May 04, 2010

Here are some of the recognitions earned in mathematics by Davidson students during academic year 2009-2010, above and beyond the degrees earned by 17 senior mathematics majors.

Annual Departmental Awards

The William G. McGavock Mathematics Award to an outstanding senior for promise and accomplishment in mathematics:  Ben Altman '10.

The William Vinson Mathematics Award to a rising junior for mastery and promise in mathematics:  Paul Britton '12.

Honors in Mathematics to:

• Sarah Oberst '10 with thesis title A Mathematical Model of Marlaria
• Ben Altman '10 with thesis title Higher-Order Automatic Differentiation of Multivariate Functions in MATLAB

Mathematical Contest in Modeling -- the international competition solving open-ended applied problems in mathematics with one weekend of research and write-up.  Five Davidson teams competed out of 2254 teams of which only 16% are from the U.S.  All five teams received either Meritorious distinction (in top 20%) or Honorable Mention (in next 24%).

• Daniel Martin, Lake Trask, Louisa Williams -- Meritorious
• Amanda Flink, Sydney Owen, Greg Macnamara -- Meritorious
• Val Lee, Alexander Griswold, Mali Zhang -- Meritorious
• Jennings Boley, Carter Eggleston, Annie Temmink -- Honorable Mention
• Christina Blackwood, Brian Sachtjen, Stephen Streb -- Honorable Mention

Mathematics Jeopardy Contest -- live competition at the Mathematical Assoc. of America Southeastern Section meeting. The Davidson team of Ben Altman, Shashank Suresh, Colin Thomson, and Mali Zhang earned fourth place in a field of 32 college and university teams from the southeastern U.S.  Davidson's team T-shirt entry was named co-winner in the math T-shirt contest!

Fellowships and grants for further study by mathematics majors or minors

• Ananta Bangdiwala '10 has received a Fulbright Teaching Assistantship Grant to teach and study in Madrid, Spain.
• Zana Shaban ‘10 has received a fellowship to attend the M.A. program in accounting at Wake Forest University.
• Ben Thompson ‘10 has received a full scholarship to pursue a Ph.D. in economics at the University of Michigan.
• Mark Jeevaratnam '10 won a video documentary contest and received a grant from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting for travel abroad to continue such work.

Congratulations to all!

Posted By: Rich Neidinger