2001 Banquet

The Annual Initiation and Awards Banquet was held Thursday, April 5, 2001 in the Executive Lounge and Dining Room of the Roaden University Center. Four Associate Members and two Members were initiated into Sigma Xi. They are:

Associate Members

Sampath K. Bommareddy
Yunxiang Chen
Soon-Deuk Jeung
P. Jason Williams

Members

Gholam R. Tajali
Lenly J. Weathers

For pictures taken during and after the initiation ceremony, please click here. Information on award presentations and Sigma Xi Lectures are given below.

Our annual Research Award was presented to Dr. Mohamed Abdelrahman, Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, for his paper "A Methodology for Development of Configurable Remote Access Measurement System," published in ISA Transactions.

Dr. Abdelrahman (left) receiving the Research Award from Dr. Ali Alouani, Chair of the Award Committee

Our newly established Science and Engineering Fair Award was presented to Mr. Andrew Semmes of Cookeville High School (CHS), for his project, "Mathematical Modeling of Disease: When Should Putnam County Schools be Closed due to Illness?". A plaque was presented to Mr. Semmes, and like plaque to be displayed at CHS was presented to his science teacher, Mr. Dennis Tennant.

Andrew Semmes (left) receiving the Science and Engineering Fair Award from Dr. Raymond Kozub, Chapter President. Mr. Tennant (right) accepts a like plaque on behalf of Cookeville High School.

Also honored this evening were past presidents of the TTU Chapter S. K. Ballal and Pritindra Chowdhuri, who were given Certificates of Recognition.

S. K. Ballal (left) and Pritindra Chowdhuri receiving their Certificates of Recognition

Visiting our Chapter on this day was the Sigma Xi Distinguished Lecturer, Dr. Ronald E. Mickens, Distinguished Fuller E. Callaway Professor of Physics at Clark Atlanta University. Dr. Mickens received his Ph.D. in theoretical physics from Vanderbilt University and has held postdoctoral positions at the Center for Theoretical Physics-MIT, The Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics, and Vanderbilt University. His current research interests include nonlinear oscillations, difference equations, numerical integration of differential equations using nonstandard finite difference schemes, mathematical modeling of periodic diseases, and the history/sociology of African Americans in science. He has published more than 200 research papers, written five books, and edited five volumes. Professor Mickens serves on the editorial boards of several research journals including the Journal of Difference Equations and Applications. His professional memberships include AAAS, the American Mathematical Society, the American Physical Society (for which he is an elected Fellow), the National Society of Black Physicists and the Society for Mathematical Biology.

The topic of Professor Mickens' first lecture on April 5 was The Level Structure of Matter:

Abstract

Science is possible because the various phenomena of the physical universe, to a very good approximation, can be compartmentalized. Thus, phenomena in a given compartment can be studied essentially independently of those in other compartments. These compartments are generally conceptual in nature and are associated with particular space and time scales. The main purpose of this lecture is to indicate how the important properties of various levels arise from the four basic interactions: gravity, electromagnetism, weak, and nuclear. Extensive application of elementary dimensional analysis is used to obtain these results.

That evening, he spoke at the banquet on Toy Models for the Spread of Periodic Diseases:

Abstract

In a recent paper, Shulgin et al. [1] constructed a mathematical model to study a "pulse" vaccination strategy for the eradication of measles. They formulate their work within the framework of a continuous SIR epidemic model. They demonstrate theoretically, under various assumptions, that pulse vaccination can lead to eradication of measles epidemics. We examine some of these same issues within the framework of a discrete model based on the work of Anderson and May [2,3].

References

[1.] Boris Shulgin et al., Bulletin of Mathematical Biology 60 (1998), 123-1148.
[2.] Roy Anderson and Robert May, New Scientist 96 (1982), 410-415.
[3.] Ronald E. Mickens, Jamie C. Pleasant, and Keithia Simpson, Mathematical Modelling and Scientific Computing 2 (1993), 690-693.

Professor Mickens at work.