M
ATHEMATICS &
S
TATISTICS
ALUMNI NEWSLETTER
A newsletter from the Department of Mathematics and Statistics
THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN-DEARBORN
VOL. 12, NO. 1
SUMMER 2009
A MESSAGE FROM THE
DEPARTMENT CHAIR
T
he University of Michigan-Dearborn
is celebrating its fiftieth anniversary
this year and you can participate. Go to
http://www.umd.umich.edu/50th_home/
to find out about the celebration. An All
Alumni Day is being planned as I write
this so check the site in August.
Mathematically, in honor of this
anniversary, there is a history of
Mathematics and Statistics at UMDearborn being put together by history
student Abdullateef (Muhi) Muhiuddin.
This started out as a class project that has
grown to a substantial endeavor involving
many interviews of current and past
faculty, alumni/ae, and current students.
When completed it should be available
and easy to find (I hope) on our
department website. Speaking of the
Mathematics and Statistics Website, we
are trying hard to make it better, user
friendly, and more informative. It takes
a lot of effort and it is happening. I am
sure that it comes as no surprise to many
of you that research indicates that many
receive their primary information about
UM-Dearborn and also UM-D
Mathematics and Statistics from our web
pages. If you check out what we have,
don’t hesitate to send me comments on
how it may be improved.
Please note the big news in the
“Faculty News” column below regarding
four new tenure track assistant professors
and two new lecturers joining our
mathematics faculty this fall. This
represents a terrific addition to
mathematics on our campus.
Contributions to our annual
mathematics scholarship fund and income
from our endowed mathematics
scholarship fund permitted the awarding
of four $1,000 scholarships to
undergraduate mathematics students this
coming academic year. This is up from
three scholarships. By this time next
year, $16,000 in scholarships will have
been awarded through this program that
has been supported by alumni, faculty,
and friends of UM-Dearborn
Mathematics. To make a contribution go
the UM-D website, http://
www.umd.umich.edu/, click on “Alumni,
Donors, and Friends,” click “Make a
Gift” on the left, then click “Michigan
Online Giving.” Early on in this
webform choose “I want to choose the
area my gift will help” and then choose
“Other” if you wish to contribute to one
of these mathematics scholarship funds.
In this “Other” category type “UMD
Math Endowed Scholarships Shortcode
570741” or “UMD Math Annual
Scholarships Shortcode 365812.” You
can also choose “One Time Gift Form”
and just print out the form that you mail
in. Finally, you can also call up (313)
593-5393 and they will help you out.
What I like about contributing to these
funds myself is that I know where the
dollars go and I see the impact. You
might not directly see the impact but I
will simply state that the students
appreciate the awards enormously and
are very conscious that they have been
chosen by the mathematics faculty.
Although intensely aware of the
monetary value, students also proudly
view it as academic recognition. Thanks
much for your support of this high
impact program.
We had 110 mathematics majors in the
Fall 2008 term and 102 in the Winter
2009 term, similar to previous years. We
are proud of our seventeen mathematics
students graduated from Summer 2008
through Winter 2009 with bachelor’s
degrees in mathematics. There was one
graduate student who received M.S.
degrees in Applied and Computational
Mathematics. This is a tough job market
for new graduates and, frankly, for a
number of alumni/ae who find
themselves laid off or bought-out and
looking for a job. If you have any advice
about job hunting in this economy, let me
know and I’ll pass it on. All are invited
to the mathematical sciences career event
Career Paths in the Mathematical
Sciences that is always held on campus in
the CASL Building on the last Monday
in January at 2:30pm, next on January
25, 2010. Information, including the
room in the CASL Building, should
appear on our web site.
Warm regards,
Professor and Chair John Gillespie
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MATHEMATICS EDUCATION NEWS
The Center for Mathematics Education, under director Roger Verhey and
assistant director Adele Sobania,
continues to offer professional development to classroom teachers in on-site
graduate credit courses that deepen
teachers’ knowledge of mathematics in
Wayne, Oakland, and Washtenaw
counties. Professor Verhey can be
reached at rverhey@umich.edu.
