Job Interviews

There are many ways you can prepare for a job interview.  Here are a few tips that are likely familiar and common sense.  Dress in a professional manner, even if your interview is conducted over the phone or a webcam.  On the other hand, make sure to dress in clothes in which you feel comfortable so you don't seem awkward.  Remember to smile.  A smile communicates friendliness and enthusiasm and makes you a more interested/interesting person.  This is true even for phone interviews.  Most importantly, mentally prepare responses to various questions and be able to deliver those responses in a natural, seemingly unrehearsed manner.

In the next few days MGB hopes to receive sample questions from some of our graduating students.  (Congratulations to all of you!)  Please leave a comment below with any interview advice you may have, especially common questions to expect or even those weird curveball questions that you have been asked.

AMS Central Section Meeting Poster Session

Dear All,

The University of Iowa will be hosting a poster session focused on

graduate student research during spring AMS Central Section Meeting. The

poster session is intended to provide the opportunity for students to
share and discuss their research with fellow graduate students and
professors. Undergraduates and recent Ph.D.’s are welcome to apply;
however, preference will be given to applicants who are currently
graduate students presenting original research.

The poster session is tentatively scheduled to begin at 6pm on Friday,

March 18, with the option for presenters to leave posters for

viewing through Sunday. The deadline for applications is February 18,

2011. For more information please email
stephen-welch (at) uiowa (dot) edu, or

visit the online application at:
http://math.uiowa.edu/MathGraduateBoard/index_files/posterapplication.html

Please spread the word to any graduate students

who may be attending the conference.

Best,

Stephen Welch

Congrats 2011 MGB Officers!

The polls have been closed: the votes, counted.

The elected Math Graduate Board officers for 2011 will be

Chair: Alina Florescu

Vice-Chair: Rebecca Gasper

General Liaison: Susie Brooks

International Student Liaison: Gerard Koffi

GAUSS Co-Chairs: Kai Tsuruta and Greg Ongie

Social Co-Chairs: Annette Honken and Jessica Williams

Newsletter Co-Chairs: Erik Insko and Tracie Michlin

Congratulations to the winners.  Thank you everyone that voted or ran for an office.

2011 MGB Officer Election

It's election time!  Vote for officers for 2011 at http://math.uiowa.edu/MathGraduateBoard/index_files/election.html
The deadline to cast your ballot is Thursday night 11:59 PM.
Alternatively, you may vote during the MGB Meeting Wednesday, Dec. 1 at 4:30 PM in the Muhly Lounge.

Voting, Pizza and Meeting this Wednesday

I hope you all had a wonderful break last week!

Wednesday, December 1, is a BIG day for MGB as there will be an election, pizza, and a meeting.

1. Starting Wednesday morning you will be able to vote for next year's Math Graduate Board officers.  Alternatively, you may vote during the general meeting at 4:30 in the Muhly Lounge.  The link to the online ballot will be sent Wednesday morning.  

2. We will be offering our usual Wednesday noon pizza in the Muhly Lounge.  Come grab a sector!

3. We will be having our monthly meeting at 4:30 Wednesday.  If you don't like the idea of voting online, you can submit a ballot at the meeting.

We will also be deciding how MGB fundraiser money should be allocated.

Here is a summary of the ballot:

For the offices which will have two winners, candidates are allowed to campaign together, but their names will not be attached in any way on the ballot.

Officer Duties can be found at http://math.uiowa.edu/MathGraduateBoard/index_files/officerinfo.html

\BEGIN{BALLOT}

CHAIR (Vote for 1)

Alina  Florescu

Rebecca  Gasper

VICE-CHAIR (Vote for 1)

Rebecca Gasper
*UPDATE: Carmen Wright has entered the race for Vice-Chair.

GENERAL LIAISON (Vote for 1)

Susie Brooks

Nick Teff

INTERNATIONAL LIAISON (Vote for 1)

Gerard Koffi

Hongqian "Cece" Wu

GAUSS CO-CHAIRS (Vote for 2)

Alex Berrian

Erik Insko

Greg Ongie

Nathan Salazar

Kai Tsuruta

Luke Wassink

Wela Yong

Boshi Yang

NEWSLETTER CO-CHAIRS (Vote for 2)

Erik Insko

Tracie Michlin

SOCIAL CO-CHAIRS (Vote for 2)

Annette Honken

Jeff Landgren

Juan Murillo

Dan Wackwitz

Jessica Williams

/END{BALLOT}

MGB Officer Nominations

The election of new officers is only two weeks away!  If you have been nominated for an office, please contact Andrew or Alina to accept/decline the nomination.  Office descriptions are available at http://math.uiowa.edu/MathGraduateBoard/index_files/officerinfo.html

GAUSS: The Shadowing Property onn the Unit Interval

Our GAUSS speaker this week is first year math graduate Alex Berrian,
and the title of his talk is "The Shadowing Property on the Unit
Interval."  Check the bottom of this e-mail for his abstract.  The
main point is this: Alex is going to be talking about analysis
research he did as an undergrad in an REU (Research Experience for
Undergraduates) program, but he would also like to spend some time
talking about REU programs.  If you are an undergrad math major then
you should come to GAUSS today to learn about REU programs.  We would
like to get you excited about these excellent opportunities to
Experience real mathematics Research.  If you are one of the many math
grads who at one point was in an REU or involved in an REU, you are
welcome to come join in the conversation.  The final category of
people who should attend are people who like analysis.  Snacks will be
provided.

Check http://math.uiowa.edu/~rkilgore/GAUSS.html for any and all
GAUSS-related news.  If you have any questions, comments, suggestions
concerning GAUSS feel free to e-mail me or Trent.

Your GAUSS co-organizers,
Ross and Trent


Speaker: Alex Berrian
Title: The Shadowing Property on the Unit Interval
Date time and location: Tuesday, November 16, 4:30 PM, 118 MLH

Abstract:

Try this with your TI-83 or similar calculator: Punch in .9 and hit
ENTER. Hit the Cosine button, and then hit ENTER. You get cos(.9),
which is about .62. Hit ENTER again, and you get cos(cos(.9)), which
is about .81. Now hit ENTER a whole lot of times. Eventually you'll
get a number close to .74. We call this process an iteration of the
function cos(x).  Try doing this again, but start with .1 instead.
Guess what? After a while, you get the same number! Do this with any
number between 0 and 1 and you will arrive at the same result. Cool,
right? But wait - the calculator must truncate its answer each time in
order to do its calculations. How do you know that the calculator's
result for the nth iteration of cos(x) is close to the actual value?
One way of characterizing the accuracy of such an iteration is called
the shadowing property, which cos(x) happens to satisfy on the closed
unit interval [0,1], but which some functions do not. I'll explain
research I did during a summer NSF REU program with two other students
that gives a condition for certain functions to satisfy the shadowing
property on [0,1]. Undergraduates who want to know what REU programs
are like, as well as people who enjoy Analysis like me, are very much
encouraged to attend!