Thursday February 14

Thursday January 31, 2008

2:30 PM- 3:30 PM

Science West 122

Isolation and sequence analysis of the phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase gene of the marine cyanobacterium Synechococcus PCC 7002

ABSTRACT: The pepc gene, which encodes phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase (PEPC), of the marine cyanobacterium Synechococcus PCC 7002, was isolated and sequenced. PEPC is an anaplerotic enzyme, but it may also contribute to overall CO₂ fixation through β-carboxylation reactions. A consensus sequence generated by aligning the pepc genes of Anabaena variabilis, Anacystis nidulans and Synechocystis PCC 6803 was used to design two sets of primers that were used to amplify segments of Synechococcus PCC 7002 pepc using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). In order to isolate the gene, the sequence of the PCR product was used to search for the pepc nucleotide sequence from the publicly available genome of Synechococcus PCC 7002. At the time, the genome for this organism had not been completed although sequences of a significant number of its fragments were available in public databases. Thus, the major challenge was to find the pepc gene among those fragments and to complete gaps as necessary. The complete gene was eventually isolated using PCR methods and expressed in E. coli.

Dr. Aubrey A. Smith, assistant professor in the Biology Department, earned a B.S. in Chemistry at York College of the City College of New York and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry at Howard University. He has teaching experience at Howard University’s College of Pharmacy, Nursing and Allied Health and Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; as well ad the University of Maryland’s Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. His research interests are in biochemistry, molecular biology, biotechnology, genomics and proteomics. Dr. Smith received a fellowship from the Eli Lilly Company. His awards also include Outstanding Graduate Student in Biochemistry from the American Institute of Chemists.

Thursday February 14, 2008	2:30 PM- 3:30 PM		Science West 122
Network Tomography
ABSTRACT: TheThe problem of obtaining information along the links of part of a network like the Internet from path measurements (a collection of end to end measurements) can be seen as a type of inverse problem. Dr. Gavilanez will present an approach that relies on tomography but with a strong discrete flavor to solve this problem.
		Dr. Frankilin Gavilanez joined the Mathematics Department in fall 2007 as associate professor. A native of Ecuador and fluent in Spanish, English and Italian, Dr. Gavilanez earned his B.S. in Mathematics at Escuela Polytecnica in Ecuador and his M.S. and Ph.D. in Mathematics at the University of Maryland where he was a Fulbright Fellow. He also studied in Pisa, Italy on an Italian Government scholarship. Prior to coming to Montgomery College, Dr. Gavilanez taught mathematics in Ecuador and served as a visiting assistant professor at American University.

Thursday February 28, 2008

2:30 PM- 3:30 PM

Science West 122

The diversification of Carnivorans in North America and the impact of environment on community structure

ABSTRACT: Morphological disparity, in conjunction with taxonomic diversity, provides a powerful tool to interpret the evolutionary processes underlying the patterns of biodiversity. It has been proposed that the diversification of carnivoramorphans was suppressed by the incumbent creodonts early in their history (Carnivoramorpha is operationally defined as Carnivora and the fossil taxa within “Miacoidea”). The taxonomic decline of Creodonta at the end of the Eocene coincided with the beginning of the radiation of Carnivora, which rapidly generated most modern families. It is not known if creodonts were actively displaced by competitive interaction with carnivoramorphans or if the pattern of increasing carnivoramorphan taxonomic diversity was the result of passive replacement. Dr. Wesley-Hunt’s presentation explores the hypothesis that morphological diversification was limited, relative to taxonomic diversification, early in the evolutionary history of the clade Carnivoramorpha. Dental morphology (effective indicator of diet and ecology) was used as a proxy for diversity. Knowledge of how modern carnivoran diversity is organized in different environments allows for a better understanding of the structure of fossil carnivoran diversity and the diversification of carnivorans into new environments and ecological roles.