The Master of Arts in Education
program continues to graduate teachers
PLEASE JOIN US FOR
OUR FOURTEENTH ANNUAL
MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES
CAREER EVENT ON
MONDAY, JANUARY 25, 2010
AT 2:30 P.M.
The panel discussion on Career
Paths in the Mathematical Sciences
was last held Monday, January 24,
2009 and featured alumni/ae Ryan
Ballantyne ’00, CFA, CIA, Account
Manager, Watson Wyatt Worldwide;
Sheila M. Fontana ’83, Vice
President, Comerica Bank, Global
Capital Markets; Dania Haidous ’01,
HS Teacher, John Glenn High
School, Westland, Michigan; Ann
Smith ’97, Department
Administrator, University of
Michigan-Dearborn; Nicole Anteau
’05, Civilian Employee, Cost
Analysis, U.S. Army TACOM.
Lydia Hsieh, Ph.D, Manager of
Customer Research and Information,
DTE Energy was a Special Guest
Participant. Chancellor Dan Little
provided welcoming remarks.
Whether or not you are a panelist,
we would be very pleased to have you
in the audience. Call the department
office at 313 593 5414 in midJanuary to find out the location, (no
doubt on the first floor of the CASL
Building). We plan to have details on
the department’s web page.
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with preparation for leadership roles in
mathematics education. The program
welcomes teachers with mathematics
certification at elementary, middle
school, or high school levels. There is
also an endorsement program for
elementary teachers who want to improve
their credentials with a mathematics
endorsement. Check the School of
Education website under graduate
programs and contact Dr. Rheta
Rubenstein for details
(rrubenst@umd.umich.edu ).
Student
Award Recipients
C
ongratulations to our outstanding
2009 award recipients!
Matthew Schanz received the Carl
Rasmussen Award for Excellence in
Mathematics. Emily Rodrique
received the Undergraduate
Mathematics Honors Scholar Award
and David Barnes received the
Graduate Mathematics Honors Scholar
Award, both for Outstanding
Achievement in Mathematics.
The Undergraduate Secondary
Mathematics Education Award of
Excellence was shared by Megan
Gross and Marilee Murray.
Our Mathematics Scholarship
recipients are Leslie Koester, Marilee
Murray, Nicole Seaman, and Rebecca
Wilczak. Graduate student
scholarship recipients are ACM students
Candis Manns and Barbara Bodzin
(see article to the right).
Our third Computer Generated Art
Competition resulted in prizes to
Benjamin Craig, Andrew Nowak,
Jonathon Smereka, and Gary Grima.
The faculty of mathematics and
statistics are proud to recognize these
fine students.
MATHEMATICS
SCHOLARSHIPS
AWARDED TO STUDENTS
We are pleased to announce that we
were able to award four scholarships for
the upcoming 2009-2010 academic year
in the amount of $1,000 each to
undergraduate mathematics students.
These awards will be made available to
each recipient as $500 for the fall term
and $500 for the winter term. The new
Mathematics Scholars are Leslie
Koester, Marilee Murray, Nicole
Seaman, and Rebecca Wilczak. These
scholarships will bring the amount
awarded to mathematics student scholars
since winter term 2005 to a total of
$16,000! Contributions from alumni/ae,
faculty, and other friends of UMDearborn Mathematics have made these
scholarships possible. To help continue
making this program possible, please
consider contributing to one or both of
our two scholarship funds by following
the directions to give online provided in
my introductory message at the
beginning of this Newsletter or by
writing a check to the University of
Michigan-Dearborn and indicating:
1) the UM-Dearborn Endowed
Mathematics Scholarship Fund
(indicate Shortcode 570741) that
produces income for scholarships every
year, and/or,
2) the UM-Dearborn Annual
Mathematics Scholarship Fund
(indicate Shortcode 365812) where the
funds are disbursed every year.
Send to Belinda Soliz, Dept. of
Mathematics and Statistics, University of
Michigan-Dearborn, 4901 Evergreen
Road, Dearborn, MI 48128.
With either option you can have a very
positive impact on the University and our
students. You can also choose these
funds whenever the university requests
donations. Thank you for your
consideration.
