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.

Assistant Professor of Mathematics Noelle Sawyer and her collaborators Benjamin Call, Dave Constantine, Alena Erchenko, and Grace Work had their paper “Local product structure for equilibrium states of geodesic flows and applications” published in the Journal of Modern Dynamics on February 10. The article focuses on statistical properties of equilibrium states on non-uniformly hyperbolic surfaces and strategies for working with the geometry there. The article can be read here.

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.

Assistant Professor of Mathematics Noelle Sawyer gave a plenary talk on April 11 at the Infinite Possibilities 2025 conference held at the Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Innovation at the University of Chicago. Her talk was titled “It Takes a Village(r)” and called for the audience to examine who is in their lives, who they are responsible for, and to think about adding to their community.

Assistant Professor of Mathematics Noelle Sawyer was the local invited speaker at the Math For All Austin conference on April 5. She spoke about how we can find interesting geometry all around us if we keep our eyes open for cone points in a talk titled “Embracing Hyperbolicity.”