On Friday, April 3, the department will hold its annual awards banquet at which we honor our most impressive students. We always enjoy this day for the opportunity it presents to recognize our most outstanding students, as well as to meet some of their family members.

Many math faculty (past and present), as well as generous alumni, contribute regularly to the Mathematics Endowment Fund, which provides money to support several annual scholarships. This year, we are delighted to present Department Scholarships to seven students. The selection criteria include a personal essay, grade point average, letters of recommendation, and extra-curricular mathematical endeavors. The students selected to receive this honor are:

The Outstanding Sophomore Award recognizes one or two students a year for achievements early in their respective academic careers, and encourages continued success in mathematics. Students may only win this award by being nominated by one or more faculty; the 2009 Outstanding Sophomore is Leah Wischmeyer.

Ten senior students are being honored as recipients of Department Senior Awards for their excellent work in the mathematics major, and their overall contributions to the department: students such as these make a huge difference in the life of the mathematics department as they have demonstrated excellent work in their courses and often leadership among their classmates in a variety of ways. The winners of department senior awards for 2009 are:

Each year, every academic department on campus gets to select just one student to be recognized as its top graduate. All of these students participate in a university-wide awards banquet and ceremony that recognizes their superb achievements. The 2009 Outstanding Senior from the Department of Mathematics is Geoff Patterson.