We also have a separate graduate
scholarship fund that is being used for
the first time to award $1500 each to two
students in our applied and
computational mathematics M.S.
program, Candis Manns and Barbara
Bodzin. The shortcode for this fund is
307971. See instructions above.
FACULTY NEWS
Robert Fakler, associate professor of
mathematics, College of Arts, Sciences,
and Letters at the University of
Michigan-Dearborn, became a member
of the mathematics faculty in 1972 and
retired from active faculty status
effective May 1, 2009. He was granted
emeritus status May 14, 2009 by the
regents of the University of Michigan.
His official Retirement Memoir can be
viewed at
http://www.regents.umich.edu/meetings/
05-09/2009-05-VI-Fakler.pdf.
Four new assistant professors of
mathematics will be joining the faculty
effective September 1, 2009.
• Thomas Fiore received his Ph.D. from
the University of Michigan in 2005 under
the direction of Igor Kriz with the
dissertation Pseudo Limits, Biadjoints,
and Pseido Algebras: Categorical
Foundations of Conformal Field Theory.
Tom has just completed a postdoc
fellowship at U. Chicago with an
additional postdoc year at the
Autonomous University of Barcelona.
• Alan Wiggins received his Ph.D. from
Texas A&M University under the
direction of Professor Roger Smith with
the dissertation Singularity and Strong
Singularity for Subfactors of II_1
factors. Alan has just completed a
postdoc fellowship at Vanderbilt
University.
• Mahesh Agerwal received his Ph.D.
from the University of Michigan in 2007
under the direction of Professor
Christopher Skinner with the dissertation
p-adic L-functions, special values of Lfunctions, congruences of automorphic
forms and applications to Iwasawas
main conjectures and Block-Kato
Conjecture. Mahesh has just completed
a postdoc fellowship at McMaster
University.
• Yangjin Kim received his Ph.D. in
2006 from the University of Minnesota
under the direction of Professor Hans G.
Othmer with the dissertation
Mathematical modeling of cell movement
an tumor spheroid growth in vitro.
Yangjin has just completed a postdoc
fellowship at the Mathematical
Biosciences Institute of The Ohio State
University.
UM-DEARBORN NEWS
Two new full-time lecturers will begin
duties this fall.
• Montaha Macany received her Ph.D.
from the University of Manchester in 1984
and has worked for the University on an
adjunct basis for a number of years.
• Michael Shelly received his Ed.D. in
1990 from Wayne State University and has
recently retired from over thirty years of
teaching at Andover High School in the
Bloomfield Hills School district. He has
taught for the University a number of years
on an adjunct basis.
In addition to teaching, these new
lecturers will be involved in retention
efforts and remedial mathematics.
Assistant Professor Chris Novak has
just been accepted into the Project NExT
fellowship program. This is an extremely
competitive program for young
mathematics faculty that is meant to
support and mentor such faculty in all
phases of their academic careers. Read all
about this very positive and remarkable
program that is run by the MAA and
supported by the NSF at http://
archives.math.utk.edu/projnext/. In
addition to teaching, Professor Novak also
ran a successful seminar on billiard
reflections and maps this past Summer I
half term. Suppose you have a circular
billiard table or an elliptical billiard table
and a ball is set in motion, then consider
the path of the ball and the caustic formed
(think of envelope formed by the path and
see “caustic” on Wikipedia). The topic is
very interesting and accessible but with
unexpected challenges. Chris just finished
his first year on our faculty after receiving
his Ph.D. from Northwestern University.
Professor Rheta Rubenstein continues
serving as the general editor for the
National Council of Teachers of
Mathematics for yearbooks for 2008, 2009,
and 2010. The 2008 (70th) yearbook,
Algebra and Algebraic Thinking in School
Mathematics, was released in March, 2008
at the annual meeting of the NCTM, and
the 2009 (71st) yearbook, Understanding
Geometry for a Changing World, was
released this past March. Articles have
already been solicited and accepted for the
2010 yearbook, The K–12 Mathematics
Curriculum: Issues, Trends, and Future
Directions.
Kate Davy has been named
provost and vice chancellor for
academic affairs at the University of
Michigan-Dearborn, effective July 1,
2009. Dr. Davy will have an
academic appointment as tenured
professor of English. The provost
appointment is for five years and is
renewable. Dr. Davy was formerly
dean of arts and sciences at Bentley
University, outside Boston.
