Willamette Professors Receive National Mathematics Grant

The Diophantine Frobenius Problem Image courtesy: schwartzbooks.com

(SALEM) - Two Willamette University math professors have received a $491,400 grant from the National Science Foundation to provide an eight-week summer research experience for math students and teachers.

The grant was recently awarded to Willamette assistant math Professors Inga Johnson and Colin Starr, who are the leaders of the Willamette Valley Consortium for Mathematics Research. The consortium is made up of four Oregon schools: Willamette University, Linfield College, Lewis & Clark College and the University of Portland.

Each of the four schools will host a summer research team of four undergraduates, two faculty members and one teacher from the K-12 or community college level. Each team will focus on a project from faculty research interests in number theory, probability and statistics, geometry, computer science or applied analysis. All four teams will gather once a week for talks about their projects, presentations by invited speakers and social activities.

Participants at Willamette will work with Johnson and Starr to study the Frobenius Problem, also known as the “postage stamp problem,” a topic in number theory.

The summer program is open to teachers and students nationwide. The final application deadline is April 6th, although preference will be given to applications received by March 30. To apply or learn more about the consortium, go to willamette.edu/cla/math/REU-RET.