Events

Mathematics Colloquium

On Friday, March 14, 2025, Dr. Michael Cromer, Associate Professor of Applied Mathematics at the Rochester Institute for Technology, presented a colloquium lecture on A multi-species, multi-stimuli rheological model for living polymers.

Abstract: Wormlike micelles (WLMs) have emerged as promising drug delivery systems (DDS) due to their unique structural properties. Their ability to efficiently encapsulate drugs and achieve controlled release offers significant advantages over traditional methods. One key advantage of micelles as DDS is their responsiveness to stimuli. These "living" polymers undergo equilibrium breakage and growth through combinations. When subjected to stimuli, for example flow or changes in pH, the system is driven out of equilibrium, and the energy barrier for scission/recombination is modified. Experiments have revealed that, at high shear rates or changes in pH, micelles can undergo a structure transition from long, flexible chains to short, rod-like polymers. We develop a rheological model to approximate the nonlinear rheology of wormlike micelles using two constitutive models to represent the structural transition. Under flow, we hypothesize that stretching energy introduces a linear potential that decreases the rate of recombination and reduces the mean micelle length. Under pH changes, the electrostatic free energy accounts for repulsion due to presence of similarly charged ions. The increased repulsive force reduces the overall energy needed to break a chain. For successful cancer drug delivery, WLMs must remain elongated under flow until reaching the acidic tumor microenvironment, where they undergo a structural transition to shorter, rod-like micelles, signifying drug release.

Recent Mathematics Colloquium Talks

Seminar Meetings

The Mathematics Seminar is the venue where Towson faculty and students report on their research activities. In addition several research groups have research seminars in their respective research areas:

• ASRM Seminar (coordinated by Min Ji):
  Meets on Fridays at 10 am
• Number Theory Seminar (coordinated by A. Kumchev and N. McNew):
  Meets on Tuesdays at 5 pm in YR 320.

Recent and Upcoming Seminars

• April 7, 2025, Faculty Seminar.
  

  Dr. Banghee So, Assistant Professor of Actuarial Science, will give a seminar talk on A Novel Neural Network Model with Predictive Power and Interpretability for Insurance Pricing.
  
  Abstract. A core principle of insurance lies in pooling resources to compensate individuals affected by insured events, such as accidents or property damage. To remain competitive and profitable, insurance pricing must accurately reflect underlying risks. Traditionally, Generalized Linear Models (GLMs) have dominated rate-making in property and casualty insurance since the 1990s. However, recent advancements have sparked growing interest in Machine Learning (ML), particularly Neural Networks (NNs), for their superior predictive capabilities and ability to capture complex feature interactions. Despite these advantages, the adoption of NNs in commercial insurance has been limited due to their lack of interpretability. Unlike GLMs, which offer clear insight into the influence of individual features, NNs operate as black boxes, making it difficult to explain their predictions. As transparency is critical in insurance pricing, especially for regulatory and customer communication purposes, advancing interpretable NN models presents a promising direction for future actuarial rateodeling. This talk introduces an innovative NN model that strikes a balance between interpretability and predictive capability by integrating traditional models used in insurance such as the GLM or multinomial logistic regression with a deep neural network (DNN).

• April 8, 2025: Number Theory Seminar.
  

  Dr. Russell Hendel, Adjunct Professor of Mathematics, will give a talk on A Family of Sequences Generalizing the Thue-Morse and Rudin-Shapiro Sequences.
  
  Abstract: For $m\ge 1$, let $P_m=1^m$ be the binary string of $m$ ones. Further, define, for each $m$, the infinite sequence $s_m$ by $s_{m,n}=1$ iff the number of (possibly overlapping) occurrences of $P_m$ in the binary representation of $n\ge 0$ is odd. The family of sequences $(s_m{)}_{m\ge 1}$ generalizes the Thue-Morse, $s_1$, and Rudin-Shapiro, $s_2$ sequences. The main results of this talk are the following:

  • For each $m$, $s_m$ is automatic. The minimal DFA (deterministic finite automata) accepting $s_m$ has $2m$ states, and its transition function is completely described.

  • For each $m$, the length $2^{m-1}$ prefixes of the sequences of the 2-kernel (regarded as words) are all distinct. Moreover, the characteristic functions of these prefixes can be completely described using the Vile and Jacobstahl sequences.

• March 11, 2025: Number Theory Seminar.
  Dr. David Hubbard gave a talk on Computing the p-part of the class group.
• March 4, 2025: Number Theory Seminar.
  Vishal Gupta, University of Delaware, gave a talk on the Minimum spectral radius in a given class of graphs.
• February 25, 2025: Number Theory Seminar.
  Dr. William Craig, US Naval Academy, gave a talk on Quasimodular forms, q-multiple zeta values, and partitions.
• November 21, 2024: Number Theory Seminar.
  Alexander Kalogirou, University of South Carolina, gave a talk on Disjoint covering systems.  
• November 15, 2024: ASRM Speaker Series. 
  Shelby Cimino, ASA, gave a talk on Actuarial modeling: An overview.
• September 10, 2024: Number Theory Seminar.
  Dr. Edinah Gnang, Johns Hopkins University, gave a talk on All trees on n edges decompose the complete bipartite graph $K_{n,n}$.
• August 20, 2024: Number Theory Seminar.
  Dr. Harald Helfgott, Institut de Mathématiques de Jussieu, gave a talk on Expansion, divisibility and parity.

Recent Mathematics Seminar & Sabbatical Talks

• On March 24, 2025, Dr. Jing Tian presented a sabbatical lecture on Parameter Analysis in Continuous Data Assimilation for Various Turbulence Models.
• On February 24, 2025, Dr. Sebastian Calvo presented a seminar on the Waldschmidt constant of complex reflection groups.
• On October 16, 2024, Dr. Min Deng presented a sabbatical lecture on Bayesian Inference for the Loss Models via Mixture Priors. 
• On September 30, 2024, Dr. Melike Kara Atas presented a sabbatical lecture on Improving Pre-Service Teachers’ Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching Fraction Concepts. 
• On April 21, 2024, Dr. Nathan McNew presented a sabbatical lecture on The Middle Prime Factor of Integers.
• On April 15, 2024, Ms. Lily Glushakow-Smith gave a seminar on Developmental Math: Is Our Approach Serving the Aspirations of Underprepared Students?
• On March 25, 2024, Dr. Daniel Freese gave a seminar on Periodic Minimal Surfaces from Gluing Helicoids.
• On March 11, 2024, Dr. Miriam Parnes gave a seminar on Indivisibility for Classes of Graphs.