UMKC Department of Mathematics and Statistics What's New News and Events Department

What's New
about the Department?

[Department Publicity, Professional News & Events,
Graduate Programs, Course News,
Faculty News (Honors, Grants, Accomplishments, etc.)]


2013 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008	2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003

Department Retention or Recruitment Events
Graduate Seminar Series
(Fall and Spring only)

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2013

January 2013: We are pleased to welcome this Spring to our department a new Mathematician, Naveen Vaidya, as an Assistant Professor. Follow his link to read about his strong applied background. Also, this calendar year 2013, current faculty member and Chair Jie Chen will be on leave. Eric Hall will stand in as Interim Chair for 2013.

2012

August 2012: We are pleased to welcome this Fall to our department a new Mathematician, Majid Bani-Yaghoub, as an Assistant Professor, and a Visiting Assistant Professor, statistician Donghui Yan. Follow their links to read about their strong and very different backgrounds. Also, this year 2012-2013, current faculty member Liana Sega will be on leave.
4 May 2012: We hear that Dr. Yong Zeng has been promoted to Professor, starting September 1. Congratulations, Yong!
April 2012: Our colleague Becky Roberts, who has been a member of this department for 28 years, retires this month. During those years she won the Dean's Award for Outstanding Teaching. In addition to her teaching duties, she has been our HSCP Coordinator, our College Algebra Coordinator, and worked hard this past year on the new Course Redesign for College Algebra (See February 2012 below.) We will miss her steady and constant presence.
February 2012: Our department has embarked upon a major Course Redesign for College Algebra (Math 110) piloting this Spring semester, and being fully implemented in Fall 2012.
Rationale for Course Redesign:
UMKC's recent involvement in the national Access 2 Success Initiative revealed that students who enrolled and successfully completed college-level math during their first year are more likely to be retained for their sophomore year. Students' success in Math 110 - College Algebra is crucial to UMKC's retention of students and progress toward degree completion.

According to the National Center for Academic Transformation (NCAT), redesigned courses have high student success rates and demonstrate increased efficiencies in course delivery. At UMKC, we place students' success at the center as the first goal in our university strategic plan; therefore, the redesigned course is planned according to this goal.

Key Features of Course Redesign to Increase Student Learning:
- Increased time for students to "do" math rather than listening to lectures about math
- Increased assessment of student learning with specific feedback about learning performance
- Increased amount of feedback on learning and decreases time to receive feedback on student learning performance
- Increased opportunity to work with peers during the learning process
- On demand learning support in a lab environment designed to address individualized learning challenges
Course redesign for Math 110 is based on the emporium model. See NCAT's website.
10 February 2012: We hold our first "RooMath 2012" Recruitment Event, 8:15-12:00 noon in Royall, Haag, and Flarsheim Halls. See Photos. About 100 students from Kearney High School, Southwest Early College Campus, and Winnetonka High School attended. Events included five presentations on Careers in Statistics, Careers in Mathematics or Applied Mathematics, Cryptography, The Monty Hall Problem, and a Mini Math Video Fest, followed by pizza in Royall 111.

