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UTD Math Student Wins Trjitzinsky Scholarship

Kevin Ray Pond

Kevin Ray Pond

Kevin Ray Pond, a senior mathematics major at The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) who is interested in number theory and logic, will soon be presented with a number that will no doubt be to his liking – $4,000. That’s the one-time stipend that comes with the Waldemar J. Trjitzinsky Scholarship that Pond won from the American Mathematical Society (AMS).

Pond, of Boyd, Texas, will receive the scholarship check from Dr. Richard A. Caldwell, dean of UTD’s School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, in a ceremony Sept. 4 on the university’s campus in Richardson.

The scholarship is one of eight awarded nationwide each year by the AMS to assist talented college students pursue their studies in mathematics.

“The AMS chose our department to select a Waldemar J. Trjitzinsky Scholarship recipient for the 2002-03 academic year,” said Dr. M. Ali Hooshyar, professor and head of the Department of Mathematical Sciences at UTD. “From a very strong pool of 86 candidates, the department selected Kevin.”

According to Hooshyar, Pond is a straight-A student whose interests are not limited to mathematics – he also pursues foreign languages, classical music and computer science.

Scholarships like the one won by Pond were made possible by a bequest made in honor of Waldemar J. Trjitzinsky. Born in Russia in 1901, Trjitzinsky received his doctorate degree from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1926. He was a professor of mathematics at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, from 1934 to 1969.

Trjitzinsky showed particular concern for students of mathematics and, in some cases, made personal efforts to insure that financial considerations would not hinder their studies. He was the author of about 60 mathematics papers, primarily on quasi-analytic functions and partial differential equations. A member of the AMS for 46 years, he died in 1973.

Media Contact: The Office of Media Relations, UT Dallas, (972) 883-2155, [email protected].