Professor of Astronomy and
Physics Don Bord performed a huge
service to the University by serving as
interim provost this past year
following former provost Susan
Martin’s resignation to take the
position of president of Eastern
Michigan University on July 1, 2008.
COLLEGE NEWS
Professor Jennifer Zhao was
appointed by the dean to a three year
term as an associate dean of the
College of Arts, Sciences, and
Letters effective July 1, 2009. She
joins Professor of Biology Marilee
Benore, also appointed effective
July 1, as one of the two associate
deans in the College. The previous
associated deans who completed
their terms were Professor of
English Jonathon Smith and
Professor of History Cam Amin.
Do you have any news?
Send it to the editor
of this Newsletter,
Professor John Gillespie,
at jgillesp@umich.edu.
Change of address?
Change it online at
http://www.umd.umich.edu/
alumupdateform/.
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Share Your Memories!
GO BLUE
We've created a special web site
to help celebrate our 50th Anniversary.
Right now, we're collecting
memories and photos from
alumni, students, faculty and staff
about your time here at UM-Dearborn.
HOMECOMING
TAILGATE!
Visit: http://www.umd.umich.edu/50years/
PLEASE JOIN
THE ALUMNI/AE REGISTRY
Join the UM-Dearborn Alumni
Society and the nearly 3000
Michigan alumni,
family and friends
at the best pregame party
around, then
watch as the
Wolverines take
on the Indiana
Hoosiers during the first Big Ten
home game of the season.
The Alumni Registry form is available as a word document at
http://www.casl.umd.umich.edu/alumninewsletters/. If you wish to be
part of the registry, fill it out and e-mail it back to the editor at the
indicated address. (Sorry for the bother, a fully automated registry is a
future project.)
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Oosterbaan Fieldhouse
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Doors open at 9 a.m.,
U-M vs. Indiana kick-off at noon
Students may contact those on the registry from time to time,
although most students are far too timid to do so. Many students look
at the registry and get ideas about the kinds of jobs and careers that are
available. Your form on file will have an influence!
Graduates of UM-Dearborn are
eligible to purchase unlimited
tailgate tickets or up to four
football-tailgate packages to the
Michigan vs Indiana football game
in conjunction with tailgate tickets.
To purchase tickets, visit: http://
www.umd.umich.edu/tailgate/
If you already sent one in, please update it if anything has changed.
Of course, faculty are also very pleased to hear about what is going on
with alums.
Save the Date!
Friday, November 6, 2009
7:00-10:00 p.m.
The Henry Ford Estate
on the campus of
The University of Michigan-Dearborn
$50 per ticket
(sponsorship levels also available)
For information and tickets:
313.436.9198 or sgedert@umich.edu
The University of Michigan-Dearborn
College of Arts, Sciences, and Letters Alumni Affiliate
invites you to
indulge your senses
to benefit its scholarship program.
November Indulge.
Wine. Food. Music. Fun.
All for a good cause.
Join us for an enjoyable evening at the Henry Ford Estate, one of the nation’s beautiful historic landmarks.
We are pleased to feature delicious wines from By the Bottle of Novi, a live jazz band,
auction items (just in time for holiday gift giving), and a strolling dinner buffet. A portion of the ticket price is tax deductible.
All proceeds benefit the CASL Alumni Affiliate Scholarship Program.
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FOCUS ON ALUMNUS ... JAMES MILLER
UM-Dearborn mathematics alumnus
Mr. James Miller ’78 was recently
awarded the title of Fellow at Hewlett
Packard Corporation. The title is
reserved for the company’s best technical
leaders, those who have significantly
forwarded HP’s business and technology
strategies and whose innovative spirits
have inspired the technology community.
HP Fellows are considered leaders in the
information technology industry and are
involved in the research and delivery of
technology solutions to customers
globally.
After earning a Bachelor of Science
degree in mathematics in 1978, Miller
spent nine years with Advanced
Computer Management, a leading
consulting and systems integration firm.
