For the week: December 11 - 17, 2006

Did You Know?
The brain lacks any pain receptors, so patients undergoing brain surgery do not need general anesthesia.


Colloquium: This week's Department colloquium will be presented by Jenni Evans, Penn State, Department of Meteorology, on Thursday, December 14 at 4:00 pm in 112 Walker Building. The title of her talk is "Hurricane Impacts on the Personal Scale: Meteorology Meets the Rest of the World." The Department's weekly colloquium schedule can be viewed by visiting: http://www.met.psu.edu/dept/events/MeteoColloq.html

Join friends of the Earth and Mineral Sciences Museum and Art & Mineral Gallery for an OPENING of NEW EXHIBITS this Thursday, December 14, 2006. Food, friendship, and fun is on the agenda.

4:30 pm Presentation of Awards for 2nd Annual EMS Museum Student Photo Contest
5:00 pm Men at Work Art Exhibit Presentation
5:30 pm Seismology and Earthquakes
6:00 pm GEOWALL (3-D projection) Demonstration
6:30 pm Pioneers in Meteorology
6:45 pm Science on a Sphere

More information on Penn State Live: http://live.psu.edu/story/21201

***NOTE NEW DATE*** Astrobiology Seminar Series: Jacob Haqq-Misra and Efem Altinok will present a talk titled "Archean Greenhouse Gas: CO2 or CH4?" on Thursday, December 14 in 240 Deike Building at 2:00 p.m.

All Penn State Meteorology faculty, staff, students, and alumni are invited to an Alumni Reception to be held at the Annual AMS Meeting in San Antonio, TX on Tuesday, January 16 from 6-8:30 p.m. in Salon J of the Marriott Rivercenter Hotel. Please help us to spread the word to fellow Penn Staters!

PSUBAMS Desk and Wall Calendars are In! You may pick them up at the following times:

--Wed. 3-4 PM (look for Bryan), or 5:30-6:30 PM (Look for Racheal in Marisa/Jeff's office or the studio)

--Thurs. 9:30-10:30 AM (Look for Bryan), or 3:30-4:30 PM (Look for Andy)

--Fri. 3-5 (Look for either Racheal or Andy)

Announcing the Dissertation Medal in Applied Climatology for 2007 to be awarded by the American Association of State Climatologists. Any recent Ph.D. graduate who has a galley-proof manuscript or a published journal article derived from dissertation work accomplished while a student in North America or one of the U.S. Territories is eligible to apply. [More information including how to apply.]

AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellowships: Call for Applications
AAAS seeks candidates from a broad array of backgrounds and a diversity of geographic, disciplinary, gender, and ethnic perspectives. Fellows come from a range of sectors, including academia, industry, non-profits, representing a spectrum of career stages, from recent PhD graduates to faculty on sabbatical to retired scientists and engineers. For more information, please visit http://fellowships.aaas.org. (Application deadline for 07-08 fellowships is 20 December 2006).

PSUBAMS has been recognized by AMS as one of the 2006 Honor Roll Chapters! Congratulations to all the officers and members of PSUBAMS who made the 2005-2006 academic year such a success! [View Letter from AMS]

Water Bottles are on sale in the Weather Station. They are fantastic and make great gifts and great PSU Meteorology souvenirs. They are $8 each. Just look for one of the PSUBAMS officers to purchase one.

Chi Epsilon Pi will be selling unique Penn State Meteorology items this year to raise funds for activities we plan to hold in the future and spread Penn State Meteo spirit! The two items we will be selling are Penn State Meteorology window clings and magnets. The price is $3 per magnet and $2 per window cling. However, for those interested in purchasing several of each, we will offer a discount of 4 magnets for $10 and 3 window clings for $5. You may purchase these items from Rhonda Spychalski in the main office on the 5th floor of Walker, Zack Byko in 410 Walker, Victor Yannuzzi in 412 Walker, or Jared Lee in 405 Walker. A Chi Epsilon Pi officer will also be at several of the departmental organizational meetings at the start of the semester armed with window clings and magnets for sale as well. Any questions, contact Zack at zmb102@psu.edu. [View images of magnets and window clings.]

Weekly forecast discussions will return on Tuesday, January 23, 2007! These discussions will take place each Tuesday afternoon at 2:45 in the Weather Station Classroom during the spring semester. They will be informal, last about 30 minutes, and will be lead by a Penn State, AccuWeather, or National Weather Service forecaster. Everyone with an interest in weather forecasting is invited! Feel free to drop in on the discussions whenever possible, whether it is on a weekly basis or just once or twice all semester. It is our hope that the experts giving the discussions can teach us a little more about weather forecasting and the audience engage and question the forecast discussion leader. We are still in need of more forecast discussion leaders for the spring semester, so if you have an interest in leading a forecast discussion or know someone you think would be interested, please contact Zack at zmb102@psu.edu.

