?
The Literary Group
concludes the semester as
David Lesley
gives a history of
Fuchsian Groups
Thursday
December 12 1996 330 PM BAM 259
These notions are from Poincare
(a fellow who wore a beret).
When the disk he unfurled,
he found a new world.
So be there, don’t be square, don’t delay
-30-
The Literary Group
next hears
Steve Kirschvink
hold forth
On the spurious construction of "solutions" of a singular pertubation problem
Friday March 7, 1997 3 30 pm BAM 259
Theres nothing that makes Steve as furious
as "solution"s whose reasons are spurious
Thye make him disturbed,
distressed and perturbed,
and when he’s that way, he’s injurious.
The Literary Gruppe
next hears that dedicated civilian
Don Lutz
hum a few
Variations on a Theme of Hoelder
Friday March 14 1997 330 pm BAM 261
Otto was a mathematician
who moonlighted as a musician.
But his ear, it was tin,
so his music was din
and his concerts were wars of attrition.
The Literary Group
next hears
Eric Lehtonen
defend himself and his MA thesis:
Graph Representations of Finite Groups
Friday April 25, 1997
, 3 30 PM BAM 261
Some students spend life in a lab
and others think libraries fab.
But Eric draws groups
with branches and loops
and says "It beats driving a cab!"
The Literary Group
next hears a returning alumnus,
Paul Zak
Department of Economics
Claremont Graduate University
speak on
BOTTLENECKS
(how delays installing capital affect economic growth)
Friday May 2, 1997
, 3 30 PM BAM 254
To see how an economy grows
with cycles whose cause no one knows?
Our speaker has news
of delay Diff EQ’s,
and he’ll tell us with math, not with prose.
The Literary Group
hears a crosstown guest
Al Shenk
(UCSD)
exposit on
Revisionist Calculus Reform
Friday May 9, 1997 3 30 PM BAM 261
A Calculus teacher named Al
wants to keep rules like L’Hopital.
But this is contrary
to the fashion and theory
that says math should be each student’s pal.
The Literary Group
next hears
Peter Salamon
celebrate DEAD DAY speaking on
Tsallis/Levy Distributions
Friday May 16, 1997
, 3 30 PM BAM 261
"If you want to get something real cold",
say the bulk of the scientists polled,
" these guys can’t be beat,
for removing your heat!"
Come hear Pete make the story unfold.
The Literary Group
finishes off the year with a duet:
Jose Castillo and Bob Grone
speaking on
Necessary and Sufficient Conditions for Existence of an Inner Product for a Discrete Differential Operator
Thursday May 22, 1997
, 4 00 PM BAM 261
Do you think that they’ll sing Tea for Two?
Or maybe tell jokes that are blue?
Will one do the proof,
while the other’s aloof?
No one knows, as this act is brand new.
The Literary Group
next hears from Cowboy
Bob Grone
telling us about his
Home on the Numerical Range
Friday Sept 12
, 3 30 PM BAM 259
Oh give me a home
where the matrices roam,
where the scalars and vectors all play,
where never is heard
an orthogonal word,
and determinants never go ‘way.
The Literary Group
in conjunction with the colloquium hears
hears
Yuval Fisher
speak on
Estimating the Area of the Mandelbrot Set
Friday Oct 3
, 3 30 PM BAM 259
Oh, what can the area be
of this set, built by ?
If it’s 
,
I’ll be shocked, wouldn’t you?
This is something you’ve just got to see!
The Literary Group
in conjunction with the colloquium
hears
Vladimir Rotar
UCSD and Central Economics and Mathematics Institute, Moscow
speak on
Equilibrium Prices in a Random Exchange Economy with Dependent Agents
Wednesday, October 15 1997
, 3 30 PMBAM 254 (the smart room)
Our next speaker is a REAL poet.
(To see make the Internet show it.)
Though the verse is idyllic,
it’s writ in Cyrillic,
but sure worth the work took to know it.
The Literary Group
in conjunction with the colloquium
hears
Curt Lindner
Auburn University
speak on
How to Embed a Partial Steiner Triple System
Friday November 7 1997
, 3 30 PMBAM 259
A combinatorist named Curt
tried to embed (‘til it hurt)
a whole triple system,
but then, when he missed ‘em
he settled for part, and it worked.
The Literary Group
next hears
Sheldon Axler
new chair at San Francisco State
speak on
Computing with Harmonic Functions
Thursday, November 13 1997
, 3 30 PMBAM 259
An equation, that’s due to Laplace,
need solving, but one’s at a loss,
to fit the round boundary,
but help for our quandry
is brought by the new S.F. boss.
