PAMS Focus - March 2008

PAMS Focus is the bi-monthly electronic newsletter for alumni and friends of the NC State University College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences (PAMS). If you have any suggestions or comments, please share them with us by e-mailing pams_info@ncsu.edu.

NC State to host symposium on mathematical sciences in biology and biomedicine

Experts from across the Eastern U.S. will converge at NC State April 24-26 to discuss opportunities and challenges at the interface of the quantitative, biological and biomedical sciences. The Atlantic Coast Symposium on the Mathematical Sciences in Biology and Biomedicine will bring together leading researchers in applied mathematics, biomathematics, statistics, engineering, and biological and medical sciences.

The symposium is sponsored jointly by NC State’s Center for Quantitative Sciences in Biomedicine and the Center for Research in Scientific Computation. Marie Davidian, William Neal Reynolds Professor in the Department of Statistics, and H. Thomas Banks, Distinguished University Professor and Drexel Professor of Mathematics, will serve as co-chairs of the organizing committee.

For more information, please visit www.ncsu.edu/cqsb/acs08.html.

Join the state’s best and brightest at the NC Science Olympiad

Egg-O-Naut, Crave the Wave, Robo-cross, Junk Yard Challenge. More than 2,000 students from 150 middle and high schools across the state will come to NC State April 4-5 to compete in these exciting events—and 40 more—at the finals of the North Carolina Science Olympiad (NCSO). Winners in each event move on to the national finals May 30-31 in Washington, DC.

There is no charge to attend the NCSO state finals, and spectators will be treated to an opening celebration ceremony in Reynolds Coliseum from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Friday. Competitive events will run across campus from 9 a.m. to 3:15 p.m. Saturday, followed by an awards ceremony at Reynolds Coliseum.

Affiliated with PAMS and The Science House, NCSO is the largest youth competition related to science and technology in the state. This year alone, more than 7,000 students from 250 schools in 55 counties participated in ten regional tournaments.

For more information on the North Carolina Science Olympiad, please visit www.sciencenc.com.

Physics remembers two former colleagues

The PAMS family this winter mourned the passing of two former colleagues from the Department of Physics. Professor Emeritus David Martin passed away Dec. 12, 2007. Professor Emerita Marjorie Anne Klenin passed away Jan. 19, 2008.

For more information on the lives of Profs. Martin and Klenin, please visit www.physics.ncsu.edu/.

 

Save the Date for Scope Academy 2008

The College’s annual Scope Academy will be held Saturday, Oct. 11. As in past years, Scope Academy 2008 will feature classroom sessions led by PAMS world-class faculty and a compelling keynote address by Donald Saari, Distinguished Professor of Mathematics and Economics at the University of California, Irvine. This year’s event also will celebrate the successful conclusion of the College’s Achieve! Campaign.

More information on Scope Academy 2008 will follow this summer. In the meantime, please plan to join us in October. You won’t want to miss it.