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.

Three faculty and eight students participated in the 2025 meeting of the Texas Section of the Mathematical Association of America, which took place March 28–29 at Prairie View A&M University. Garey Chair and Professor of Mathematics Alison Marr served on the Executive Committee as the section’s chair-elect. Associate Professor of Mathematics John Ross also served on the Executive Committee, in the role of Digital Media Editor. Ross also serves as a co-leader of Section NExT, a professional development program for early-career mathematicians. As part of his work for NExT, he led “Inquiry without Overhaul,” a session on introducing inquiry-based learning into mathematics classes in easy-to-digest pieces. Three students presented. Clay Elliott ’26 presented “Linear Algebra Behind Satisfactory,” which featured work done in his Linear Algebra class with Lord Chair and Professor of Mathematics Fumiko Futamura. Georgia Micknal ’25 and Avery Weatherly ’25 presented “Antimagic Polydominoes,” which featured research done with Marr. Assistant Professor of Instruction of Mathematics Will Tran also attended, as did students Caytie Brown ’27, Ashlyn Cadena ’27, Camille James ’26, Robert Karcher ’27, and Dash Puentes ’27. All eight students competed in the Math Bowl as part of two different teams on Friday. Both teams finished in the top half of all teams competing.

Three faculty and an alumnus participated in the 2025 Joint Mathematics Meetings in Seattle, WA from January 8-12. Associate Professor of Mathematics John Ross presented “Fast-flipping a Calculus 3 Class using AI help” in the Mathematical Association of America (MAA) Contributed Paper Session on “Using AI in Mathematics Instruction.” This was sponsored by the MAA special interest group on artificial intelligence. Professor and Garey Chair of Mathematics Alison Marr served on a panel to talk about the Enhancing Diversity in Graduate Education (EDGE) Summer Program (edgeforwomen.org). The panel was sponsored by IGEN, the Inclusive Graduate Education Network, which is a part of the National Science Foundation’s INCLUDES alliance: Inclusion across the Nation of Communities of Learners of Underrepresented Discoverers in Engineering and Science. Marr has been Co-Director of the EDGE Summer Program since 2020. Associate Professor of Mathematics Therese Shelton presented “ODEs and the Flu” in the American Mathematical Society (AMS) Special Session on “Modeling Matters in Teaching and Learning Differential Equations,” sponsored by SIMIODE. Computational mathematics and psychology alumna Daniela Beckelhymer ’20 co-organized the AMS Special Session on “Math Research Community Climate Science at the Interface between Topological Data Analysis and Dynamical Systems Theory.” Beckelhymer has completed the M.S. in Mathematics and is working towards a Ph.D. in Mathematics at the University of Minnesota.

The Department of Mathematics and Computer Science had a good showing at the Texas Undergraduate Mathematics Conference (TUMC) at the University of Texas at Tyler on November 9. Six mathematics majors presented preliminary work on their mathematics capstone projects under the supervision of Associate Professor of Mathematics Therese Shelton. Yasmine Soto ’25 presented “Spinning Stories: A Mathematical Model of Rumor Dynamics.” Christopher Garza ’25 and Leo Schoch-Spana ’25 presented “Developing Models for Lung Cancer in the United States.” Assistant Professor of Instruction in Statistics Jean Remy Habimana is a statistics consultant on the project and Professor of Mathematics Fumiko Futamura is a consultant on the software implementation. Isabella Robinson ’25 presented “Modeling Monarch Butterfly Populations.” Cole Thomson ’25 presented “Analysis of Music retention and popularity on Billboard’s 100.” Jadyn Rhodes-Cruse ’25 presented “Comparing Maternal Mortality.” Shelton and Associate Professor of Mathematics John Ross attended and helped the group of students. Ross also co-led sessions in the Mathematical Association of America’s (MAA) Project NExT (New Experiences in Teaching) program, providing support for faculty in their first few years of teaching. Biochemistry major Daisy Orozco ’27 also attended.

Ashlyn Cadena ’27, Olive Forrest ’26, Andres Garza ’27, Amanda Mejia ’27, Olivia Johnson ’26, and Professor of Chemistry Emily Niemeyer attended the 2024 National Science Foundation (NSF) S-STEM Scholars and Principal Investigator Meeting in Chicago, IL. In addition to interacting with other S-STEM Scholars from around the country and attending workshops and professional development sessions, three Scholars presented their research in conference sessions. Garza’s poster, titled “Laser induced synthesis of cobalt oxide oxygen evolution catalysts,” described work he completed during a summer Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program at Texas State University. Mejia presented a poster, “Granular hydrogel synthesis for comparable in vitro model of brain parenchyma tissue,” which is based on her ongoing research with Assistant Professor of Physics Cody Crosby. Cadena’s poster, “Perimeter Minimizing Rectangles in R2 with density M|x| + N|y|,” described her collaborative research with other Southwestern math students, Associate Professor of Mathematics John Ross, and Adjunct Professor of Mathematics Lauren Ross.