The Literary Group
next hears from the youth of America
Anna Salamon
who will give a short talk on
Recursion Relations among Coefficients of Recursion Relations
Friday, November 21 1997
, 4 00 PMBAM 259
This title contains quite a tease
implying that fleas can have fleas.
But then it’s a version
of one more recursion,
so show up again, if you please.
The Literary Group
finishes the semester with
David Lesley
speaking on the rhythmic question
Can You Hear the Shape of a Drum?
Friday, December 12 1997
, 3 30 PMBAM 259
Before you drink your Christmas rum,
reflect a moment ‘bout a drum.
Its shape determines what you hear,
but Santa bets a case of beer
that you can’t hear the shape it’s from.
The Literary Group
is resurrected by
Martin Bohner
who speaks on variations on a theme of Weierstra
bDiscrete Field Theory
A Discrete version of the Fundamental Theorem of Weierstra
bFriday, February 6, 1998
, 3 30 PMBAM 261
There once was a fellow from Ulm
who took a variant up to his room.
They both were discreet
and wouldn’t repeat
a word to Ken Starr; that spells Doom!
The Literary Group
hears from another of our alumni
Steve Bell
who will speak on
Dynamic Routing and Scheduling in Open Queueing Networks
The problem is, there’s a whole crew
of customers waiting on queue.
You don’t want such confusion,
so you turn to diffusion
then reflect them, and bid them adieu.
Thursday March 5
, 1998 , 3 30 PMBAM 261
The Literary Group
is pleased to present
Professor Dieter Gaier
of the University of Giessen, Germany
who will speak on
Polynomial Approximations of Conformal Mappings
It seems like a whole lot to ask
polynomials to take up the task
of mapping a disk
on a region like this:
I expect the convergence ain’t fast.
Thursday March 12, 1998 , 3 30 PM
BAM 261
The Literary Group
will be told about its options by
Sam Polk
(one of our own)
who will tell us about high finance:
An Introduction to Option Evaluation
This derivative isn’t f ‘.
It’s not even the same paradigm.
But Sam still uses math
to choose the right path
in pricing down to the right dime.
Thursday March 26, 1998 , 3 30 PM
BAM 261
The Literary Group
is paid a visit by
Christian Schoen
University of Bonn, Germany
who will tell us how to go about
Recognizing local and global rotational and translational symmetries in solids"
To see the fearful symmetry
in turns and shifts and suchlike, we
will ask our friend who comes from Bonn
and he in turn will expound on
the wonders of geometry!
Friday April 3, 1998 , 3 30 PM
BAM 261
The Literary Group
Anna Salamon
sweepstakes winner at the Science Fair,
will lecture the Pharisees on
Patterns in the Factors of the Fibonacci Numbers
Who’s the Fairest of the Fair?
Why it’s that girl right over there.
She can make, with graceful e’s
a 
which will your senses please.
So take a look with your own i’s
and brace yourself for a surprise.
Thursday April 16, 1998 , 3 30 PM
BAM 261
The Literary Group
next hears from
Steve Hui
who will pose
Some Problems in Coding Theory and Finite Fields
There was a young man from Spring Valley.
Code writing was right up his alley.
He plowed finite fields
and had bountiful yields.
There were almost too many to tally.
Thursday April 23, 1998 , 3 30 PM
BAM 261
The Literary Group
concludes the year with
Mark Dunster
who will speak on
The Asymptotics of Ultraspherical Polynomials
A lad from the land of the pound
has interest in things that are round.
As round as can be?
"No! Rounder!", says he.
"Ultra round has a much fuller sound."
Thursday May 14, 1998 , 2 00 PM
BAM 261
(Early time so as to proceed to the Dean’s reception afterward.)
The Literary Group
next hears from
Jose Castillo
who will speak on
High-Order Approximations for d/dx Satisfying a Discrete Divergence Theorem
Thursday Oct. 1, 1998 , 3 30 PM
BAM 258
The goal of this hombre Jose
is to calculate D a new way.
For help on this job,
he lassoed big Bob,
Now come see what Jose has to say.
The Literary Group
next hears from
Peter Salamon
who will speak on
Three Theses
Thursday Oct. 29, 1998 , 3 30 PM
BAM 258
Abstracts will be nailed to the lecture room door.
At the end of the lecture a vote
will be taken as to whether the authors must adhere to a Diet of Worms.
The Literary Group
next hears from
David Carlson
who poses the question
Where Does Inertia Theory Go From Here?