2011

28 October 2011: We hold our first "Fall Math Open" Recruitment/Retention Event, 4:30-6:30 pm at the Chancellor's Residence. See Photos and Flyer. Students in undergraduate mathematics and statistics classes at UMKC from Math 210 Calculus I on up were invited. Events included food, door prizes, a career area, a math contest, and a demonstration of how to carve a pumpkin into a dodecahedron.
30 August 2011: We are pleased to welcome this Fall to our department three new non-tenure-track faculty as Lecturers: Naeem Ahmad, Swati DebRoy, and Stephanie Van Rhein. Follow their links to read about their strong and very different backgrounds.
1 August 2011: Dr. Eric Hall will be spending most of the Fall 2011 semester at the University of the Aegean in Greece, on the island of Samos, working with colleagues Kyriakos Keremedis and Eleftherios Tachtsis on research on ultrafilters and other areas of set theory. Eric will also visit Saharon Shelah in Jerusalem, working on models of ZFA set theory without the axiom of choice.
August 2011: Dr. Liana Sega has been awarded two separate research grants. The first grant is from the Simons Foundation "Simons Collaboration Grants for Mathematicians" program for 5 years at $7,000 annually, to be used for travel and inviting collaborators. [However, she will only be able to keep it for one year, since it is incompatible with federal funding - see below.] The second grant is for 2011-2014 from the National Science Foundation (NSF) in the amount of $85,843 for her proposal "Homological Behavior of Modules over Commutative Local Rings".
August 2011: Assistant Professor Ian Besse and full-time Lecturer Rebecca Roberts of our Department have worked diligently to redesign Math 110 College Algebra in response to the Missouri Course Redesign Initiative. The Course Redesign proposal was selected by the National Center for Academic Transformation (NCAT) this Summer 2011, and course redesign effort has been supported by the course redesign team, led by Dr. Ian Besse (with other members from the entire university: Rebecca Roberts, Jie Chen, Rita Barger, Molly Mead, Cindy Amyot, Andy Goodenow, and Cindy Pemberton). The redesigned course will be offered in Spring 2012 by Rebecca Roberts as a pilot course and the full implementation of the redesigned Math 110 will be offered by Ian Besse in Fall 2012. For more information about Course Redesign at UMKC, please visit: UMKC Course Redesign.
16 May 2011: We learn that statistician Dr. Tom Fisher has received a research grant from the University of Missouri System Research Board (UMRB) for his project titled "New Multivariate Techniques in Time Series Analysis and Forecast".
11 May 2011: Drs. Jie Chen, Tom Fisher, and Yong Zeng hosted the Kearney High School AP Statistics class field trip to visit our department and the UMKC campus. During the visit, Drs. Chen, Fisher, and Zeng shared their experiences with the high school students about what and how one can advance his or her career in Statistics.
9 May 2011: We hear that Dr. Liana Sega has been promoted to Associate Professor with tenure, and Dr. Noah Rhee has been promoted to Professor, both starting September 1. Congratulations, Liana and Noah!
18 January 2011: We learn that statistician Yong Zeng received a UM System Research Board grant for $24,700, titled "Statistical Inference for Marked Point Processes and Related Topics".

2010

22 & 28 October 2010: Emeritus Professor G. Phil Barker delivered two invited talks, entitled Graphs and Cone-Preserving Maps and Lattices of Faces of a Finite-Dimensional Cone at a workshop held in the Istanbul Center for Mathematical Sciences of Bogazici University in Turkey. This workshop was sponsored by the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK).
30 August 2010: We are pleased to welcome this Fall to our department a new Mathematician, Ian Besse, as an Assistant Professor, and a new Statistician Tom Fisher also as an Assistant Professor. Follow their links to read about their strong and very different backgrounds.
26 January 2010: Dr. Jie Chen has been awarded a research grant by the Children's Mercy Hospitals and Clinics (CMHC) of Kansas City to collaborate with the PI, Dr. Douglas Bittel, a geneticist of CMHC for a project funded by the Kansas City Area Life Science Research Institute from 1 December 2009 to 30 November 2010.

2009

21 August 2009: We hear that both Dr. Eric Hall and Dr. Hristo Voulov have earned tenure and been promoted to Associate Professor. Congratulations, Eric and Hristo!
August 2009: We hire Dr. Fanglong Dong as a Visiting Assistant Professor for the 2009-2010 academic year. Welcome!
11 May 2009: Dr. Jie Chen has been awarded a research grant by the University of Missouri System's Regents Board (UMRB) to conduct research in statistical genetics from 11 May 2009 to 10 May 2010.
May 2009: Entire video courses of College Algebra and Calculus I are now posted at UMKC's YouTube EDU channel.