Colloquium: This week's Department colloquium will be presented by Jenni Evans, Penn State, Department of Meteorology, on Thursday, December 14 at 4:00 pm in 112 Walker Building. The title of her talk is "Hurricane Impacts on the Personal Scale: Meteorology Meets the Rest of the World." The Department's weekly colloquium schedule can be viewed by visiting: http://www.met.psu.edu/dept/events/MeteoColloq.html

***NOTE NEW DATE***Astrobiology Seminar Series: Jacob Haqq-Misra and Efem Altinok will present a talk titled "Archean Greenhouse Gas: CO2 or CH4?" on Thursday, December 14 in 240 Deike Building at 2:00 p.m.

Earth and Mineral Sciences Film Series: For a list of films to be aired throughout the fall semester, please visit: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/emsl/videoseries.html

The College of EMS THON Committee will be having pizza sales on Wednesday December 13th from 11am to 2pm in Deike and Walker Buildings. The prices will be $3 for 2 slices and a drink, $2 for 1 slice and a drink, and $1.50 for 1 slice of pizza. Please come out and support THON - Remember its FOR THE KIDS!

WxChallenge:
WxChallenge website: http://wxchallenge.com/

Conference Room Calendar Change: The 529 and 511 Walker conference room calendars are now "view only" due to a scheduling issue. If you'd like to reserve one of these rooms, the staff in the main office will be glad to make the reservation for you.

IN THE NEWS:

A story titled "Pollution Knows No Borders" and focusing on the research of Anne Thompson and her research team, is featured in the December 11, 2006 issue of Penn State Live [View Story]. The article is a synopsis of the talk Prof. Thompson will present at the AGU Meeting this week and focuses on ozonesonde launches and air quality sampling done in Mexico City, Houston, TX and Richland, WA over the spring and summer.

Alumnus Dan W. Pulsipher, D.O. ('88 B.S.) was recently featured in an article in Medical Economics titled "Dream Practice: Working in Paradise." [View article]

The September 2006 issue of Geotimes features an article by Samuel C. Schon and Arthur A. Small titled "Climate Change and the Potential of Coal Gasification." [View article]

Alumni Joel Gratz ('03 B.S.) and Erik Noble ('02 B.S.) have authored an article titled "Lightning Safety and Large Stadiums," which appears in the September 2006 issue of the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society. [View article]

Craig Bohren addresses the controversial topic of global warming in the August 7 issue of the USA Today in an article titled "How to get to the bottom of the global warming debate." [View article]

On August 14, Millersville University PR Newswire published an article titled "Millersville University Professor Works to Make Sailing Safer," which features alumnus Todd Sikora ('90, '92, '96) and research collaboration with George Young. [View story]

An August 9, 2006 article in Penn State Live titled, "To the Point, Penn State professor on effects of Alaska oil field shutdown," features Andrew Kleit. [View story].

A May 2006 PNL web publication in the Atmospheric Science & Global Change Division titled "Sharing Space for the Sake of Science," discusses collaborations with Anne Thompson's and Bill Brune's research teams. The article also includes quotes from PNNL scientist and Penn State alumnus, Jim Mather ('86, '90, '94). [View article].

Alumnus Henry Margusity ('90 BS), senior meteorologist for AccuWeather, and Prof. Michael Mann are interviewed for an article titled "A hurricane here could spell trouble" that appeared in the Hazelton Standard Speaker on July 16, 2006. [View Article]

Geoff Cornish was interviewed for a story appearing in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.com on July 9, 2006 titled "Where's the Most Perfect Climate" [View Story]

A 2002 Penn State Meteorology alumnus, Manajit Sengupta, was featured in an article in the Wall Street Journal on June 27, 2006. The article, titled "Under a Cloud" is about the daunting backlog of visa applicants and the logistics and time involved in getting a long-term visa. [View Article].

Fred Gadomski is featured in a Penn State Live article on June 21, 2006 about the summer forecast. [View Article]

Research done by Michael Mann, Raymond Bradley, and Malcom Hughes was in the spotlight in most national newspapers last week. For instance, visit, "Study: Earth 'likely' hottest in 2,000 years" from CNN.com.

On May 29, The Toronto Star published an article titled "Weather matters to Wall Street," which discusses the increasing opportunities for meteorologists in financial markets. Andy Kleit was interviewed for the story. [Full Story]

A story titled "Climate change responsible for increased hurricanes," featuring Michael Mann, was published in the May 31, 2006 issue of Penn State Live. [Full Story]

Archived News:  The weekly news is archived.  See the link at the bottom of the page to access the archives.

Colloquium: This week's Department colloquium will be presented by Jenni Evans, Penn State, Department of Meteorology, on Thursday, December 14 at 4:00 pm in 112 Walker Building. The title of her talk is "Hurricane Impacts on the Personal Scale: Meteorology Meets the Rest of the World." The Department's weekly colloquium schedule can be viewed by visiting: http://www.met.psu.edu/dept/events/MeteoColloq.html
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PSUBAMS has been recognized by AMS as one of the 2006 Honor Roll Chapters! Congratulations to all the officers and members of PSUBAMS who made the 2005-2006 academic year such a success! [View Letter from AMS]
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***NOTE NEW DATE***Astrobiology Seminar Series: Jacob Haqq-Misra and Efem Altinok will present a talk titled "Archean Greenhouse Gas: CO2 or CH4?" on Thursday, December 14 in 240 Deike Building at 2:00 p.m.
..............................................................................