Thursday Nov 12, 1998 , 3 30 PM
BAM 258
This talk’s not concerning mv
nor the quantity written as p.
But when you want to be able
to see when things are unstable,
the inertia will tell you, you see.
The Literary Group
welcomes the prodigal son
Don Short
who offers in return a double treat with the two topics
Modeling Oil Production
and
Island Biogeography
Thursday Nov 19, 1998 , 3 30 PM
BAM 254
There once was a Dean, topological,
who took bureaucratic sabbatical.
But now he repents
and he’s got the good sense
to return to his roots, mathematical.
The Literary Group
is pleased to present one of our very own graduate students
Michael Kennedy
who will speak on
Extending the Henon Mapping to Several Complex Variables: Some Unexpected Results and Basins of Attraction
Thursday December 3, 1998 , 3 30 PM
BAM 258
The sets that are named after Julia
take on shapes that are strange and peculiah.
Here they’re made in 
,
so expect something new:
In 4-d, even pictures can fool ya.
The Literary Group
returns for its antemillenial year with
Don Lutz
who will speak on
The Transcendentality of e and pi:
The Tails of Two Numbers.
Friday February 5 1999 , 4 PM
BAM 261
A source of giddy math elation
is transcendental meditation.
You’ll see why numbers e and pi
can never, ever satisfy
a simple algebraic equation.
The Literary Group
welcomes one of our own undergraduates
Robert Rubalcaba
who will speak on
The Solution of Polynomial Equations by Radicals
Friday March 19 1999 , 3 30 PM
BAM 261
We can all solve equations, quadratic.
But for cubics and up, we’re erratic.
If you want to know more
he will solve three and four.
but for five it is NO, quite emphatic.
The Literary Group
is pleased to present
Vladimir Rotar
who will ponder with us the question of
How To Measure Risk
Friday April 16 1999 , 3 30 PM
BAM 261
Abstract: What is risk? How do we compare risk alternatives? Is it possible to measure risk? From D. Bernoulli to von Neumann and Morgenstern, to some recent results , including those of the speaker.
This lecture concerns probability
and risk assessment facility.
But to know what risk is,
is a darned dodgy biz-
ness, requiring some mental agility.
The Literary Group
presents the one and only
Mark Dunster
who will tell us about
Bessel Polynomials
Friday April 23 1999 , 3 30 PM
BAM 261
Bessel thought up an equation
that’s long given Mark great elation.
And now he’s found sport
in keeping it short.
No more series, that merits ovation!
The Literary Group
concludes the year with
Steve Pierce
who will answer the question
What is Coding Theory?
Friday May 14 1999 , 3 30 PM
BAM 261
This lecture’s the last of the year.
There are just no more left to hear.
So come listen to Steve.
Don’t pick up and leave,
‘til after the talk and the beer.
The Literary Group
Begins anew with
Antonio Palacios
Who will tell us about
Analysis and Visualization of Symmetry-Breaking Bifurcations
In Flame Patterns
THURSDAY 9/9/99 , 3 30 PM BAM 254
We’ve an old fascination with fire,
from the hearth to the funeral pyre.
The flame’s bifurcations
and fiery gyrations
are the topic, come hear our new hire.
The Literary Group
Presents
Reinhard Schaefke
Who will show us some
Counterexamples in Singular Perturbation Theory
THURSDAY October 7, 1999
3 30 PM BAM 254
The Literary Group
Presents
Steve Kirschvink
Who will speak on
Shock Layers for a Semilinear Boundary Value Problem
Friday October 15, 1999
3 30 PM BAM 261
The Literary Group
Presents
C. J. PARK
Who will speak on
Estimation of Poisson Intensity Parameters Under a Step-up Sampling Scheme
Friday October 22, 1999
3 30 PM BAM 261
The Literary Group
Presents
Roger Barnard
Professor of Mathematics, Texas Tech
Who will speak on
Arclength Approximation Over 4 centuries From Kepler to Today, via Ramanujan
Friday, November 12, 1999
3 30 PM BAM 261
There once was a fellow named Rog
Who gave lectures about Ramunaj
an trying to measure,
with ideas to treasure,
the length of Earth’s path, which is lahge.
The Literary Group
greets a peripatetic pal
Christian Schoen
University of Bonn, Germany
Speaking on
Energy landscapes, barrier structure and global optimization
Thursday, December 9, 1999
3 30 PM BAM 254
There once was a fellow from Bonn
Who traveled much, hither and yon.
Right now he is hither,
so get yourself thither.
