Fourth Annual

Michigan Undergraduate Mathematics Conference

A conference for Undergraduate Mathematics Students and Faculty

February 16, 2002
Calvin College
Grand Rapids, Michigan

[Featured Speaker] [Keynote Address] [Student Talks] [Poster] [Travel] [Organizers & Sponsors]
[Photos] [Detailed Program] [Abstracts] [Exhibitors] [Who Wants to Be a Mathematician?]

See You Next Year in Dearborn!

The 2003 MUMC will be held at the University of Michigan--Dearborn on Saturday, February 15, 2003. Visit the conference website for additional information.

There are a number of other Undergraduate Mathematics Conferences across the country. Here are links to a few of them:

Rose-Hulman Conference on Undergraduate Mathematics (March 15 & 16, 2002)
Hudson River Undergraduate Mathematics Conference (April 27, 2002)

Featured Speaker

Frank Morgan from Williams College will be our feature speaker. Frank Morgan is currently the Second Vice-President of the Mathematical Association of America and has long been involved in undergraduate research projects and has advised numerous students and groups of students at both graduate and undergraduate levels. At Williams College, where he currently teaches in the Mathematics and Statistics Department, he was the founding director of the very successful SMALL undergraduate research project.

Professor Morgan works in minimal surfaces and studies the behavior and structure of minimizers in various dimensions and settings. (If you don't know what that means, think of soap bubbles as 2-dimensional surfaces in a 3-dimensional space.) He has written four books: Geometric Measure Theory: a Beginner's Guide (2000), Calculus Lite (1997), Riemannian Geometry: a Beginner's Guide(1998), and The Math Chat Book (2000), based on his live, call-in Math Chat TV show and Math Chat column, both available at MathChat.org. The Math Chat Book comes with a $1000 Math Chat Book Quest.

Keynote Address

Frank Morgan's keynote address is entitled

Double Bubbles

In 1884 Schwarz proved that a round soap bubble is the least-area way to enclose a given volume of air. In 2000 we finally proved that the familiar double soap bubble is the least-area way to enclose and separate two given volumes. Much progress has come from undergraduates, and many questions remain open.

An example of a double bubble appears in the image to the right. For additional images of soap bubbles and films visit the Mathematical Images Gallery of John M. Sullivan at the University of Illinois at Urbana--Champaign.

Additional information on this topic is available in the following articles by Frank Morgan:

"Double Bubble No More Trouble" in November 2000 Math Horizons
"Proof of the Double Bubble Conjecture" in March 2001 American Mathematical Monthly

Dr. Morgan will also be giving a Mathematics Colloquium talk at Calvin College on Friday, February 15. The title of his colloquium talk is Soap Bubbles and Immiscible Fluids. This talk is free and open to the public. For more information, visit the Calvin Mathematics Colloquium Website

Student Talks Needed

A talk from MUMC 2001

In addition to a keynote adress by Frank Morgan, the conference will include student presentations. Each student presentation will be 15 minutes long. Students are invited to present talks related to research projects they have been involved with or expository talks on interesting mathematics they have learned. Talks in any area of mathematics, statistics or a related discipline are welcome.

Student presentations must be registered in advance by filling out a web form.

Program

A schedule of all talks and activities for the conference is now available as are abstracts for the 15-minute talks.

The program and pictures from MUMC 2001 are also still available on the 2001 MUMC web site.

Travel

The conference was be held on the campus of Calvin College. Most activities were located in the Science Building Complex (officially divided into DeVries Hall, North Hall, and Science Building) home of Calvin's Department of Mathematics and Statistics.

The following may be of interest to those unfamiliar with the campus:

Organizers

The MUMC is a function of the Michigan section of the Mathematical Association of America. This year's conference was arranged by the following faculty members in collaboration with their students.

Conference Committee

Randall Pruim, Calvin College, chair
John Clifford, Univeristy of Michigan-Dearborn
John Fink, Kalamzoo College
Sivaram Narayan, Central Michigan University
Jody Sorensen, Grand Valley State University
Darin Stephenson, Hope College

Local Arrangements Committee

Randall Pruim, Calvin College, chair
Mark Hanisch, Calvin College
Tom Scofield, Calvin College