News

The department will host a one-day conference on arithmetic and algebraic geometry on Saturday, April 19th. The speakers will be Matt Baker (Georgia Tech), Jean-Louis Colliot-Thelene (CNRS), Philippe Gille (CNRS), Dino Lorenzini (University of Georgia), and Gopal Prasad (University of Michigan). For more information, see the conference website.

Goodrich C. White Professor Ron Gould delivered the address at the 2008 MAA Alabama state dinner at Samford University in Birmingham on February 1st. The Mathematical Association of America is the largest professional society that focuses on mathematics accessible at the undergraduate level; it sponsors a dinner in each state each year, with one featured speaker.

Microsoft Research and Microsoft adCenter announced Eugene as one of the recipients of the Beyond Search – Semantic Computing and Internet Economics 2007 RFP awards. The research (in collaboration with Prof. Charles Clarke of the University of Waterloo) aims to develop techniques to automatically identify the user queries and behavior patterns associated with commercial intent. Specifically, the researchers will develop a taxonomy of commercial intent to classify user information needs along dimensions such as immediate vs. near-term purchase, or purchase vs. research. The researchers will also develop techniques to automatically infer the information needs from user actions to classify the search session in the corresponding commercial intent category. The general intent inference algorithms developed will also be applicable to other (non-commercial) intent detection tasks, such as detection of scholarly research intent, health information seeking, and market research. For more information see the Microsoft Research announcement.

Professor David Borthwick's book "Spectral Theory of Infinite-Area Hyperbolic Surfaces" has just been published by Birkhauser Boston, as volume 256 of the series Progress in Mathematics. The book covers recent advances in geometric scattering theory in the context of Riemann surfaces. More information can be found at: http://www.amazon.com/Spectral-Infinite-Area-Hyperbolic-Surfaces- Mathematics/dp/0817645241/ref=sr_1_1/002-3918494-5040868? ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1190742111&sr=8-1)

The 68th Annual William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition will be held on Saturday, December 1st. This is a challenging test of problem solving skill, open to all undergraduates. If you would like to represent Emory, or for more information, please e-mail Professor Grigni at mic@mathcs.emory.edu .