Vermont Alpha Chapter Report

Institution: Saint Michael's College

Reporting Year: 2023-2024

Advisor: Amir Barghi

Advisor's Email Address: abarghi@smcvt.edu

Has There Been a Change in Chapter Advisor During the Past Year?: No

Permanent Faculty Correspondent: 

Permanent Faculty Correspondent's Email Address: 

Officers: President: Camille Gallagher

Chapter Website: http://www.smcvt.edu/academics/honors-opportunities/honors-programs-in-fields-of-study/pi-mu-epsilon-mathematics/

Number of New Members: 5

Number of Continuing Members: 6

Activities: The annual Pi Mu Epsilon Lecture was held in conjunction with the Induction Ceremony on October 20, 2023. Our speaker was Dr. Cornelia Mihaila (Assistant Professor, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Saint Michael’s College) who gave a talk entitled “How to Measure a Fractal”. One highlight is the September Mathematics and Statistics Colloquium featuring presentations by seven students who participated in summer research projects or internships. Among these presenters, there were four continuing PME members and one PME inductee who are listed below: Jacob Burcroff ’23 – “Collecting and Analyzing Traffic Data in Chittenden County”; Patrick Gahan ’25 – “Adventures in Denver/CoSIBS Program”; Camille Gallagher ’24 – “A Second Summer Breakthrough Experience: Teaching Algebra”; Swapnil Jhajharia ’24 – “SENBOX: Special Education in Vietnam”; Max Noddings ’23 – “Korean Tech Summer Internship”. Another highlight is that, on October 27, 2023, the Department of Mathematics and Statistics Colloquium was presented by Dr. Kaiti Tuthill ’11, Director of Assessment and Accreditation, Lynch School of Education and Human Development, Boston College, titled “A Nonlinear Path from SMC to a MESA Ph.D. and Social Science Research: Some Reflections and Suggestions”.

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.
Camille Gallagher ’24 will be pursuing a Master of Education degree at Providence College starting in June 2023, and will be a mathematics teacher at Bishop Feehan High School in Attleboro, Massachusetts, starting in the 2024-2025 academic year. Patrick Gahan ’25 will be participating in a Virtual Student Summer Opportunities to Advance Research internship at the National Institutes of Health, focusing on bioinformatics in relation to genetics. Swapnil Jhajharia ’24 will be pursuing a Master of Arts in Anthropology at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa, starting in the 2024-2025 academic year.

If you were awarded a PME Lectureship, Conference, or Prize Grant within the past year, please briefly describe the results.