Contributed Paper Sessions
Contributed Papers (PDF File)

There will be six contributed paper sessions and a student poster session (All sessions will take place on Saturday, April 4, 2009, time and place TBD). Submissions are currently being accepted for these sessions (deadline for abstract submission is March 11, 2009; see below for details). Inclusion of papers into special sessions is at the discretion of the session organizers. Speakers will have 15 minutes for the talk plus 5 minutes for questions.

Undergraduate Research
(Organizers: Donna Pierce and Michael Aristidou)
This session invites undergraduate student papers on current research or exposition in any field in mathematics, applied mathematics, or other topic which focuses on mathematical tools. Topics from any of the standard undergraduate courses are welcomed, as well as topics from other courses or projects in which mathematics has been applied. Students are expected to spend a portion of their talk explaining the origins of their project, the motivations behind it, as well as any insight that the project gave them in better understanding mathematics.

Mathematical Modeling in Biological and Environmental Sciences
(Organizers: Sergey Lapin and Elissa Schwartz)
Use of mathematical modeling is an important tool in interdisciplinary research and in biology and environmental sciences in particular. A broad range of complex biological phenomena can be efficiently simulated using computational mathematics, offering insights in cases where empirical biological experiments can be costly, time consuming, or simply impossible. The main goal of this special session is to discuss the advantages and challenges of employing mathematical modeling for analyzing biological problems. The broad range of topics that will be considered in this session include host-parasite interactions, viral dynamics and fitness, ecological and evolutionary mechanisms, and immunology.

Teaching and Research in Actuarial Science
(Organizer: Gary Parker)
Theme and topics: The session will consist of 4 to 6 talks on a variety of topics such as teaching main actuarial subjects and recent developments in the field. Examples of research topics to be presented include Markov-modulated risk models, non-homogeneous Poisson hidden Markov models for claims processes, risk ordering with actuarial applications, scenario reduction techniques, insurance and financial risks.

Learning to Prove: Motivation and Methods
(Organizer: Stephanie Salomone)
This session will deal with methods and motivation behind teaching students to write, read, and understand proofs. From discrete mathematics and other "bridge to upper division" courses, to modern algebra and real analysis, teaching students to create and value rigorous proofs is one cornerston of undergraduate mathematics. Papers should deal with methods to help students learn to prove and ways to motivate them to think critically.

Junior Faculty Research
(Organizers: Kathryn Temple and James Bisgard)
This session is intended to showcase pre-tenure faculty research and other work which has been completed primarily by non-tenured faculty who are early in their careers as mathematical researchers.

General Research Papers
(Organizer: Hans Nordstrom)
The goal of the general research session is to exhibit current research in pure and applied mathematics and mathematics education by faculty in the Northwest and by olleagues elsewhere. Mathematical papers on any topics of interest to section members are welcomed.

Student Poster Session
(Organizers: Donna Pierce and Michael Aristidou)
In concert with the student paper session, the intent of this session is to showcase undergraduate work in all its forms, including original research, senior theses, capstone projects, and other expository work on interesting, relevant, but not necessarily original, mathematics. Poster submissions are welcome from all fields of mathematics or on projects which have essential mathematical content.

Submitting an Abstract: Abstract should be e-mailed to nordstro@up.edu. The preferred format is LaTeX (.tex); Click on Abstract Template, for a template for submitting abstract in LaTeX format. Other formats (MS Word (.doc) or Portable document Format (.pdf) will be reformatted in LaTeX as faithfully as possible. The deadline for abstract submission is March 11, 2009.