As executive director, he worked with
clients in the manufacturing, retail, and
distribution industries. He established
outsourcing agreements with multiple
clients and was instrumental in
developing the firm’s consulting
practice. Mr. Miller joined Electronic
Data Systems in 1986 as a senior systems
engineer with EDS’s Technical Systems
Division. He later became a consultant
systems engineer and chief architect for
the development of Saturn’s automotive
retail systems and infrastructure in 1989.
Miller was instrumental in the design and
deployment of General Motors’ North
American retail and distribution
technology environment. In 1994, Miller
transitioned to the chief architect role for
GM’s Global Sales, Service, and
Marketing organization. He was
promoted to enterprise system architect
in 1997 and led key initiatives for
technology planning and systems
development for EDS Applications
Delivery. As part of GM’s electronic
commerce initiatives, he developed the
security and portal architecture to
support business-to-business interaction
with automotive dealers and partners
globally. In 2006, Miller assumed the
role of chief architect for the GM Global
Purchasing and Supply Chain process
area and lead enterprise application
transformation initiatives and the
enterprise architecture strategy to support
business transformation of GM’s supply
chain environment. In 2008, EDS was
acquired by Hewlett Packard and Mr.
Miller was promoted to chief technology
officer for the General Motors account.
Congratulations to our
Summer 2008-Winter 2009
Mathematics Graduates!
Summer 2008: Nagham Faraj.
Over the years Mr. Miller has been on
campus many times for alumni events, as
a panelist at the mathematical sciences
career event, Career Paths in the
Mathematical Sciences, and in his
capacity as a member of and Treasurer of
the CASL Alumni Affiliate Board of
Governors. Mr. Miller is also a board
member of the Michigan Technical
Education Center Training Alliance at
Henry Ford Community College. We are
indeed proud to count Jim Miller as a
UM-D alumnus and a fellow member of
the UM-Dearborn mathematics family.
As if you don’t have enough
problems…
To see solutions to last year’s
problems, please go to the online Alumni
Newsletter page at http://
www.casl.umd.umich.edu/
alumninewsletters/. Among the editor’s
solutions you will find a link to 1994
alumnus Eric Schmidt’s solution of the
maximization problem that exploits the
geometry of cubic functions.
I call the following problem Are you
smarter than a sixth grader?
There is a bucket containing otherwise
identical black and white balls. Two
balls are chosen at random and without
replacement. Assume that the
probability both chosen balls are black is
given as ½. The problem is to find the
number of black and the number of white
balls in the bucket.
Note: The title that I give to this
problem is a bit of a hint. All should be
able to find a solution and that solution is
what we should expect from a sixth
grader. That part of the problem is a nice
puzzle to give a young person. Can you
go beyond the sixth grader solution?
Finally, has anyone come across this
problem? The Editor (JG) is very
interested if anyone knows anything of its
provenance.
Fall 2008: Chad Forman, Kristie
Gregory, Jeffrey Ingalls, Kien
Nguyen.
Winter 2009: Steven Anteau,
Lynsey Bonza, Ahlam Hussain,
Nada Kassab, Kevin Liddy, Maha
Madani, Suzanne Mouhanna,
Andrew Nowak, Kacey Peters,
Sahar Saad, Christain Santa-Ana,
and Matt Schanz.
Congratulations to our M.S. in
Applied and Computational
Mathematics graduate Larry Nobles
(Summer 2008). Larry completed
his project under the direction of
Professor David James.
We wish you the best of luck in
your careers, future education, and
personal lives. Please stay in touch
with the editor of the Alumni
Newsletter about new jobs/careers,
graduate degrees, promotions,
marriages, kids, etc. We love to hear
from alumni/ae.
ABOUT THIS
NEWSLETTER
This Newsletter is brought to you
by your Department of Mathematics
and Statistics. Information or
comments should be sent to the editor,
Professor John Gillespie, Department
of Mathematics and Statistics,
University of Michigan-Dearborn,
Dearborn, MI 48128. E-mail:
jgillesp@umd.umich.edu. Phone:
(313) 593-5414.
Susan Gedert of the dean’s office
composed this newsletter into its
present format. The departmental web
page can be accessed at http://
www.casl.umd.umich.edu/
index.php?id=61601. It may change
in the near future but should be an
easy target if you poke around.
