Institution: Saint Michael's College

Reporting Year: 2025-2026

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: Ty Wick

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

Number of New Members: 7

Number of Continuing Members: 1

Activities: The annual Pi Mu Epsilon Lecture was held in conjunction with the Induction Ceremony on October, 24, 2024. Our speaker was Dr. Gillian Galle (Associate Professor of Mathematics, Vermont State University Castleton) who gave a talk entitled “Cocktail Hour Calculus: A Toast to Mathematical Curiosity”. One highlight is the September Mathematics and Statistics Colloquium featuring presentations by six students who participated in summer research projects or internships. Among these presenters, there was one continuing PME member and there was one PME inductee. They are as follows: Rafael Kowal ’26 – “Learning to Govern–A tudent’s Perspective on Managing Data at Scale: A Data Governance Internship at National Life Group”; Ty Wick ’26 – “Random Approximations of the Sierpinski Gasket: A Case Study on Nonlinear Dimensionality Reduction of Non-Smooth Spaces”. Another highlight is that, on November 14, 2025, the Department of Mathematics and Statistics Colloquium was presented by Mary Falcigno ’15, M.S., Computer Scientist and Project Officer for Combat Capabilities Development Command Armaments Center, United States Army, titled “Your Development Arsenal: Career Experiences and Advice” (Endorsement Disclaimer: “The views and opinions presented herein are those of the speaker and do not represent the views of DoW or the Army. Appearance of, or reference to, any commercial products or services does not constitute DoW or Army endorsement of those products or services. The appearance of external hyperlinks does not constitute DoW or Army endorsement of the linked websites, or the information, products or services therein.”).

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.
Rafael Kowal ’26 will be starting a new role as a Data Science Specialist for National Life Group in Montpelier, Vermont in June 2026. Ty Wick ’26 will be starting a PhD in Plasma Physics at Dartmouth College in the Fall of 2026. He plans on creating and utilizing imulations to better understand space plasmas. He is currently interested in potentially joining the EPaCO (Extreme Plasmas around Compact Objects) research group, whose guiding question is: “What does energetic radiation tell us about far-away astrophysical environments — and how can we build reliable digital twins of these extreme systems?”

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