, for the first time, almost everything (housing, transportation, registration, etc.) was organized by the undergraduate students themselves, and most of the work was done by Josh Knauer, president of the MASS. He did a great job, and he, and all the other students, certainly deserved a more positive experience than what it turned out to be. In fact, the seven students decided to return

on Friday night, to be closer to their injured friends.

Competition training had been done jointly by Richard Hoshino and myself, but Richard did all of the organizational work. He was also a member of the APICS competition committee, and was responsible for a very good and well-balanced exam paper.

At the 2002 Atlantic Provinces Council on the Sciences meeting, at Mount Allison University, October 19-20, 2002, a special session on Ring Theory was held in memory of Patrick N. Stewart. The session was sponsored by the Atlantic Association for Research in the Mathematical Sciences. Until his death in April 2001, at the age of 57, Pat Stewart was an active researcher with 50 papers, the last published in 1999. Most of Professor Stewart's professional life was spent at Dalhousie University. He was a respected colleague, active in the Canadian Mathematical Society and regional organizations, and widely recognized as an excellent teacher. He is remembered for his generosity of spirit and for his eagerness to discuss mathematics with colleagues and students.

Professor of Mathematics

Three of our students, Adam Clay, Josh Knauer, and Chris Kao, formed the Dalhousie team in Comap's Mathematical Modeling Competition. They worked hard on their project from the evening of Thursday, February 6, until the evening of Monday, February 10. Their project is entitled "A Solution to the Gamma Knife Targeting Problem".

For their work they received the designation "meritorious".

Please join me in congratulating our team.

Professor of Mathematics

On May 31, 2002 the third annual numerical analysis day, organized by Paul Muir (an adjunct faculty member whose principal appointment is in Saint Mary's university), Ray Spiteri and Pat Keast of this department, was held in the Chase building. The previous two NA Days were held in Saint Mary's and Acadia. The keynote speaker was Dr. Larry Shampine from the Mathematics Department of Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. In addition, there were 7 talks given by faculty from other universities and both undergraduate and graduate students from Dalhousie. More than 30 people took part, including Alf Gerisch from the Fields Institute, Jim Diamond from Acadia, and John Stockie from UNB. We intend to continue this successful event, with NA Day 2003 planned to take place at Saint Mary's on June 6.

At the APICS (Atlantic Provinces Council on the Sciences) 2002 Fall meeting a special session was held on Numerical

Analysis, Scientific Computing and Computational Applied Mathematics. This was organized by Paul Muir, Ray Spiteri and Pat Keast. The session was funded by AARMS (the Atlantic Association for Research in the Mathematical Sciences). The invited main speakers were Graeme Fairweather, Department of Mathematical and Computer Sciences, Colorado School of Mines, Uri Ascher, Department of Computer Science, University of British Columbia and Gerda de Vries, Department of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences, University of Alberta. Talks were also given by graduate students from Dalhousie, Saint Mary's, UNB and UCCB. This was the third special session on numerical analysis and scientific computation organized by our group in conjunction with the APICS Fall meeting, the previous two having been held at Dalhousie and St. Francis Xavier. The talks included a discussion of a computational model of the heart, by Mary Maclachlan, of the School of Biomedical Engineering, Dalhousie, a paper by John Mason, of the Faculty of Computer Science, Dalhousie, on realistic computer simulation, and a description of a model of epidemic solutions and endemic catastrophes by James Watmough of UNB.

MITACS (the Mathematics of Information Technology and Complex Systems) held the first Atlantic Interchange conference in Dalhousie University on March 24, 2003. This attracted 300 people, faculty, students and industry representatives, and also 150 high school students who attended a talk given by Nick Cercone, the Dean of Computer Science. The local representatives for MITACS were Jeannette Janssen from Mathematics, Evangelos Milios of the Faculty of Computer Science and Paul Muir of Saint Mary's. Jacky Li (whose MSc in Mathematics was supervised by John Clements) and Rong Wang (a post doctoral fellow in Mathematics whose PhD supervisors were Pat Keast and Paul Muir) won joint 3rd place in the student poster competition. John Mason of the Faculty of Computer Science (one of whose supervisors is Ray Spiteri of this department) also won a third place prize. All three will be attending the MITACS annual conference in Ottawa in May, with all expenses being paid by MITACS.

