Undergraduate Students 2021-22
Chair’s Prize Award
Michael Pieper and Ana Podariu
Chancellors Scholars (4.0 GPA in all courses)
Fall 2021: Elizabeth Griggs and Robyn MacDonald
Spring 2022: Samantha Bannister, Jackson Goddard, and Anthony Palmesano
Math Majors Graduated with Highest Distinction – Spring 2022
Shannyn Bird
Math Majors Graduated with High Distinction – Spring 2022
John Hsian Chao Ang, Samantha Bannister, Tomo Bessho, Ben Buckwalter, Jackson Goddard, Ray Huck, Zachary Kerkman, Vishnu Menon, Anthony Palmesano, Michael Pieper, David Scalzo, Daniel Schlautman, Luke Van Drie, and Ashley Zugay
Math Majors Graduated with Distinction – Spring 2022
Gabriel Adams, Collin Dougherty, Michael Hackett, Margaret Pollard, Sawyer Smith, and Andrew Wiedenmann
Math Majors Graduated with Honors – Spring 2022
Gabriel Adams, Shannyn Bird, Ben Buckwalter, Daryn Capps, Shelby Castle, Alexander Cathcart, Stanley Drvol, Katie Gerot, Hunter Godina, Colton Gronewold, Gregory Hubbard, Ray Huck, Zachary Kerkman, Natalia Koval, Vishnu Menon, Michael Pieper, David Scalzo, Steven Silgado, Sawyer Smith, Luke Van Drie, and Ashley Zugay
Math Majors Graduated in Spring 2022
Gabriel Adams, John Hsian Chao Ang, Michael Bania, Samantha Bannister, Wencheng Bao, Tomo Bessho, Shannyn Bird, Charlie Bonk, Ben Buckwalter, Jack Bydalek, Daryn Capps, Shelby Castle, Alexander Cathcart, Collin Dougherty, Mackenzie Doyle, Stanley Drvol, Katie Gerot, Jackson Goddard, Hunter Godina, Colton Gronewold, Michael Hackett, Aaron Hall, Riley Hayes, Gregory Hubbard, Ray Huck, Asmita Jayswal, Zachary Kerkman, Natalia Koval, Jadyn Larsen, Xavier Layman, Dawei Li, Kevin Lizik, Mohammad Majid, Stephanie Marsh, Vishnu Menon, Drew Merritt, Anthony Palmesano, Nhi Pham, Michael Pieper, Ana Podariu, Margaret Pollard, Jordan Pond, Roderick Riley, Jordan Rodriguez, Emma Rose, Spencer Salem, David Scalzo, Aleka Schlake, Daniel Schlautman, Benjamin Schweigert, Jarod Schwinck, Steven Silgado, Sawyer Smith, Kevin Snyder, Chaofan Song, Jackson Speer, Luke Van Drie, Tai Vo, WenTao Wang, Andrew Wiedenmann, Sonya Wu, Haodi Xu, Song Zheng, and Ashley Zugay
Math Majors Graduated with High Distinction– Fall 2021
Elizabeth Griggs, Ryan Lampe, and Robyn MacDonald
Math Majors Graduated with Honors – Fall 2021
Elizabeth Griggs, Utkarsh Hardia, Ryan Lampe, and Robyn MacDonald
Math Majors Graduated in Fall 2021
Mallak Al Mamari, Alexander Batelaan, Dinesh Budhathoki, Bryan Chavez, Clay Christenson, Elizabeth Griggs, Utkarsh Hardia, Laila Hasan, Yuwen Jin, Joseph Koetting, Ryan Lampe, Bowen Luo, Robyn MacDonald, Bhabishya Neupane, Josh Stallbaumer, Ran Ye, and Emily Zimmerman
Math Majors Graduated in Summer 2021
Lixin Cao, Hoong Kai Cheong, Calista Humphrey, Cameron Ramsey, Yihan Xiao, and Xiaoyang Li
Senior Honors and Distinction Theses (directed by)
Gabriel Adams (Alex Zupan, Math & Mark Brittenham, Math), Spring 2022
Shannyn Bird (Chi Zhang, Biochemistry & Rebecca Roston, Biochemistry), Spring 2022