The topic is cool, you won’t yawn.
The Literary Group
Begins the 2000s
With
Vladimir Rotar
Speaking
On Optimality Almost Surely
In Stochastic Control
Friday, February 11, 2000
3 30 PM BAM 254
If you’re trying to reach A from B
then randomly wandering, you see,
will get you there, though
it can be awful slow.
So you’d best take directions from me.
The Literary Group
Returns to normalcy
With
Mark Dunster
Who asks and answers the question
"How fast does the Riemann Zeta function grow on the critical strip?"
Friday, March 17, 2000
3 30 PM BAM 261
The sum, one over n to the zee
Is mighty strange looking to me.
But if you find where it’s zero
We’ll all call you a hero;
You might even get on TV!
The Literary Group
welcomes our visitor from Ulm
Prof. Heinz Fiedler
speaking on
Best Polyomial Approximation
Friday March 24, 2000 3 30 PM
BA 261
Some times a Professor from Ulm
takes polynomials home to his room,
and he ponders all night:
"Just which is just right?"
But best depends on: it's for whom?
PS Speakers are herewith solicited for future talks. Inquire within. (That
means reply.)
The Literary Group
Celebrates the end of Lent with
Bob Grone
Who will speak on
Non-negative Matrices and Factorizations
Thursday April 27, 2000 3 30 PM
BA 261
There
once was a big boy from ‘bamaWho carried arrays on his llama.
The beast found them less heavy,
When he carried a bevy,
If Bob wrote them as P and not 
.
The Literary Group
Returns to pure mathematics as
Steve Hui
Speaks about
The Hahn-Banach Theorem- Its History and Some Applications.
Friday May 12, 2000 3 30 PM
BA 261
A mathematician named Steve
has a really cool trick up his sleeve.
He cooks up extensions
To lots more dimensions.
You’ve just got to see to believe.
The Literary Group
finishes the semester with
Vladimir Rotar
Speaking about
The Bargaining Problem, The Famous Solution of Nash, and Others
Thursday May 18, 2000 3 30 PM
BA 261
News Item: The biography of John Nash, "A Beautiful Mind", by Sylvia Nasar, is being made into a movie. It will be directed by Robert Redford, and Nash will be played by Tom Cruise. Nash won the Nobel Prize in Economics for his work in the theory of games. He is also said to have been a strong candidate for the Fields medal in Mathematics which was awarded in 1958. He spent about 20 years afflicted with Schizophrenia, from which he has now apparently recovered.
The Literary Group
begins a new year with the return visit of our first Ulm student
Georg Zimmermann
Speaking about
Hardy’s Theorem for the Short Time Fourier Transform
Thursday August 24, 2000 3 30 PM
BA 261
G. Hardy was a British mathematician in the early part of the 20th century. He disdained applied mathematics and loved pure and "useless" mathematics as much as he loved the game of Cricket. Many of his ideas are now important in Electrical Engineering. Leg Before Wicket is an offense, often caused by inattentiveness, which will get you called out.
A famous math Brit, playing cricket
Told applied mathematicians to stick it
In their ears, but they laughed last
Which made him so downcast
He was called out to Leg Before Wicket.
The Literary Group
Next hears from
Steve Hui
Speaking about
Broadcast Channel Capacity and Pedagogy
4 00 PM Friday Sept 22, 2000
BA 261
In your class, should you talk to the best,
And thus abandon the rest?
Or should you speak to the middle,
and maybe say much too little?
Steve’s ideas should be put to the test.
The Literary Group
Next hears from
Art Springer
who will expound on
Steenrod's Generalization of Euler's Formula exp(ix)=cos x + isin x
4 00 PM Friday Oct6, 2000
BA 261
I thought that I would never see
a number prettier than e.
But if you take it to the i
(multiplying first by pi),
then add one, behold and lo!
You wind up back with nil - zero!
The Literary Group
is honored to hear from
Steve Pierce
who will extemporize on
Nullspaces of Correlation Matrices
4 00 PM Friday Oct13, 2000
BA 261
You'd think there is nothing as dull
as a space which is known to be null.
But it helps tell the form
in Euclidean norm
of things like the set's convex hull.
The Literary Group
is next graced by the lecture of
Peter Salamon
who will talk about
Optimal Partitions for Asymptotically Vanishing Objectives
4 00 PM Friday Oct27, 2000
BA 261
Peter's trying to be economical
in a way that is quick and methodical.
But his goals keep receding,
no one knows where they're leading,
except they're heading for nought, asymptotical.
