Mathematics & Statistics Seminars
Northern Arizona University

Fall 2024 Department Colloquium

The talks will typically take place on Tuesdays at 4:00-5:00pm in Adel Room 164. Please contact Nandor Sieben if you would like to give a talk or have a question about the colloquium.

Tuesday 8/27 at 4:00-4:50

Short organizational meeting


Tuesday 9/3 at 4:00-4:50

Speaker: Shannon Guerrero Title: Teacher-authored culturally responsive mathematics curriculum: Lessons from the Diné Institute for Navajo Nation Educators

Abstract: This presentation shares research conducted with a long-term professional development program for teachers in Navajo-serving schools, with a focus on the mathematics curriculum developed by teachers in this program. We address the research question: To what extent and in what ways do teachers in DINÉ math seminars develop curriculum units that evidence culturally responsive principles and mathematics education best practices? We analyze teacher-authored mathematics curriculum from two years of this program and share key lessons learned in supporting teachers from Indigenous-serving schools to engage culturally responsive principles in their math teaching and learning.


Tuesday 9/10 at 4:00-4:50

Speaker: Jeffrey Covington Title: Curve fitting and Gaussian process regression

Abstract: Gaussian process regression, also known as Kriging, is a powerful curve fitting and statistical regression tool which has grown in popularity over the past few years. I’ve found it to be a powerful tool in my own research in spatial and dynamical modeling. This talk will introduce (kernel-based) Gaussian processes and their applications, relate them to curve fitting through Gaussian process regression, and explore the power and pitfalls of the methods.


Tuesday 9/17 at 4:00-4:50

Speaker: Michele Torielli Title: Hyperplane arrangements and signed graphs

Abstract: In this talk, we will recall the notion of hyperplane arrangement and discuss when an arrangement is free. We will then discuss their connection with simple graphs and finally, generalize this connection to the notion of signed graphs.


Tuesday 9/24 at 4:00-4:50

Speaker: Roy St. Laurent Title:

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Tuesday 10/1 at 4:00-4:50

Site visit week. Probably no colloquium.


Tuesday 10/8 at 4:00-4:50

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Tuesday 10/15 at 4:00-4:50

Speaker: Peter Vadasz Title: Magnetostrophic Flow and Electromagnetic Columns in Magneto-Fluid Dynamics and short updates on my previous presentations of Quantum Mechanics and Newtonian Gravitational Waves

Abstract: An analogy between magneto-fluid dynamics (MFD/MHD) and geostrophic flow in a rotating frame of reference including the existence of electromagnetic columns identical to Taylor-Proudman columns is identified and demonstrated theoretically. The latter occurs in the limit of large values of a dimensionless group representing the magnetic field number. Such conditions are shown to be easily satisfied in reality. Consequently, the electromagnetic fluid flow subject to these conditions is two dimensional and the streamlines are being shown to be identical to the pressure lines in complete analogy to rotating geostrophic flows. An experimental setup is suggested to confirm the theoretical results experimentally.


Tuesday 10/22 at 4:00-4:50

Speaker: Rachel A Neville Title:

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Tuesday 10/29 at 4:00-4:50

Speaker: Yu-Ju Kuo (Indiana University of Pennsylvania) (tentative) Title:

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Tuesday 11/5 at 4:00-4:50

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Tuesday 11/12 at 4:00-4:50

Speaker: Jim Swift Title:

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Tuesday 11/19 at 4:00-4:50

Speaker: Minah Kim Title:

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Tuesday 11/26 at 4:00-4:50

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