Michael Pieper (Mikil Foss, Math & Petronela Radu, Math), Spring 2022
Sawyer Smith (Josh Brummer, Math & Amy Bennett, Math), Spring 2022
UCARE Awards and Undergraduate Research Participation (directed by)
Gabriel Adams (Alex Zupan & Mark Brittenham), 2021-22
Turner Blick (Alexandra Seceleanu), UCARE Summer 2021
Ronit Gandhi (Bo Deng & Clay Cressler), 2021-22
Anjaneshwar Ganesan (Petronela Radu), UCARE 2021-22
Michael Pieper (Mikil Foss), UCARE 2021-22
Ana Podariu (Yu Jin), Spring 2022
Sawyer Smith (Josh Brummer & Amy Bennett), 2021-22
Cleve Young (Yvonne Lai), Spring 2022
2021 Putnam Contest Participants
Andrew Cook, Ronit Gandhi, and Kolton O'Neal
2022 Mathematical Contest in Modeling (MCM)
Ronit Gandhi and Emily Kokesh
Pi Mu Epsilon — Inducted Spring 2022
Turner Blick, Philip Chohon, Hunter DeBoer, Kaitlin Keleher, Layla Montemayor, Danielle Oberpriller, and Kolton O'Neal
Department Scholarship Awards
67 scholarships were awarded for the 2021-22 academic year.
Irwin Dubinsky Memorial Scholarship in Mathematics
Morgan Brockner, Clay Christenson, and Yashaswi Mehra
Joel Stebbins Fund
Clay Christenson, Cole Johnson, Angeline Luther, and Garrett Mayer
Dean H. and Floreen G. Eastman Memorial Scholarships in Mathematics
Dakota Andrews, Lawand Anwer, Molly Arnold, Samantha Bannister, Alexander Batelaan, Ciara Baumert, Tomo Bessho, Turner Blick, Eylon Caplan, Collin Dougherty, Stanley Drvol, Zoe Engelbert, Grace Farson, Ronit Gandhi, Anjaneshwar Ganesan, Elizabeth Griggs, Josh Gromowsky, Sydney Gubbels, Samuel Kirchner, Emily Kokesh, Stephanie Marsh, Tyler McMann, Aleah Miller, Caitlin Murphy, Jack Murphy, Ray Nierman, Kolton O'Neal, Anthony Palmesano, Ken Pham, Michael Pieper, Ana Podariu, David Ryckman, Darin Schlautman, Spencer Schmidt, Simon Schoenbeck, Jarod Schwinck, Maggie Scott, Sara Vance, Nicholas White, and Cleve Young
Drusilla Winchester Scholarship
Yashaswi Mehra and Aleah Miller
Renneman/Luebbers Scholarship in Math
Anas Al Balushi, Elena Butler, Ritvik Handa, Garrett Mayer, and David Scalzo
Ruby Wittemore Fund
Ronit Gandhi
Dr. Huben Schneider Scholarship
Emma Dover
Sylvia & Hans Jeans Mathematics Scholarship
Alexander Cathcart, Cole Johnson, Angeline Luther, Kim Hao Nguyen, Tram Nguyen Gia, Luke Van Drie, Sarah Van Hare, and Cheyenne Warren
Linda Bors Mathematics Scholarship
Stephanie Marsh, Kira Mills, and Xin Wu
Graduate Students
Link to Ph.D. alumni
December 2021 Ph.D.:
Jesse Moeller, advised by Mark Brittenham and Alex Zupan, "Results on Goeritz groups and Farey Trisections," Space X
May 2022 Ph.Ds.:
Emily McMillon, advised by Christine Kelley "Theory and Design of Graph-Based Codes for Improved Iterative and Windowed Decoding," Rice University R.T.G. Lovett Instructor (Postdoc)
Hayley Olson, advised by Mikil Foss and Petronela Radu, "Mathematical analysis for nonlocal nonlinear diffusion models," Carnegie Mellon (Postdoc)
Adam Volk, advised by Jamie Radcliffe, "Extremal Problems in Graph Saturation and Covering," University of Notre Dame (Assistant Teaching Professor)
