Institution: Presbyterian College
Reporting Year: 2021-2022
Advisor: Brian Beasley
Advisor's Email Address: bbeasley@presby.edu
Has There Been a Change in Chapter Advisor During the Past Year?: no
Permanent Faculty Correspondent:
Permanent Faculty Correspondent's Email Address:
Officers:
Chapter Website: http://
Number of New Members: 3
Number of Continuing Members: 11
Activities: Joint meeting with Society of Physics Students – three PC students, two of whom are Pi Mu Epsilon members, presented summaries of their summer research. Marigordon Varner received a NASA grant and studied the propagation of sound through granular material; she also noted her previous summer projects working on the development of a prosthetic hand with a gripper for unique objects. Wil Armstrong (a PME member) summarized his work on tin whiskers and how to control or stop their growth (such whiskers occur with electronic parts coated with tin and can cause short circuits). Tori Snyder (a PME member) discussed her REU at Utah with the IceCube project, part of which measures the level of neutrino radiation in Antarctica; Tori’s research group worked on upgrading cameras which can study dark properties of ice below the surface. Initiation Ceremony – Dr. Josiah Reiswig of Anderson University served as our Lindner Lecture Series speaker for 2022. The Department of Mathematics created this series in 2013 in honor of distinguished alumnus Dr. Curt Lindner, emeritus professor of mathematics at Auburn University. This year, Dr. Reiswig spoke on “Steiner distance problems waiting to be solved.” Dr. Reiswig noted the work on the Gilbert-Pollak Conjecture and offered some fascinating open problems for students to tackle. We initiated three new student members and celebrated being able to hold this ceremony in person for the first time in three years, with 37 people in attendance.
Do any of your chapter members plan to attend or present at the PME National Meeting this year?
Do you have any news about current students or recent graduations? For example, scholarships or other awards, acceptances to graduate school, paper presentations at conferences, etc.
Brandon Cook, Elias Svensson, and Clay Wright continue to work on graduate degrees in the mathematical and/or physical sciences. Harrison Fisher was recently accepted into the graduate program in mathematical sciences at Clemson University.
If you were awarded a PME Lectureship, Conference, or Prize Grant within the past year, please briefly describe the results.