The Fall Newsletter: A long name, some money, and some math

The Fall 2008 issue of the Nazareth College Math Department Newsletter has just been posted! Each Newsletter is named after a different mathematician, and this one is called Le Tonnelier de Breteuil Marquise du Châtelet Gazette after Gabrielle Émilie Le Tonnelier de Breteuil Marquise du Châtelet, the 18^th century mathematician who (among other things) translated Newton’s Principia into French. [Question: How much fun did we have coming up with the title?]

The feature article was written by one of our juniors about her study-abroad experience in Germany last fall, and many of the other articles first made their appearance here, but one of the inside stories might have a wider audience — namely, people thinking about college or grad school — and so might shameless plug be worth a special mention shameless plug. There are three scholarship opportunities for math and science folk: two of them (just recently funded by the National Science Foundation! Hooray!) are local to Nazareth College, but the third is available throughout New York State, and might have parallels in other states as well.

• The Robert Noyce Scholarship at Naz is aimed at undergraduate and graduate students seeking teaching certification at the adolescent or childhood/middle childhood levels in science or math (in exchange for service in a “high need” district).
• The Science and Mathematics Scholarship Program at Naz offers scholarships up to $10,000 for “promising, financially needy students” enrolling in biology, chemistry, or mathematics majors.
• Finally, the New York State Math and Science Teaching Incentive Scholarships provide awards to undergraduate or graduate students pursuing careers as secondary math and science teachers, in exchange for five years of full-time employment in the state.

Truth be told, although Batman and I work at Naz (and are the Executive Editors of the Newsletter, in case that wasn’t quite blatant enough), TwoPi actually works at St. John Fisher College just down the road. And they, too, are offering money:

• The Science Scholars Program at SJFC offers $12,000 scholarship for math, computer science, and science majors (entering as freshmen right out of high school).

If scholarships aren’t what you’re looking for, you can still check out the back page of the newsletter for some fun math problems to play around with. My current favorite of the bunch is:

Suppose the number N satisfies log₂(log₃(log₅(log₇ N))) = 4.
How many different prime factors does N have?

Tags: Émilie du Châtelet, scholarships