The Southwestern Mathematics and Computer Science Department had a strong involvement at the 105th Annual Meeting of the Texas Section of the Mathematical Association of America (MAA), held at Baylor University in Waco on March 27 and 28. Associate Professor of Mathematics John Ross was honored as the recipient of the 2026 Section Award for Distinguished College or University Teaching of Mathematics. Ross also helped organize sessions as a co-leader of Texas NExT, a professional development service that helps early-career mathematics faculty refine their teaching practices. Atkin Junior Professor and Associate Professor of Mathematics Noelle Sawyer gave the closing invited address, titled “Using Loops to Make Good Maps.” Garey Chair and Professor of Mathematics Alison Marr presided over the meeting as the MAA Texas Section Chair. She also sponsored a team of five students in the Math Bowl competition: biochemistry major and math and neuroscience double minor Elizabeth Ayalew ’28, biology and physics double major Linh Nguyen ’29, physics and math double major Brooke Ramey ’27, math major Joshua Rodkey ’29, and biochemistry and math double major CeCe Sullivan ’29. Sullivan also won a book through a raffle. Associate Professor of Mathematics Therese Shelton and Assistant Professor of Instruction of Mathematics Will Tran also attended. Marr and Ross also attended the Meeting of the Texas MAA Executive Committee, over which Marr presided, and the Meeting of Department Liaisons.

Three faculty and two students joined over 5,000 mathematicians at the largest math gathering in the world, the Joint Mathematics Meetings, in Washington, D.C. from January 4–7. Those attending participated in events sponsored by the American Mathematical Society (AMS), Pi Mu Epsilon (PME), and the Special Interest Group of the Mathematical Association of America (SIGMAA). Professor of Mathematics Alison Marr co-presented “Difference Distance Magic Digraphs” in the AMS special session on research results by mathematicians from the EDGE Program. She also participated in multiple events in her capacity as co-Director of EDGE. Marr stayed an extra day in D.C. to participate in #MathSciOnTheHill Day, joining over 250 mathematicians advocating for mathematics funding on Capitol Hill, where she was joined by SU alumna Daniela Beckelhymer ’20. Associate Professor of Mathematics John Ross presented “Optimizing Under Constraints: Developing a Compact Undergraduate Research Program” in the SIGMAA special session on showcasing undergraduate research experiences. Associate Professor of Mathematics Therese Shelton organized and co-chaired an AMS special session sponsored by SIMIODE on “Creating, Doing, and Sharing Modeling Approaches to Teaching Differential Equations.” Ioana Burlacu ’26 and Ashlyn Cadena ’27 presented “Perimeter-minimizing rectangles using density M|x|^p + N|y|^q” in the AMS-PME Undergraduate Poster Session. This research was supervised by Ross as part of SURF 2025.

Five mathematics majors presented preliminary work on their mathematics capstone projects at the 20th Annual Texas Undergraduate Mathematics Conference held this year at St. Mary’s University on October 17-18. Kristian Duddridge ’26 presented “What’s magical about hexagonal tiling?” Tanner Klein ’26 presented “A Different Type of Circuit: Exploring Graph Theory in Mario Kart World.” Sebastian Loder ’26 presented “Snakes and Snowmen: Exploring new classes of graphs within the Game of Cycles.” Kacy Miller ’26 presented “Path-finding and Patterns in Free Flow.” Avery Weatherly ’25 presented “Pip Pip Hooray! A mathematical exploration of Pips, a New York Times Game.” All five projects are being supervised by Garey Chair and Professor of Mathematics Alison Marr, who also attended the conference and moderated a session of talks. Daisy Orozco ’27 and Joshua Rodkey ’29 also attended the conference.

Garey Chair and Professor of Mathematics Alison Marr co-organized the successful Applied Mathematical Intersections (AMI) conference (celebrating the work of Dr. Ami Radunskaya) from October 3-5 at Pomona College. The conference kicked off Friday night with a math/music/Ami themed scavenger hunt and concluded Sunday morning with a reflection-based discussion of the weekend’s activities. In between, there was a music jam, an improv workshop, hands-on activities, collaborative problem solving sessions, a poster session, and two dual talks (inspired by our very own Paideia Connections lectures) that each featured one musician and one mathematician. Assistant Professor of Mathematics Noelle Sawyer also attended and led the logic puzzles hands-on activity. More information about the conference is available here.

Three faculty and an alumna participated in the 2025 MathFest, a national meeting of the Mathematical Association of America (MAA) in Sacramento, CA from August 6–10. Professor and Duncan Chair of Mathematics Fumiko Futamura presented “Linear Algebra Class Projects to Research Projects.” Professor and Garey Chair of Mathematics Alison Marr presented “Trying, Flailing, Tweaking, Succeeding: A Grading Journey” and served on a Project NExT panel titled “Navigating the Shifting Tides of Academia in 2025.” Associate Professor of Mathematics Therese Shelton presented “Cholera Models with Pathogen Growth for Student Engagement in Undergraduate Differential Equations and Beyond.” She also co-organized the contributed paper session, “In the Real with Applications of Differential Equations for Learning,” jointly sponsored by SIMIODE and CODEE. Futamura, Marr, and Shelton also each provided professional service in monitoring MAA minicourses. Mathematics and computer science graduate Emma Kathryn Groves ’17 was a co-author on a presentation “Assigning Interconnected Projects in a Dynamical Systems Course.” She also co-organized the contributed paper session “From Theory to Practice – Applying Literature-Based Teaching Practices in the Real Classroom.” Dr. Groves achieved her Ph.D. in 2023 and is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mathematical Sciences at the United States Military Academy in West Point, NY.