We began the fall term with a potluck dinner for graduate students. This provided an opportunity for new and returning graduate students to get to know one another. In October, a two-part presentation on LaTeX was given by Clyde Clements. Most graduate students will use LaTeX to write their theses, so this was extremely beneficial. On the social side, there was a martini party at Richard Hoshino's. We ended October with a Halloween pizza party for the department, which was well-attended as usual. The first "Terminal Pool Tournament" took place in November, with Paul Ottaway declared the Champion of the Universe. This event raised money for the United Way. We finished the term

with a Christmas pizza lunch party for the department. The desserts were potluck, and there were far too many to choose from! Richard Hoshino organized the Secret Santa again this year, to the delight of the participants.

The winter term kicked off with another potluck dinner. January also saw the first "Graduate Student Seminar". We introduced these seminars as a forum for graduate students and others to present either their own work or something that interests them, at a level that is understandable to most graduate students. Graduate students, faculty members and undergraduate students are all welcome to attend these seminars. The first seminar was "An Introduction to the Axiom of Choice" by Tara Taylor. Valentine's day was celebrated with coffee and sweets for everyone, and a second graduate student seminar. This was "The Conley Index and Some Applications" by Jin Yue. The highlight of March was Pi Day, celebrated March 14 at 1:59. We served pie, of course, and Richard Hoshino presented the third graduate student seminar, "The Life of Pi". The second terminal pool tournament took place in March, and again the winner was Paul Ottaway, who was declared Master of Space and Time. Also of note, Richard Hoshino won the M.A.S.S. "Motivator of the Year" award, and we congratulate him on this well-deserved recognition.

The main goal of the Math/Stat Graduate Student Society is to promote the interests of the graduate students and to act as a social institution. We have endeavoured to achieve this over the past year. We try to bring the graduate students together as a community, and as part of the larger departmental community of students and faculty. As the winter term is ending, we look forward to planning more events and we wish everyone a wonderful summer.

Tara Taylor (president) Alan Hill (vice president) Sarah McCurdy (secretary/treasurer) Richard Hoshino (department liaison).

Math Graduate Student

The Undergraduate Society executive for this year are:

Joshua Knauer President

Johnny Metlej Treasurer

Garret Maclean Secretary

2002-2003 has been an eventful year for MASS. We started off this year's string of Friday afternoon "Aftermaths" with a BBQ in September. Despite Josh and Sable inexplicably getting lost somewhere between the Chase building and Quinpool road with the fuel tank for the grill, the event went very well. Gillman showed that years of part-time job experience in burger flipping does pay off as he ran the show as master chef. Johnny's catcalls paid off as well and many students who were just passing b decided to come and join us on the Chase building balcony. The semi-weekly socials were well attended all year long.

We had our departmental Wine and Cheese party in conjunction with the Grad Society. The event was held in November. Co-organizers Sara McCurdy and Josh MacDonald did an incredible job. The colloquium room was

transformed for the candle-lit soiree with decorations and music. All enjoyed the scrumptious selection of hors d'oeuvres, including of course many interesting and flavourful cheeses. Amy and Katie provided the entertainment highlight of the evening when they took Adam's wallet hostage in a contrived attempt to get him to go on a date with their roommate.

This year we started what we hope will be a regular event with our "Math and Movie" afternoons. Unfortunately our showings of the Arnold Schwartzenegger classics "Conan the Barbarian" and "Commando" were sparsely (though enthusiastically!) attended. Maybe next year someone other than Josh, Josh and Mitja should pick the films :)

Our three pub-crawls were all great successes this year. On each occasion well over fifty students came along on a tour of our favourite bars downtown. We started at 7pm at the Halifax Alehouse or Dooley's and ended at 1am at Bearly's, with some combination of the Seahorse, Planet Pool and Pacifico in the middle. We were particularly proud of Gillman on the last pub-crawl, he made it all the way to Bearly's without getting kicked out of any bars along the way. Our pub-crawl T-shirts were a big hit as well. With the slogan "Talk Nerdy To Me" or "Do It With Rigor" on the front and "DUMASS" (short for Dalhousie University Math And Stats Society) on the back, the shirts were hot sellers. They were so popular in fact that Alan had groups of women trying to buy the shirt right off his back at the Alehouse. Really though, we think they just wanted him to "talk nerdy" to them.

