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Winner of the 2011 Promise Prize
The 2011 Benedict Freedman Prize for Mathematical Promise was
awarded to mathematics junior NOAM GOLDBERG.
His work was on minor minimal
intrinsically knotted graphs in S^3. He did this work as a
rising sophomore during a 10-week summer research program supported
by URC at Occidental College. He gave a presentation on his
work at a National Council on Undergraduate Research annual
conference. Noam's joint work with Profs. Thomas Mattman (CSU
Chico) and Ramin Naimi (Occidental College) will be submitted for
publication in the near future. Noam is in the 3-2 program and
will spend his last two years of studies at Columbia University in
New York.
Winner of the 2010 Promise Prize
The 2010 Benedict Freedman Prize for Mathematical Promise was
awarded to math senior ZHENGYI ZHOU.
Her honors senior thesis centered on
ordinary differential equation modeling of traffic flow. She
began that work in a summer research experience and had gone on to
present parts of that work at various regional and national
meetings, including the conference by the National Council on
Undergraduate Research. Zhengyi was born and raised in Chengdu,
China and came to Oxy after attending Raffles Junior College (for
high school) in Singapore. Zhengyi double majored in Mathematics
and Economics and earned honors in both fields. She is currently
pursuing her PhD in Applied Mathematics at Cornell University.
Winners of the 2005 Promise Prize
The 2005 Benedict Freedman Prize for Mathematical Promise was
shared by math seniors DAVID COLLINS and PATRICK DIXON. Both did
undergraduate research during the summer of 2005 (supported by
Occidental's Undergraduate Research Center). Patrick's work was in applied mathematics
(Epidemiological Modeling of STDs in Adolescent Populations Using Graph Theory,
faculty mentor: Ramin Naimi), while David's work was in pure mathematics (Winning
Strategies and Other Properties of the Game of 3-Pile Euclid, faculty mentor: Tamas
Lengyel).
David and Patrick each received a $250 prize, awarded at a ceremony in the
spring of 2006. Following the ceremony, each gave a talk on their work.
Winner of the 2004 Promise Prize
Junior Mathematics major DAVID COLLINS of Bakersfield received the
2004 Freedman Prize for Mathematical Promise. His research
(Variations on a Theme of Euclid, faculty mentor: Tamas Lengyel)
falls within a branch of mathematics known as combinatorial game
theory. Collins’ work on developing winning strategies for
variations of the game Euclid was published in INTEGERS, the
Electronic Journal of Combinatorial Number Theory.
Collins plans to teach mathematics at the college or
university level. Winner of the 2003
Promise Prize
Senior RADOSLAV M. KIROV of Sofia, Bulgaria, received the 2003
Freedman Prize for Mathematical Promise. Radoslav, a double-major in
Mathematics and Physics, did two summer research projects at
Occidental College with Ramin Naimi -- one on elliptic curves,
number theory, and triangles with rational sides; the other on
list-coloring in k-choosable and k-monophilic graphs.
Rado was also impressive in his performance in the Putnam
mathematics contest: he ranked 314th out of 2954 contestants!
Winner
of the 2002 Promise Prize
Junior Mathematics major JOSEF TOBISKA of Santa Ana was the
recipient of the institution's 2002 Freedman Prize for Mathematical
Promise. Tobiska was being honored for his work on combinatorics. His
submitted work, Integer Partitions and their Application to Quantum
Physics, was done with the help of his professor and mentor, Prof.
Jennifer Quinn, who describes him as a student with a real knack for
problem solving.
Specifically, Tobiska's research centers on integer partitions, in
which whole numbers can be broken into a sum of other whole numbers.
The integer partitions of three, for example, are 1+1+1, 2+1 and
three. This simple idea can lead to many exciting mathematical
problems that have far-reaching implications in such fields as
physics, computer science and economics. Specifically, their work
allowed them to formulate and prove a new theorem regarding the
composite Fermion model of the Fractional Quantum Hall Effect.
Tobiska received his $500 prize at a Jan. 30, 2003 ceremony in
which he also gave a 45-minute presentation on his research. He was
selected for the Freedman Prize by a committee of Occidental
mathematics faculty. Receiving honorable mentions were junior Daniel
Ionita of Bucharest, Romania, and senior Radoslav Kirov of Sofia, Bulgaria.
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