SUMMER 1999

Johnny Brown Receives Murphy Award

Message from the Head

1999 Distinguished Alumnus

1998-1999 "In Review"

Graduate Student News
Student Awarded Special Fellowship
Students Honored for Teaching Excellence
Student Profile - Nathanial P. Brown
Graduate Program in Review
Department Adopts New Qualifier System


Nancy Eberle Recognized for Service to Department

1998-1999 Undergraduate Awards

Mathematics Professors Honored

McClure Named 1999 School of Science Outstanding Teacher

Conferences Set

Math Club

Web Site Award

An Elephant Problem

DC Alumni Reception

Editors and Contributors

Purdue

Math PUrview Home Page

Math Department Home Page
Graduate Student News:
Graduate Program in Review

The qualifying exam system was substantially revised, with changes to take effect with the August 1999 exams (for details, read Steve Bell's account at right). The changes are intended to make advancement to candidacy less stressful, more flexible, and more efficient while maintaining the emphasis on the mastery of the broad areas of mathematics all Ph.D. students need. This should shorten the time to degree for students in our program and make us more competitive in recruiting new students.

Again this year, the Graduate Committee organized a recruiting weekend in March for applicants who had been accepted for admission in fall 1999. This has been an important and useful part of our efforts to attract domestic graduate students.

In 1999, U.S. News and World Report announced rankings of the top Mathematics graduate programs. Purdue's Mathematics graduate program was ranked 25th overall, consistent with the NRC ranking (24th) from 1993. Purdue's program in Mathematical Statistics was ranked 7th; while mostly a reflection of the Statistics Department's excellence, this partly reflects the very strong faculty in probability in the School. (Professors Bañuelos, Davis, Lalley, Ma, Protter, and Samuels are all or partly in Mathematics.)

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