We ended the season like we began it, with a big giant BBQ! The steaks were bigger than the plates and the plastic cutlery was horribly inadequate, but a MASSive number of people came out and enjoyed our final event. A well-deserved shout out goes to Ehab for finding a butcher that would sell us the steaks at such a great price! During the BBQ we presented our Motivator of the Year award. This year's honouree was Richard Hoshino. In only a couple of years Richard has made a real impact on the quality of undergraduate life at Dalhousie. His tireless volunteer work and dynamic teaching style have made him a popular figure in the department. We were very happy to recognise him.

We'd like to thank everyone for a great year and wish good luck to next year's MASS council: Gillman Payette (President), Garrett MacLean (Vice-president), Sable McKeil (Secretary) and Megan Kennedy (Treasurer).

Over the past several years, there has been a great deal of strife between universities and high schools. Each side has made strong criticisms of the other, and plenty of unnecessary divisions have been created. To help bridge these gaps, members of our department have started various outreach initiatives, for both high school teachers and their students. Here we describe three such initiatives.

The Nova Scotia High School Math League was formed by two graduate students, Sarah McCurdy and Richard Hoshino. This league is based on a highly successful one that has been running in Newfoundland for the past fifteen years.

The purpose of this league is to provide a fun environment for students to engage in cooperative problem-solving, and to get them excited about mathematics. The problems are recreational yet challenging, and so students are engaged throughout the event, and learn a great deal of new mathematics from participating.

Each league game takes place on a Saturday morning, and runs from 9 a.m. to noon. We ran three math league games this year, at Dalhousie in November, at Saint Mary's in February, and Mount St. Vincent in March. We had 52 students from eight high schools attend our last league game at MSVU. We have received extremely positive feedback about the math league, from both teachers and students.

With the help of various math educators across the province, we have decided to expand this league to other areas of Nova Scotia next year. If you are interested in being a part of this math league (e.g. making up questions, attending the math league games, etc.), would you please e-mail Sarah (smccurdy@mscs.dal.ca) or Richard (hoshino@mscs.dal.ca)

For more information on the high school math league, please see

http://www.mscs.dal.ca/~hoshino/mathleague.html

John Grant McLoughlin (Faculty of Education, UNB) and Richard Hoshino have received a $5,000 grant from the Canadian Mathematical Society to run a series of in-service combinatorics workshops for high school teachers across Atlantic Canada.

These institutes are intended for high school teachers, as combinatorics is one of the areas that is now receiving greater attention with the APEF curriculum. In each workshop, participants engage in problem-solving activities and discussion intended to develop the mathematical understanding of these topics. Also, these events serve as a forum to bring university faculty and high school teachers together, to work together in an equal, informal, non-threatening environment.

The material for these workshops is taken from the book "Combinatorial Explorations", by Richard Hoshino and John Grant McLoughlin. This book will be published by the Canadian Mathematical Society.

In 2003, we plan to run at least five institutes, with at least one in each province. On April 3rd, we ran an institute here at Dalhousie, which was attended by 24 teachers across Nova Scotia, some coming from as far away as Wolfville from Truro. A free dinner at the University Club was arranged for all participants, prior to the combinatorics discussion.

For more information on this in-service combinatorics institute, please see

In addition to the math league and the inservice institute, the Mathematics Department has also begun a direct outreach program, where members of our department visit local high schools.

In March, a visit was made to J.L. Ilsley High School, and we plan to visit other high schools in April.

In late April, several members of our department have been invited to give talks at the Sacred Heart School of Halifax, for a 1-day "afternoon of mathematics" conference.

Math Graduate Student

Since January of 2002, the Dalhousie Math and Stats Education Study Group have met once every two weeks. The meetings last for one hour, and usually consist of a 15 minute presentation followed by a 45 minute open-ended discussion. We have approximately ten people per meeting, although this number has been as high as twenty. We have discussed a wide variety of topics in mathematics education, including effective use of technology in the classroom, active learning, alternative assessment techniques, non-traditional teaching practices, dealing with large classes, problems-based learning, and gender issues. In addition to the meetings, participants are regularly given journal articles on mathematics pedagogy, which they are encouraged to read prior to study group meetings. Several members of the study group have presented at local, provincial, and national conferences, including the Canadian Mathematics Education Study Group, the Society for Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, and the Dalhousie Conference on University Teaching and Learning. Handouts from these conference presentations have been duplicated for the study group participants.

