When Ted Ralph’s successful oilfield sales job ended suddenly during the downturn of the 1980s, he was in his late 20s, had a house mortgage and was left wondering, “what do I do with myself now?” Ralph wasn’t interested in a career in another industry. So, he opted to “gamble.” His hope was that the industry he loved would rebound while he earned a degree in petroleum engineering at UL Lafayette. “If you take no risks in life, you get nothing,” Ralph said of the decision. The strategy paid off, in part because Ralph fell back on the work ethic he had begun cultivating at age 13.

A large group from our department attended the Louisiana Mississippi MAA Section Meeting at Loyola University in New Orleans on 27-29 February 2020.

The UL Lafayette Math Club has a solution published in the latest issue (May 2019) of the College Mathematics Journal. The solution, for problem 1130: A sequence of triangles begins on page 229 of the College Mathematics Journal: Problems and Solutions (volume 50, issue 3, 2019)

In addition to this published solution, our math club received credit for solving two additional problems in this issue!

College of Sciences dean Azmy Ackleh and mathematics professors Ross Chiquet and Amy Veprauskas have earned international recognition for creating a mathematical model to determine how quickly wildlife can recover following natural disasters.

Ackleh, Chiquet and Veprauskas are recipients of the Rollie Lamberson Research Award. The Resource Modeling Association presents the award.