The Literary Group
next hears from
Antonio Palacios
speaking on
Heteroclinic Cycles in Systems of Differential Equations with Dihedral Symmetry
Case Study: Heartbeat of leeches
.Friday Nov. 3, 2000 4 00 PM BA 261
When it comes to affairs of the heart,
Science needs somewhere to start.
Even Life's lowly leeches
have plenty to teach us,
and to learn it you've got to be smart.
The Literary Group
will be subjected to
David Lesley
who will explain the connection between
Quasicircles and Snowflakes
Friday Nov. 10, 2000 4 00 PM BA 261
There once was a lad from El Paso
who fashioned an infinite lasso.
But here is the topper:
he made it from copper,
and then kept it shiny with Brasso.
The Literary Group
prepares to be thankful by hearing
Bob Grone
speak on the topic of
Fringe and Extremist Matrices
Friday Nov. 17, 2000 4 00 PM BA 261
Bob's matrices live on the edge,
while some are way out on a ledge.
So he hopes you're excited
that you've been invited,
you shouldn't go home and just vedge.
The Literary Group
hears from our newest colleague
Michael O'Sullivan
who will tell us about
Sudan's algorithm: Using knotty curves to decode algebraic geometry codes
Friday December 1, 2000 3 30 PM BA 261
Be sure to show up to observe
Mike show us a real naughty curve,
with which he'll decode
a James Joycean ode.
Let's hope that he'll not lose his nerve.
The Literary Group
opens the campus to hear
Milne Anderson
University College, London
expound on
An Application of Arakelian's Theorem to Harmonic Functions
Friday December 22, 2000 4 PM BA 261
The Literary Group
welcomes our new colleague
Brian Greer
who will speak about
Divining the captain's age:
The peculiar genre of word problems
Friday February 2 (Groundhog Day!)
3 30 PM BA 259
Consistently, research shows an apparent "suspension of sense making " in students' responses to word problems that putatively describe real world situations, in that realistic aspects of those situations are ignored. Such behaviour can be explained in terms of the "Word Problem Game" that is played by students and teachers, the fundamental rule of which is that word problems may be mapped unproblematically onto simple mathematical expressions, ignoring more subtle real life contextual considerations. This phenomenon is discussed in terms of the debate over the relationship between the real world and mathematics. A radical reconceptualization of word problems as exercises in mathematical modeling is advocated.
There once was a girl, name of Mary,
twice as old as her brother, named Barry.
His age was a tenth
of his auntie Hortense,
and hers was five times that of Mary.
The Literary Group
is visited by its prodigal son
Donald Lutz
who will pay
Homage to Cauchy
(or: an ode to a kernel from a colonel)
Friday March 23, 2001
3 00 PM BA 259
To the land of the vin and fromage
Don Lutz went to pay Cauchy homage.
For there, 'neath the grass and the dew,
lies Cauchy's long dead residue.
From the church on the hill came a dirge
as Don's spirit and Cauchy's converged.
The result of his pilgrimage, folks,
is Don's talk, and this sequence of jokes.
The Literary Group
next hears from
Mark Dunster
who will speak about
Charlier Polynomials
Friday April 13 (!!!)
3 30 PM BA 259
These marvelous functions of x
all of your expectations will vex.
They solve no Diff E Q,
and if that bothers you ...
Askey thinks that they're better than sex!
The Literary Group
welcomes our occasional visitor
Christian Schoen
who will speak about
A Random Close Packing Algorithm for the Modeling of Amorphous Solids
Thursday April 19
3 30 PM BA 259
When Christian is down in the dumps
He cheers up by thinking of lumps:
how they're randomly placed
in 3 dimensional space,
to form lots of hollows and humps.
The Literary Group
takes an economic turn with
Vladimir I. Rotar
who will speak
ON PORTFOLIO OPTIMIZATION IN THE LONG RUN
or: Some Remarks of One Mathematician about a Dispute Between Two Very Famous Economists.
330 PM BA 259
Friday May 11,2001
The Economist, John Maynard Keynes,
consorted with people of means
who wanted to know
the best portfolio,
of which Keynes had no means to know beans.
The Literary Group
welcomes a departmental alumnus
Dr. Jeff Allen
who will speak on
The H-Infinity Initiative at ONR:
Electric Circuits, Impedance Matching, and Hardy Spaces
330 PM BA 259
Friday May 18,2001
A mathematician named Hardy
to applied math would never be party.
But you'll never be sure
that math you thought pure
won't be stole by some double E smarty.
This is the End. My only Friend, the End.