2008

18 July 2008: We hire Dr. Miron Bekker as a Visiting Assistant Professor for the 2008-2009 academic year. Welcome, Miron!
July 2008: Dr. Kamel Rekab received a grant for $10,000 from the Johnson County Sheriff's Office.
30 May 2008: We hear that Dr. Jie Chen is promoted to Full Professor. Congratulations, Jie!
28 April 2008: The department had its Chair election this month, and Dr. Jie Chen was elected Chair. She was then approved by the Dean who recommended her to the Provost, who in turn appointed Dr. Chen for a three-year term starting July 1. Congratulations, Jie! We are grateful to and wholeheartedly thank Dr. Peng for his excellent work as Interim Chair this past year.

2007

27 August 2007: Dean Karen Vorst joined us at our department Faculty Meeting in an informative visit, to see us all face-to-face as well as tell us about updates to the College budget model. Ours was the first department she chose to visit this year.
1 July 2007: The College of Arts and Sciences Dean appoints, as Interim Chair of the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Zhonghua "Josh" Peng, UMKC Professor of Chemistry.
30 May - 1 June 2007: Dr. Liana Sega was invited to and participated in a workshop at the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute of Berkeley, CA, titled "Critical Issues in Education: Teaching Teachers Mathematics".
20-23 May 2007: Dr. Kamel Rekab traveled to Shanghai, China to give two talks (concerning work co-authored with Dr. Xin Yan) on interdisciplinary mathematical and statistical techniques.
5 April 2007: Dr. Kamel Rekab was elected the 2007-2008 President of the Kansas Western-Missouri chapter of the ASA (American Statistical Association) at their Spring Meeting in Manhattan, KS.

2006

16 October 2006: For the first time in the history of our department, we are pleased to host the 2006 Fall Meeting of the Kansas Western-Missouri Chapter of the ASA (American Statistical Association). Our Chair Dr. Kamel Rekab is currently the Vice President of the chapter. At dinner the speaker Dr. Morgan C. Wang of the Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science at the University of Central Florida discussed Maxiumum Likelihood Regression Trees. Members attended from:

Quintiles, Pittsburg State University, EMB Statistical Solutions, Kansas State University, Hallmark, University of Kansas Medical Center, H&R Block, PRA International, AAFP, Commerce Bank, Midwest Research Institute, UMKC, and elsewhere.
25 September 2006: Dean Karen Vorst joined us at our department Faculty Meeting in an informative visit, to see us all face-to-face as well as tell us about upcoming changes to the College budget model.
11 August 2006: We are pleased to welcome this Fall to our department two new Biostatisticians, Xin Yan, as an Associate Professor, and Mark Gamalo as an Assistant Professor. Follow their links to read about their strong and very different backgrounds. We also welcome for the 2006-2007 academic year, Visiting Professor Venkatesulu Mandadi from India, whose field is Differential Equations.
12 July 2006: On Wednesday July 26 from 3:00-4:30 pm in Royall Hall 206 we'll hold our third annual Orientation gathering for all Adjunct Lecturers and Graduate Teaching Assistants teaching in the department during Fall 2006. In addition to distributing general and specific information about department policies and the courses they will teach, and just getting to know them, we invite guests from the Math Resource Center and Arts & Sciences Academic Advising. [For a complete listing of mathematics courses and instructor assignments for Fall 2006 see Current Semester Course Schedules.] As a department we continue this annual meeting to encourage from our entire "extended" faculty consistency and a high quality of teaching in all our courses.
9 May 2006: Over this semester, we have completely re-written both our Master of Science (MS) degree program, with concentration in either Mathematics or in Statistics, and our IPhD degree program effective Fall 2006.
27 April 2006: Our Chair Dr. Kamel Rekab, is elected Vice President of the Kansas Western-Missouri chapter of the ASA (American Statistical Association) at their Spring Meeting in Manhattan, KS.
April 2006: The new, mandatory "Mathematics Entrance Tests" written by our department on the Blackboard program for Math 110 (College Algebra), Math 206 (Brief Calculus and Matrix Algebra), and Math 210 (Calculus I) begin to be taken by Summer 2006 students, and students preparing for Fall 2006.
24 April to 2 May 2006: Our department is featured a second time on the UMKC home page with a slide show and press release about our recent work with the School of Education in creating "Mathematics for Teachers" courses.
15 April 2006: Our department is featured on the UMKC home page with a photograph of our Chair Kamel Rekab and an article outlining the progress we have made in the last two years. Take a look!
April 2006: We hear that full-time faculty member and statistician Yong Zeng has been awarded an NSF grant for three years beginning June 1, for a project entitled "Statistical Analyisis of the Filtering Models with Marked Point Process Observations: Applications to Ultra-High Frequency Data." The "data" referred to is financial trade-by-trade (or transaction) data, and this project can have important economic applications. Congratulations Yong!
1 February 2006: Go to our Summer 2006 Schedule of Mathematics and Statistics classes to see our offerings this summer. Pass the word! In addition to the usual sections of Math 110 - College Algebra, the Calculus I, II, III sequence (Math 210, Math 220, Math 250), Math 206 - Brief Calculus and Matrix Algebra, and Math 235 - Elementary Statistics,