August 2022 Ph.Ds.:
Nicole Buczkowski, advised by Mikil Foss and Petronela Radu, "Continuous dependence of solutions to nonlocal systems with heterogeneous kernels of interaction," Worcester Polytechnic Institute (Postdoc)
Ash DeClerk, advised by Susan Hermiller
Egging, Paula, advised by George Avalos
Aurora Marks, advised by Mark Brittenham and Susan Hermiller, Northrup Grumman
Master's Degree Recipients:
May 2022, MA/MS: Ellyn Collier, Alex Heitzman, Maia Wichman
May 2022, MAT: Jenna McCleary, Sarah Murmann, An Ngoc Nguyen, Kristin Will
August 2022, MAT: Odalys Cruz, Kelly Glaser, Jordan Haag, Jackson Hinze, Michelle Kelsey, Sarah Kendeigh, Katherine Kisby, Kasuandra Kosberg, Abbi Kush, Kelli Larson, Trevor Leiting, Jared Oswald, Kelly Ottens, Brenda Perez, Christine Schroeder, Katie Sieck
Awards and Fellowships
Amy Bouska GTA Leadership Award
Matthew Bachmann
Linda Bors Fellowships
Laila Awadalla, Rachel Funk, Jake Kettinger
Graduate Research Fellowship for STEM Diversity (GFSD)
Kirsten Morris
Awards and Fellowships (continued)
Chancellors Graduate Fellowship
Reuben Kaufman
Walter Mientka Teaching Award
Johan Cristobal
Don Miller Award for Outstanding Teaching by a Graduate Student
Emily McMillon
Outstanding First Year Student
Jordan Crawford and Maia Wichman
Outstanding Qualifying Exam
Charles Chen
Bill Leavitt Award
Valerie Morris
Lloyd Jackson Award
Frank Zimmitti
Grace Chisholm Young and William Henry Young Fellowship
Nikola Kuzmanovski
Steven Haataja Award for Outstanding Exposition by a Graduate Student
Sara McKnight
Ben Nolting Award
Shah Roshan Zamir
College of Arts and Sciences Inclusive Excellence and Diversity Award; Office of Diversity and Inclusion Promising Leader Award
Kaitlin Tademy
2021-2022 AMS Officers
Brittany Johnson, President
Abbey Long, Secretary/Treasurer
2021-2022 Internships and Summer Schools
Nicole Buczkowski, Sandia National Lab, summer 2021 (Virtual)
Molly Creagar, MSGI Program at the USACE-ERDC Cold Regions Research and Engineering Lab
Audrey Goodnight, SCAMP at the Center for Computing Sciences, Summer 2021
Meraiah Martinez, Ernie Haigh Internship, Ocuvera, Summer 2021
Dylan McKnight, MSRI Recent Topics in Well Posedness Taipei, Taiwan, Summer 2022
Sara McKnight, Goddard Space Flight Center, Summer 2022 (Virtual)
Emily McMillon, MSRI Topological Methods for the Discrete Mathematician, Summer 2022
Nick Meyer, MSRI Summer Graduate School: Gauge Theory in Geometry and Topology, July 5-16 2021 (Virtual)
Hayley Olson, MSGI Program at Sandia National Lab, Summer 2021
Isabel Safarik, Los Alamos National Labs, Parallel Computing Summer Research Internship, Summer 2022
Jason Vander Woude, Sandia National Labs, Summer 2021
2021-2022 Internships and Summer Schools (continued)
Kathryn Van Etten, BRIDGES (Building Relationships for an Inclusive and Diverse Group of Emerging Students) Program, June 7-10, 2022, at University of Utah; EDGE (Enhancing Diversity in Graduate Education) Program Mentor, July 6-August 6, 2022, at Oxford University