Please do not hesitate to stay in touch!
5
ALUMNI NEWS
Dania Hadious ’01 finished her Ph.D.
this past winter term at Wayne State
University in curriculum and instruction.
Dania teaches full time at John Glenn
High School.
Tanush (Tony) Shaska ’94 has been on
the faculty at Oakland University since
2005 and works in algebraic geometry. He
earned his Ph.D. from the University of
Florida in 2001. Tony has taken a leave of
absence from Oakland U to serve a term as
Rector (chief academic officer) at the
University of Vlora in his native Albania
where he has had a significant impact on
higher education. See http://
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanush_Shaska for
an interesting Wikipedia entry about Tony.
Cathy (Sheen) Jensen ’76 was a
double major in mathematics and
industrial and systems engineering and
graduated with degrees in both. She is
Director of IT Quality and Security,
Global Information Services, Abbott (see
http://www.abbott.com/) in Abbott Park,
Illinois.
Best wishes to Bethany Bray ’00 who
married David King at State College, PA
this past Valentine’s Day. Bethany has
been on the staff of the Methodology
Center at the Pennsylvania State
University since receiving her Ph.D. from
Penn State two years ago and has
accepted a tenure track assistant professor
appointment in psychology at Virginia
Tech that begins in September. Bethany
does behavioral science research
associated with gambling addiction.
James Miller ’78 has worked for EDS
for a number of years and continues to
work for EDS now that it is a division of
Hewlett-Packard (HP). In addition to
being Technology Officer on the GM
Account, Jim was recently promoted to
the position of Fellow at Hewlett
Packard. The title is reserved for the
company’s best technical leaders, those
who have significantly forwarded HP’s
business and technology strategies and
whose innovative spirits have inspired the
technology community. HP Fellows are
considered leaders in the information
technology industry and are involved in
the research and delivery of technology
solutions to customers globally.
6
Ann-Marie (Marchuck) Gerrity ’07
has accepted a teaching position at the
International Academy West Campus in
White Lake. The International Academy
is Baccalaureate Diploma school which
means all of the students are advanced
students. See www.iatoday.org for
information about this interesting public
high school.
Kristy (Lambert) Boka ’02 taught high
school mathematics following graduation
and recently began working for U.S. Army
TACOM in the Cost and Systems Analysis
Office as a Cost Analyst. The work she
does supports the Mine Resistant Ambush
Protected Vehicles program.
After receiving his masters degree in
mathematics from University of Toledo
in 2008 Nick Goins ’04 has now
completed a year as a faculty member in
mathematics at St. Clair Community
College in Port Huron, Michigan.
Toni Vellmure ’08 began working for
U.S. Army TACOM August 2008 in Cost
and Systems Analysis. On campus Toni
was a student assistant in the July
Summer Mathematics Bridge Program in
2007, lead instructor after she graduated
in 2008, and continues as lead instructor
(on loan from TACOM) this July.
Jennifer (McLaughlin) Carver ’01
and husband Greg have a new baby girl,
Madison Nicole, to go with their six year
old son, Nathan. Balanced data!
Marc C. Hazzard ’98 and his wife
Hilda Ramirez live in Southern
California where Marc works for
Southern California Edison as a Project
Manager, Risk Analytics/Risk Control.
Following graduation Marc went on to
earn a master’s degree in financial
engineering from the University of
Michigan-Ann Arbor.
Katherine (Majka) Lipp ’00 has
been promoted to Senior Project
Engineer at Nissan Technical Center,
North America where she has worked
since graduation. She reports that she
now does vehicle layout planning for
upper body and leads a small team of 4
other engineers to execute the vehicle
concept and achieve the vehicle’s static
targets, for example headroom, leg room,
cargo volume and overall exterior
dimensions among others.
Lynsey Bonza ’09 just graduated and
will be a graduate student with support in
the biostatistics graduate degree program
in the School of Public Health at the
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor this
coming fall.