Summer 2006 Highlights:
- Math 590 - Statistical Design of Experiments New Course! Only 5 weeks
- Math 517 - Matrix Theory I First time offered in Summer!
  
  Undergraduate courses
- Math 345 - Ordinary Differential Equations New evening time! (MTWR, 6:00-7:50 pm)
- Math 116 - Mathematics for Liberal Arts Two sections, evening times! (MW or TR, 6:00-8:45 pm)
- Math 120 - Precalculus (Are you prepared for Calculus I in the Fall?)
- Math 130 - Mathematics for Teachers: Number Systems
18 January 2006: Our Department Graduate Committee makes extensive (and exciting) revisions to our Master of Science (MS) degree program, with concentration in either Mathematics or in Statistics, effective Fall 2006. Our graduate program continues to evolve to meet the needs of our students and the community!

2005

12 December 2005: Our Department is pleased to host a visit from
- Interim Chancellor Stephen Lehmkuhle, and
- Interim Dean of Arts and Sciences Charles Wurrey.
We showcase our department with an online Presentation (Microsoft PowerPoint).
1 December 2005: Both Kamel Rekab and Liana Sega are approved as Doctoral Faculty in the Department.
29 November 2005: Our Department Graduate Faculty decide that effective immediately
No comprehensive Master's Examination will be required
to earn a Master's Degree with concentration in Mathematics or Statistics.
October 2005: Our new Chair Dr. Rekab has recently been invited to be a Coordinating Editor for the Journal of Probability and Statistical Science (A Comprehensive Journal of Probability and Statistics for Theorists, Methodologists, Practitioners, Teachers, and Others). Dr. Chen is already an Associate Editor for this journal.
September 2005: To celebrate the open status of our Graduate Program, we announce a new Graduate Seminar Series, featuring (this semester) faculty from within our department. Everyone is welcome.
August 2005: We are now accepting I.Ph.D. applications as both a Coordinating Discipline, and as a Co-Discipline. For more information, contact our Graduate Advisor/Coordinator Dr. Chen.
27 July 2005: We hold our second annual gathering for all Part-time Lecturers and Graduate Teaching Assistants teaching in the department during Fall 2005. Of the 17 Part-time Lecturers hired for Fall, 13 are able to attend, along with some full-time faculty of the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, 5 of our 6 Graduate Teaching Assistants, our Interim Chair Bruce Bubacz, and Administrative Assistant Tanya Henderson. In addition to distributing to our Part-time Lecturers and GTAs general and specific information about department policies and the courses they will teach, and just getting to know them, we invite guests from the Math Resource Center, Supplemental Instruction, and Arts & Sciences Academic Advising to address them. For a complete listing of mathematics courses and instructor assignments for Fall 2005 see Current Semester Course Schedules. As a department we continue this annual meeting to encourage from our entire "extended" faculty consistency and a high quality of teaching in all our courses.
July 2005: We launch the first set of Mathematics Entrance Tests in the history of our department. These tests are offered online through the Blackboard program for any student admitted to UMKC. We are still working out details with academic advisors on campus, but generally intend these tests, starting with the Summer 2006 semester, to be a requirement for enrollment in any of the courses: Math 110 (College Algebra), Math 160 (Brief Calculus & Matrix Algebra), and Math 210 (Calculus I). For complete information see Mathematics Entrance Tests. These tests continue to be designed, written, and implemented by the department Mathematics Entrance Test Committee. We thank Mary Crosson of the UMKC Blackboard Support Team for her exceptional assistance as we continue to learn to work with Blackboard. We also thank as well everyone who reviewed and offered valuable comments about the tests and their associated webpages.