Collin Victor, MSRI Recent Topics in Well Posedness Taipei, Taiwan, Summer 2022
Anh Vo, Oak Ridge National Laboratories, Summer 2021 (Virtual)
Anh Vo, MRSI Integral Equations and Applications, Summer 2022
Publications, Talks and Posters
Nicole Buczkowski, Poster: Stability of solutions to nonlocal models with respect to changes in data, in KUMUNU-ISU Lincoln, Nebraska October 2021; Poster: Continuous dependence for nonlocal models with respect to changes in data, in Prairie Analysis Seminar (Virtual) Manhattan, Kansas November 2021; Poster: Comparing and contrasting two nonlocal biharmonic operators, in Fall Central Sectional Meeting (Virtual) Omaha, Nebraska October 2021; Poster: Continuity with Respect to Data and Stability due to changes in parameters of Nonlocal Models, in 16th U.S. National Congress on Computational Mechanics (Virtual) Chicago July 2021; Poster: Solution sensitivity on data parameters for nonlocal systems, in AWM at SIAM (Virtual) July 2021
Emily McMillon, Talk: "Designing Spatially Coupled LDPC Codes by Optimizing Window Codes," Postgraduate International Coding Theory Seminar, July 2021; Talk: "Designing Graph-Based Codes for Window Decoding," SIAM Conference on Discrete Mathematics, Minisymposium on Graphs and Geometries, July 2021; Talk: "Online Versus In-Person Delivery: Exploring the Effects of Mastery Grading in a Geometry Course for Pre-Service Elementary Teachers," MAA Mathfest, Contributed Session on Alternative Assessments: Lessons from the Pandemic, Aug. 2021; Talk: "Spatially Coupled LDPC Codes with Cycle-Free Windows," Joint Math Meetings, Special Session on Advances in Coding Theory, Apr. 2022
Faculty and Staff
Promotion to Associate Professor with Tenure
Huijing Du
Tri Lai
Xavier Pérez Giménez
Fellow of the American Mathematical Society
Brian Harbourne
UNL Awards
College Distinguished Teaching Award
Huijing Du
College Outstanding Research and Creativity Award
Mark Walker
Hazel R. McClymont Distinguished Teaching Fellow Award
Allan Donsig
Applause Awards
Lindsay Augustyn, Marilyn Johnson, Brian O'Connell, Stephanie Vendetti
National Awards
Judy Walker, AAAS Fellow
New Faculty
Eloísa Grifo
New Post Docs
Emmanuel Barton-Erdo
Tejfol Pllaha
Chayu Yang
Family & Friends Recognition Awards (formerly known as the Parents' Recognition Award)
Tefjol Pllaha
Roger Wiegand Award
Eloísa Grifo
Jack Jeffries (Honorable Mention)
Retirements/Resignations
Mohammad Rammaha - 37 years
Steve Cohn - 33 years
Nathan Wakefield - 8 years
Faculty and Staff Members Serving for 0 (mod 5) Years, Awarded Fall 2021
Jim Lewis (50 years)
David Pitts (35 years)
Judy Walker (25 years)
Mark Walker (25 years)
Tom Danaher (25 years)
Bill Rogge (15 years)
Huijing Du (5 years)
Kevin Gonzales (5 years)
Tri Lai (5 years)
Xavier Perez Geminez (5 years)
In Memoriam
Nick Baeth (PhD 2005)
Thank you to Marilyn Johnson and Lindsay Augustyn for organizing the department’s 24th annual recognition event, noting accomplishments from June 2021 to May 2022.