Mathematics research is often very collaborative, as is research in other disciplines. However, teaching is often non-collaborative. Faculty members are rarely found discussing teaching ideas over lunch, or debating pedagogy during coffee break. Too often, we teach as we have been taught, and are not aware of other models and practices in undergraduate education. The majority of new instructors (especially graduate students) are inadequately prepared to teach a class of fifty students, and there is no support network in place for them. Our study group attempts to correct these problems, by providing a safe, cooperative forum where teaching issues can be discussed. Our diversity enriches our thought-provoking discussions: we have faculty members with over thirty years teaching experience, and graduate students with no formal experience. Regardless of our background, all contributions are equally valued and respected.

Our study group is informal, with no set agenda or plan. We seek to provide a forum where we can explore and debate our views on teaching, as well as share resources and practices. We seek to build a community where teaching excellence is celebrated, and thus, our discussions are not specific to mathematics or statistics. Thus, the study group has attracted colleagues from other departments, such as computer science, history, physics, and biology. We have welcomed and valued their contributions, and learned from their experiences. We also have participants from other universities, namely Saint Mary's, Mount Saint Vincent, and Acadia. They have added a new perspective to our discussions, and we hope that the study group is working to improve undergraduate mathematics education in Nova Scotia.

The feedback from the study group has been extremely positive. Personally, I have gained so much from the study group meetings. I have learned many innovative ideas from colleagues with far more experience, and have used their methods in my own teaching practices. I have learned (i.e., stolen) many other resources from conferences I have attended, and have had the privilege of sharing them with colleagues who have benefited from them. Other study group members have enjoyed similar experiences. Due to the success of the Math/Stats Education Study Group, we encourage faculty members and graduate students from all departments, to form their own study group. We hope that these groups will help maintain and improve the high standard of education at Dalhousie University.

Math Graduate Student

Ray Spiteri attended the SIAM Conference on Computational Science and Engineering, San Diego, February 13, 2003. He will also attend SciCADE 2003, the International Conference on Scientific Computation and Differential Equations, at Trondheim, Norway, June 30 - July 4, 2003, where he is organizing a workshop.

Swami (S.Swaminathan) visited Bangkok on invitation by Universities in Thailand to conduct workshops on Fixed Point Theory and Geometry of Banach Spaces at the Rangsit campus of Thammasat University and deliver lectures on special topics in metric spaces and topology during September and October 2002.

Keith Johnson was on sabbatical leave from July 1, 2002 to June 30, 2003. In December 2002, he visited Cambridge University and gave an invited lecture at the Newton Institute workshop on Elliptic Cohomology and Chromatic Phenomena and, in March 2003, visited and gave invited lectures at the University of Wales and the University of Milan.

Tony Thompson has had a very active year as far as mathematical travels are concerned. At the beginning of July he was in Vancouver for a conference on Convexity organized by PIMS, in August he went to Beijing for the International Congress of Mathematicians and in October he had a trip to Boston for a regional meeting of the American Math. Society at which there was a special session on Convexity. He spent the first two weeks of January at the German Mathematical Research Institute in Oberwolfach doing "Research in Pairs". His collaborator was Juan Carlos Alvarez Paiva from Polytechnic University in New York and the project was a chapter in a book on Finsler Geometry. Finally, in April he was invited to the University of Rochester to give a colloquium talk.

Rong Wang will attend the SciCade conference, and will also attend the 20th Dundee Biennial Conference on Numerical Analysis, June 24-27, 2003, where he will present a paper. Pat Keast will also attend the Dundee conference.

12.09.02 George Gabor, Dalhousie. Can the Lady tell?

2. David Hamilton, Dalhousie. A tale of two textbooks.

10.10.02 Ed Susko, Dalhousie. Inconsistency of Distance Methods for Phylogenetic Estimation with Model Misspecification.

2. Bruce Smith, Dalhousie. An Introduction to Spectral Estimation.

21.11.02 Jonathon R. Stone, Dalhousie, Biology. Information Obtained in Cladistic Analysis.

16.01.03 C.C.A. Sastri, Dalhousie. A Function Arising in the Estimation of Unobserved Probability.

3. Leonard MacLean, Dalhousie, School of Business. Bayesian analysis of stock portfolios.

27.02.03 Christopher Herbinger, Dalhousie, Biology & MS. Pedigree reconstruction and quantitative genetic parameter estimation.

3. Jianan Peng, Acadia. Statistical Inference for Treatments with Control.

3. Dan Kehler, Dalhousie, Biology. On the decrease of shark population.

3. Hong Gu, Dalhousie. Detecting Change in Visual Field Dat.

22.08.02 Joseph Bielawski, A maximum likelihood method for detecting sites subject to functional divergence following gene duplication.