Steven Anteau ’09 just graduated and
is a Data Specialist, Department of
Biostatistics & Research Epidemiology,
Henry Ford Health System, where he
worked while he was a student. Steven
provided the following very interesting
report on his work… “Mostly what I do
is gather, clean, and present data to the
senior epidemiologists and/or doctors
that request them. We have what we call
a Corporate Data Store, it is a metadatabase that contains all of Henry
Ford’s administration data. From this
data store we can use GQL, generally the
same as SQL, and query the databases to
attain the results. Other programs that I
use extensively are Access, SAS, DBMS,
and Excel.”
Kimerly O’Rourke ’98 reports that she
has taught mathematics for eleven years at
Edsel Ford High School in Dearborn and
still loves it. She has recently taught
statistics and especially enjoys that. She is
delighted to have been nominated by one
of her students for the Alberta Muirhead
Teacher of the Year Award.
Congratulations to Tara O’Brien ’01
who has been promoted to Expert
Analyst at Urban Science, Inc. housed in
the Renaissance Center, Detroit.
Karen Pikula ’96 has a new job in
Dearborn Public Schools as Resource
Teacher Leader for Mathematics &
Science K12, Instructional Services.
Karen spent the last seven years teaching
mathematics at Dearborn Center for
Mathematics, Science, and Technology
(DCMST) and has been with the district
14 years.
Roy Crowdis ’00 is still working at
Thomson Reuters (formerly Medstat).
He and wife Kim (a 2001 business school
alumna) had their first child, Mia Ann
Crowdis, born last November.
ALUMNI NEWS
Dorene Wood ’90 worked for Ford
Motor Co. following graduation in
Human Resource Systems in the Ford
College Graduate (FCG) program, and,
following a break to start a family, hired
back into Ford in 2002 in Ford Customer
Service Division as a business analyst.
Currently she works at Ford Credit as a
Business Analyst in Global Securitization
Systems where she supports asset-backed
securitization where her work has
involved travel to Mexico and Australia.
Doreen has been married to UM-D
business alumnus Bill Wood for 24 years
and they have two teenage children,
Mitchell and Carolyn
Larry Smyrski ’90 has been Associate
Dean of the Mathematics Division at Henry
Ford Community College for four years
and has agreed to continue for another two
years. He reports that HFCC enrollment
has been “skyrocketing.”
Roberta Burdette ’85 reports that she
is happily teaching 8th grade math and
Advanced Algebra 1 at Pioneer Middle
School in the Plymouth Canton
Community School District. She writes
that “I also volunteer coach [for]
Mathcounts, Michigan Math League and
Purple Comet Math. Last year my team
placed 2nd at regions and 5th in the state.
This past school year my Mathcounts
team placed 3rd at the Detroit Metro
Chapter competition held at UMDearborn. I had one student who placed
2nd and competed at the state
competition. Our Michigan Math League
team placed third in the region and 8th in
the state. I had one student who placed
1st in the state. We received
Honorable Mention in the Purple
Comet Math Competition with the
students only solving 2 of the math
problems incorrectly. This has been a
successful year!”
Jennifer LaRose ’02 has accepted a
full-time instructor position at Henry
Ford Community College and will begin
her duties this August. Following
graduation Jennifer went on to earn a
M.S. in mathematics from Washington
University in St. Louis.
Jim Hollar ’92 lives and works in
the Atlanta metro area with his wife
Monica and three year old daughter
Uma. Jim is a technical account
manager for Qualys, a security vendor.
This interesting company has a
Wikipedia entry and, of course, their
own extensive web site.
Edvard “Freddy” Ohou ’03 is a
Ph.D. student at the University of Utah in
the School of Computing in Computing
Graphics. He reports he is focusing in
the vast category of Visualization,
Geometric Modeling, and Graphics
Analysis where his research includes
multi-dimension data analysis, geometric
modeling, CAD, and topology.
Angela (Bonanni) Manzella ’02
reports that “above all the success with
my career the thing that I am happiest
about is in 2007 I married my wonderful
husband, Vince Manzella.” That is
especially beautiful since her career
includes teaching mathematics and
serving as department chair at Chippewa
Valley High School, her own high
school. In 2005 Angela earned her
Masters of Public Administration (MPA)
from U of M- Dearborn. Recently she
applied for and was appointed to an
assistant principal position in her high
school. She writes that “I absolutely love
my new job as an Assistant Principal. It
truly gives me an opportunity to work
with and help the students that need the
most guidance.”
