Each fall, the Purdue University Department of Mathematics and College of Science recognize outstanding Purdue alumni. Alex Himonas, Professor of Mathematics at the University of Notre Dame, is the 2009 Outstanding Mathematics Alumnus.

Himonas received his Ph.D. in Mathematics in 1985 under the direction of Salah Baouendi. Himonas is interested in the regularity of solutions to linear partial differential equations (PDE), and in the Cauchy problem for nonlinear evolution equations. His earlier work concentrated on the microlocal analytic regularity of the solutions to principal type PDE with analytic coefficients. More recently, he is working on the regularity theory (analytic, smooth) for degenerate elliptic PDE, in particular PDE that are sums of squares of vector fields. In non-linear PDE, he is working on the well-posedness of the initial value problem for evolution equations.
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Assistant Professor of Physics Jay Christopher Howk has been appointed to the Science and Technology Advisory Committee (STC) for the Large Binocular Telescope Project (LBT). The LBT is a $200 million telescope in southern Arizona, and the largest telescope on a single mount in the world. The LBT project is an international collaboration between Germany, Italy, University of Arizona, The Ohio State University, University of Notre Dame and other US institutions.…

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The National Science Foundation (NSF) and its German counterpart, the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), have awarded a multidisciplinary collaborative research grant to the University of Notre Dame and German research partners. With this award, the Organic and Macromolecular Chemistry Program of the NSF is supporting the research of Richard Taylor, professor of Chemistry & Biochemistry and associate dean for research in the College of Science.…

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Alexander Hahn, a professor of mathematics who recently ended a seven-year term as director of the Kaneb Center for Teaching and Learning, has been appointed to the Advisory Board of the Center for Teaching and Learning of the University of Vienna.

Hahn says that European universities are currently engaged in a wide ranging restructuring of their entire approach to higher education within the so-called Bologna Process. It is the two-fold aim of these reforms to create compatible and continent-wide curricula, credit hour systems, and degree programs and at the same time to promote student centered, technology enhanced instruction. The CTL Vienna is charged by the president of the university to lead this effort at the University of Vienna.…

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A paper by Michael Wiescher published in the American Physical Society’s Physics journal recently traces development in research on nuclear reactions that happen in stars. The article titled “Cosmic alchemy in the laboratory” covers both theoretical and experimental advances in the field, as well as a discussion of the role of such reactions in creating the variety of physical elements. Wiescher is the Freimann Chair of Physics, Director of the Nuclear Science Laboratory and Director of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Astrophysics.
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