28 April 2005: We hear the good news that statistician Yong Zeng has earned tenure and promotion to the rank of Associate Professor beginning September 2005. Congratulations, Yong!
30 March 2005: With the signing of our two new full-time faculty members, Liana Sega and Kamel Rekab, our Graduate Program is now OPEN for Fall 2005! Applications for graduate school as well as for GTAs (Graduate Teaching Assistant) positions will now be accepted for Fall 2005.
30 March 2005: We hear the good news that Kamel Rekab has accepted our offer to join the Department of Mathematics and Statistics as a Professor, starting Fall 2005. His field is Statistics, with many interdisciplinary connections, and he will initially serve a 3-year term as Department Chair. Kamel is enthusiastic about joining us and will be a welcome addition to our faculty, as well as a strong advocate for our growing Department. Welcome, Kamel! Now, we are nine.
11 March 2005: We hear the good news that Liana Sega has accepted our offer to join the Department of Mathematics and Statistics as a new Assistant Professor, starting Fall 2005. She will bring her enthusiasm and impressive expertise in Algebra, making us now a group of eight. Welcome, Liana!
13 January 2005: We distribute to all students of Math 160 ("Business Calculus"), a Letter written by the Bloch School of Business and Public Administration to encourage students that this course is essential to their future education, especially in business.
11 January 2005: We distribute the first edition of our Advisor Information Document to Advisors in the School of Arts and Sciences, the School of Biological Sciences, the School of Education, the School of Computing and Engineering, the School of Pharmacy, and the Bloch School of Business and Public Administration. This is part of our continuing effort to provide the UMKC community information about our courses beyond brief catalog descriptions.

2004

13 December 2004: We submit a 2004 Progress Report to the Dean of Arts and Sciences.
7 December 2004: We hear that full-time faculty member and statistician Jie Chen has been awarded an NSF grant for the Winter 2005 semester and beyond: "The National Science Foundation hereby awards a grant of $90,548 to the PI (Principal Investigator): Jie Chen with this project entitled "Statistical Approaches to the Analysis of Genome-wide Measurements: Significance of Periodic Gene Expression and Correlations of Gene Content in Completely Sequenced Genomes." This award is effective December 15, 2004 and expires November 30, 2005. During the Fall 2004 semester Jie has been spending her time at the Stowers Institute in Kansas City on a Development Leave.
3 December 2004: The Arts and Sciences Curriculum Committee approves many changes and improvements to our undergraduate mathematics courses, and in particular approves 2 more new courses for the mathematical education of teachers to be gradually offered starting in 2006: Math 234 (Mathematics for Teachers: Probability and Statistics), and Math 244 (Mathematics for Teachers: Calculus). For current offerings, see Current Semester Course Schedules.
15 November 2004: The new Mathematics Advisory Board formed by invitation from the Department of Mathematics and Statistics meets for the first time. The Board's purpose is to be a conduit to other Schools and Departments of UMKC, and to be available to provide valuable advice when requested. We are very pleased they agreed to participate. The present Board consists of:

Rita Barger, School of Education
Deb Chatterjee, School of Computing and Engineering
Stephen DeLurgio, Bloch School of Business and Public Administration
Richard Murphy, Department of Physics, School of Arts and Sciences
Charles Wurrey, Associate Dean, School of Arts and Sciences
Marilyn Yoder, School of Biological Sciences
5 November 2004: The Arts and Sciences Curriculum Committee approves many changes and improvements to our undergraduate mathematics courses, and in particular approves 5 new courses for the mathematical education of teachers to be gradually offered starting in 2006: Math 204 (Mathematics for Teachers: Mathematical Immersion), Math 214 (Mathematics for Teachers: Algebra), Math 224 (Mathematics for Teachers: Geometry), Math 414 (Mathematics for Secondary Teachers: Algebra and Analysis), and Math 424 (Mathematics for Secondary Teachers: Geometry). For current offerings, see Current Semester Course Schedules.
30 October 2004: Full-time faculty member and statistician Yong Zeng is quoted in a Kansas City Star article by James A. Fussell on page A-1, about whether the winning record of the Washington professional football team in its last home game before the election accurately predicts the presidential winner, especially since it has done so since 1936. The article goes on to say: "The odds of one team correctly predicting the winner 17 times in a row? Not good, said Yong Zeng, a statistics professor at the University of Missouri - Kansas City. Try less than eight in a million. "Of course, this has no bearing on the current election," Yong cautioned. "We're just having fun." ".
September 2004: We receive approval to hire two new full-time faculty members to start employment in Fall 2005, one of whom will begin with a 3-year term as Chair. We plan to form a search committee, gather applications this Fall and eventually invite some candidates to speak here during Winter 2005, by the end of which a decision will be made. These two new hires would bring us up to 9 full-time members of the department.
28 July 2004: We hold our first ever gathering for all Part-time Lecturers teaching in the department during Fall 2004. Of the 16 Part-time Lecturers hired for Fall, 14 are able to attend, and all members of the "new" Department of Mathematics and Statistics (consisting of the remaining 7 of us full-time faculty) as well as our Interim Chair Bruce Bubacz, administrative assistant Tanya Henderson, and 5 Graduate Teaching Assistants are also present. In addition to distributing to our Part-time Lecturers general and specific information about department policies and the courses they will teach, and just getting to know them, we invite guests from the Math Resource Center, Supplemental Instruction, and Arts & Sciences Academic Advising to address them. For a complete listing of mathematics courses and instructor assignments for Fall 2004 see Current Semester Course Schedules. As a department we initiated this meeting to encourage from our entire "extended" faculty consistency and a high quality of teaching in all our courses.
8 July 2004: Members of the "new" Department of Mathematics and Statistics (consisting of the remaining 7 of us full-time faculty) meet with faculty, advisors, an associate Dean, and an assistant Dean from the Bloch School of Business and Public Administration to discuss Math 160 ("Business Calculus") and our other undergraduate course offerings, and how we might modify old courses or create new ones, re-arrange our scheduling, and so on, in order to better meet their needs. The meeting is welcomed and generates many ideas.
30 June 2004: Full-time faculty member Rebecca Roberts takes on the role of GTA (Graduate Teaching Assistant) Supervisor. She will supervise, train, and mentor our 5 current GTAs. Becky is the recent recipient of the 2004 Dean's Outstanding Teaching Award for Non-Regular Faculty.
June 2004: Full-time faculty member and senior statistician Jie Chen has been granted a Development Leave for the 2004-2005 academic year. During the Fall 2004 semester she will be spending her time at the Stowers Institute in Kansas City. The purpose of such a leave is "to free faculty members from their normal University duties to pursue scholarly interests full-time and maintain their professional standing so that they may return to the University with renewed vigor, perspectives, and insights."
22 June 2004: We hear the good news that full-time faculty member Rebecca Roberts is the recipient of the 2004 Dean's Outstanding Teaching Award for Non-Regular Faculty. She will be honored at the College of Arts & Sciences Convocation on August 26. For her 20+ years of dedicated and exemplary teaching we say congratulations, Becky!