Dr. Gina D. Wesley-Hunt, assistant professor in the Biology Department, earned three degrees in Evolutionary Biology: a B.A. from Northwestern University; and both an M.S. and a Ph.D. from The University of Chicago. She has a varied teaching background, at George Washington University (Historical Geology), Montgomery College (Principles of Biology II), the Field Museum of Chicago (Geology), and The University of Chicago (Mammalian Evolution). She has done post-doctoral research at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History and the Swedish Museum of Natural History in Stockholm. Dr. Wesley-Hunt has given public and guest lectures at the University of Maryland, the American Women’s Club (Sweden) and the Earth Sciences Club of Northern Illinois. She has worked as a scientific aide with the California Department of Fish and Game and volunteered with the Peregrine Falcon Research Program in Dinosaur National Monument (Colorado). She received research grants from the Swedish Research Council, the Geological Sciences of America, the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, Sigma Xi, the Paleobiological Fund and the Hinds Fund of Chicago.

Thursday March 27, 2008	2:30 PM- 3:30 PM		Science West 122
What is Calculus About?
ABSTRACT: We all agree that calculus is heavily used in the real world and that students should learn calculus, but have we ever stopped to ask what is calculus about? This talk will side with W.W. Sawyer’s marvelous ideas presented in his book What is Calculus About? and give a non-technical survey of the fundamental ideas of calculus. While a special emphasis will be given to the classic approach, modern ideas will be injected into the subject.
		Dr. Zine Boudhraa is a professor of mathematics, as well as the faculty coordinator of the Math/Science Center at the Rockville campus. He received his M.A. from the University of Maryland at College Park and his Ph.D. from Kent State University in Ohio. Prior to joining the mathematics department at Montgomery College, Dr. Boudhraa held faculty positions at other institutions where he taught mathematics at undergraduate and graduate levels. In addition to his interest in teaching, Dr. Boudhraa has a strong commitment to cultivating students’ interest in research; he has supervised numerous undergraduate research projects, and led efforts to develop the MC Student Journal of Science and Mathematics. He has published research articles in topology, algebra, and algebraic geometry, and presented at several workshops and conferences on strategies for teaching with technology.

Thursday April 24, 2008

2:30 PM- 3:30 PM

Science West 122

Data and Differential Equations

ABSTRACT: Using differential equations is a long established approach toward identifying key parameters of dynamical processes. Historically, this approach goes back to Newton's equations of motion, d'Alembert's partial differential equation for wave motion, Fourier's partial differential equation for heat diffusion, the logistic and Malthus differential equations for population dynamics. The basic approach is now standard, ubiquitous in the literature of pure and applied mathematics and science. A wide variety of applications appeals to systems of ordinary differential equations for multi-species competition type models. Noteworthy instances of this use of ordinary differential equations are found in mathematical biology for medicine, as well studies in environmental science and population dynamics. In this talk, Dr. Rai illustrates the approach. Specifically, he shows that data sets such as the US population, the wolf population in Yellowstone National Park, and deaths due to HIV can be modeled using relatively simple systems of ordinary differential equations. His presentation will include discussion of analytic, graphical, and numerical solutions.

Dr. Sanjay Rai, instructional dean of Science, Engineering, and Mathematics since 2004, previously taught developmental, undergraduate, and graduate level mathematics and statistics courses at four universities, and he contributed to program design at two universities. Dr. Rai completed a B.S. in Statistics, Physics, and Mathematics from the University of Allahabad in India, an M.S. in Mathematics from the same institution, an M.S. in Mathematics from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada, and a Ph.D. in Mathematics from the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, where he received several awards for excellence in teaching and for scholarship. He is a member of Phi Kappa Phi National Honor Society and Pi Mu Epsilon National Mathematics Honor Society. Dr. Rai is the author of numerous scholarly articles and other academic publications. His grant awards include a U.S. Department of Education Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE) for Project Portal to Success in Engineering, a multi-year program to increase the number of under-represented students in engineering.