John “Fu” McDermott ’73 has
requested news pertaining to the years
’71 through ’75. Please send any to the
editor and it will be passed along.
Lisa (Baumunk) Reeves ’91 received
a M.S. in biostatistics from UM-AA
following graduation and continues to
work at i3 Statprobe in Ann Arbor as a
Principal Statistician. She reports that
“On the good news front, Bryan and I
had our first child back on 30 September
2008 — a son, Noah Mitchell Reeves.
He’s been keeping us super busy, but we
are having a great time with him.”
Following graduation, Eric Schmidt ’94
went to Oakland U for a master’s degree in
mathematics focusing on computer algebra
and computer graphics, and ended up
getting a job programming video games.
The following is his very interesting report
on his activities. “I moved out to Santa
Barbara, worked for Activision, got tired of
that pretty quickly and started working
from home doing contract programming.
Since you can do that from anywhere that
has an internet connection, I moved back to
Michigan and now live in Petoskey with
my wife and two kids. My parents are on
Walloon Lake, and we live just on the other
side (but not on the lake). I’ve been doing
contract programming for about 11 years
now. It’s great because every job is
temporary and different. I typically do
small/fast/numerous contracts, which I
prefer. I met a guy when I was in
California, and now nearly 100% of my
work comes through him, so I don’t have to
worry about advertising and shopping
myself around. There’s plenty of work for
a programmer these days and I highly
recommend it. It’s like working on puzzles
all day. Well, most programming is like
that. Some tasks can be pretty gruesome,
but overall, it’s as ‘fun’ a job as I can find!”
Nancy Cunningham Albright ’77
worked as a demand forecaster at
Michigan Bell doing econometric
modeling following graduation.
Subsequently she worked in the
Engineering Department doing
equipment projections and later accepted
a rotational assignment as a Member of
the Technical Staff at Bell
Communications Research in New
Jersey. During this period she provided
forecasting support and worked on the
Engineering Planning System. It was at
Michigan Bell where she met her
husband, Harry. In 1987 their son
Benjamin was born, and she left the
“paid” work force and soon moved to the
Chicago area where she and her husband
had four more children, all home
schooled through the eighth grade and
now in a spectrum of schools and
schooling with interests in science and
mathematics. This fall Nancy plans to reenter the job market. She has a keen
interest in tutoring mathematics in a
school district or working with a refugee
organization. We wish Nancy and her
family continued success.
Best wishes to Nicole Anteau ’05 who
married on April 15 and is now Nicole
Kruszyna. Nicole works for U.S. Army
TACOM as an Operations Research
Analyst.
Thank you to all of our alumni/ae for
keeping us updated.
Congratulations on all of your
achievements!
7
Senior Officers
Daniel Little, Ph.D., Chancellor
Kate Davy, Ph.D., Provost & Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs
Robert G. Behrens, M.A., Vice Chancellor for Business Affairs
Edward Bagale, M.B.A., Vice Chancellor for Government Relations
Thomas Baird, M.Ed., Vice Chancellor for Institutional Advancement
Stanley E. Henderson, M.A., Vice Chancellor for Enrollment Management and Student Life
Regents of the University
Julia Donovan Darlow, Laurence B. Deitch, Denise Ilitch, Olivia P. Maynard, Andrea Fischer Newman,
Andrew C. Richner, S. Martin Taylor, Katherine E. White, Mary Sue Coleman (ex officio)
UM-Dearborn Citizens Advisory Committee
Brian M. Connolly, Stephen Economy, Mark Gaffney, Paul C. Hillegonds, Arthur M. Horwitz, Hassan Jaber,
Maria Leonhauser, Gail Mee, Patricia Mooradian, Timothy J. O’Brien, Jon Pepper, Shirley R. Stancato
The University of Michigan is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer.
The University of Michigan-Dearborn
Department of Mathematics and Statistics
College of Arts, Sciences, and Letters
4901 Evergreen Road
Dearborn, MI 48128-2406
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