18 June 2004: Members of the "new" Department of Mathematics and Statistics (consisting of the remaining 7 of us full-time faculty) meet with faculty from Business, Computer Science, and Civil Engineering to discuss our undergraduate statistics offerings (Math 235, Math 436, Math 441) and how we might modify old courses or create new ones, re-arrange our scheduling, and so on, in order to better meet their needs. The meeting is welcomed and generates many ideas.
10 June 2004: Members of the "new" Department of Mathematics and Statistics (consisting of the remaining 7 of us full-time faculty) meet with the Dean and faculty from the School of Computing and Engineering to discuss our undergraduate course offerings and how we might modify old courses or create new ones, re-arrange our scheduling, and so on, in order to better meet their needs. The meeting is welcomed and generates many ideas.
21 May 2004: Members of the "new" Department of Mathematics and Statistics (consisting of the remaining 7 of us full-time faculty) meet with the staff of the Center for Academic Development to discuss a closer relationship with the Math Resource Center, how we might work together more efficiently and expand our tutorial support for undergraduate students of mathematics. The meeting is welcomed and generates many ideas.
7 May 2004: Members of the "new" Department of Mathematics and Statistics (consisting of the remaining 7 of us full-time faculty) meet with many of our mathematics High School Adjunct Faculty at the annual High School/College Program mathematics dinner. The meeting is welcomed and generates much enthusiasm for a closer relationship between us.
29 April 2004: Members of the "new" Department of Mathematics and Statistics (consisting of the remaining 7 of us full-time faculty) meet with faculty from Economics, Nursing, and Psychology to discuss our undergraduate statistics offerings (Math 235, Math 436, Math 441) and how we might modify old courses or create new ones, re-arrange our scheduling, and so on, in order to better meet their needs. The meeting is welcomed and generates many ideas.
23 April 2004: Two Mathematics faculty members, Jie Chen and Rebecca Roberts are honored at the 1st Annual Activity & Program Council's UMKC Faculty and Staff Appreciation Day luncheon, having been nominated by the students they teach, advise, or mentor, for having made a positive impact in their lives. Congratulations, Jie and Becky!
19 April 2004: Members of the "new" Department of Mathematics and Statistics (consisting of the remaining 7 of us full-time faculty) meet with faculty from Mathematics Education to discuss our course offerings (Math 130, Math 140) for teachers and how we might modify old courses or create new ones, re-arrange our scheduling, and so on, in order to better meet their needs. The meeting is welcomed and generates many ideas.
16 April 2004: The Arts and Sciences Curriculum Committee approves many changes and improvements to our undergraduate mathematics courses, and in particular approves a new course, Math 105 (The Language of Mathematics), to be first offered in Winter 2005. See Current Semester Course Schedules.
5 April 2004: The College of Arts and Sciences Provost and Dean appoints, as new Interim Chair of the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Bruce Bubacz, former Chair of the Department of Philosophy, Professor of Philosophy and Law, University Distinguished Professor, and former Interim Dean of Arts and Sciences. This follows a recommendation of the Math Committee which submitted its Final Report to the Provost on February 4.
2 April 2004: The Chancellor's Fund for Innovation announces 18 awardees, including a proposal of the Center for Academic Development in partnership with the Department of Mathematics and Statistics to produce a series of 50 minute Calculus I video tapes similar to the VSI College Algebra video tapes created in 1998.
March 2004: Both Eric Hall and Hristo Voulov are approved as Doctoral Faculty in the Department.
February 2004: Yong Zeng receives an award of $10,155 from the University of Missouri Research Board. See the UM System newsletter Spectrum, February 2004, Vol. 31, No. 1, p. 3.
4 February 2004: The Math Committee submits its Final Report to the Provost. This committee was appointed by the Provost, held eight meetings from September 24, 2003, to February 4, 2004, and was charged in particular with making recommendations regarding "a strategic plan for" and "the mission and structure of the Department".
12 January 2004: The Department launches its new website, designed and to be maintained by Richard Delaware and Eric Hall.

2003

Fall 2003: Eric Hall and Hristo Voulov join the faculty as new hires.