PSUBAMS Desk and Wall Calendars are In! You may pick them up at the following times:

--Wed. 3-4 PM (look for Bryan), or 5:30-6:30 PM (Look for Racheal in Marisa/Jeff's office or the studio)

--Thurs. 9:30-10:30 AM (Look for Bryan), or 3:30-4:30 PM (Look for Andy)

--Fri. 3-5 (Look for either Racheal or Andy)
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All Penn State Meteorology faculty, staff, students, and alumni are invited to an Alumni Reception to be held at the Annual AMS Meeting in San Antonio, TX on Tuesday, January 16 from 6-8:30 p.m. in Salon J of the Marriott Rivercenter Hotel. Please help us to spread the word to fellow Penn Staters!
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Join friends of the Earth and Mineral Sciences Museum and Art & Mineral Gallery for an OPENING of NEW EXHIBITS this Thursday, December 14, 2006. Food, friendship, and fun is on the agenda.

4:30 pm Presentation of Awards for 2nd Annual EMS Museum Student Photo Contest
5:00 pm Men at Work Art Exhibit Presentation
5:30 pm Seismology and Earthquakes
6:00 pm GEOWALL (3-D projection) Demonstration
6:30 pm Pioneers in Meteorology
6:45 pm Science on a Sphere

More information on Penn State Live: http://live.psu.edu/story/21201
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The Twenty-second Annual Graduate Exhibition will be held from March 23-25, 2007. An online entry from and complete guidelines for participants can be found on the Graduate School homepage (www.gradsch.psu.edu/exhibition). Entry forms will be accepted online beginning January 15, 2007 and continuing until 5:00 p.m. February 23, 2007. An informal meeting for potential exhibitors will be held on Wed., January 17, 2007 from 5-7 p.m. in 112 Kern Building.
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Graduating Students: Please remember to return your keys to Rhonda Spychalski in 502 Walker before you leave campus! Also, remember to give Linda Porta a bound and unbound (on regular paper) copy of your thesis.
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Spring 2007 GIS Training Workshops: The Graduate School, in cooperation with Penn State Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Council, is offering the workshops listed below in GIS training. These workshops are geared toward faculty, staff, graduate and undergraduate students interested in incorporating GIS into their research projects.

Workshops begin in January. For more information, please visit http://www.gis.psu.edu
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New Commencement Schedule for Fall Commencement at University Park: For the announcement visit: http://live.psu.edu/story/19285
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Congratulations to Ben Root, who won "Best Graduate Oral Presentation" at the NWA 31st Annual Conference in Cleveland OH. The title of his presentation was "A Fingerprinting Technique for Major Weather Events."
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Water Bottles are on sale in the Weather Station. They are fantastic and make great gifts and great PSU Meteorology souvenirs. They are $8 each. Just look for one of the PSUBAMS officers to purchase one.
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January 2007 Candidacy Exam: The next PhD Candidacy Exam will next be given during the week of January 8-12, 2007, which is the week before spring classes start. Dr. Shirer will hold a meeting in late November, 2006 or early December, 2006 with those students taking the next exam to talk about logistics, including setting the dates for the two sections of the exam, and to answer any questions the students might have.

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Dr. Andrew Kleit, along with Dr. Anthony Kwasnica at the Smeal College of Business, are running markets for weather this fall. Weather Markets: http://lema3.smeal.psu.edu/prediction/

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Registration is now open for scheduling classes for spring 2007. If you need a drop/add form for restricted classes, see Linda Porta in 502 Walker.
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WxChallenge: WxChallenge website: http://wxchallenge.com/
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32nd Annual Northeastern Storm Conference Call for Papers. Deadline for submission of abstracts is January 12, 2007. The conference, sponsored by the Lyndon State College chapter of the AMS and the National Weather Association will be held March 9-11, 2007 at the Springfield Marriott in Springfield, MA. [More Info]
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Weekly forecast discussions will return on Tuesday, January 23, 2007! These discussions will take place each Tuesday afternoon at 2:45 in the Weather Station Classroom during the spring semester. They will be informal, last about 30 minutes, and will be lead by a Penn State, AccuWeather, or National Weather Service forecaster. Everyone with an interest in weather forecasting is invited! Feel free to drop in on the discussions whenever possible, whether it is on a weekly basis or just once or twice all semester. It is our hope that the experts giving the discussions can teach us a little more about weather forecasting and the audience engage and question the forecast discussion leader. We are still in need of more forecast discussion leaders for the spring semester, so if you have an interest in leading a forecast discussion or know someone you think would be interested, please contact Zack at zmb102@psu.edu.
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Deadlines and Important Dates:

Dec 18-21 Mon-Thurs—Final Exams

Dec 22 Friday—Commencement
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SPRING 2007 COURSES

METEO 465/565: Middle Atmospheric Meteorology/Physics of the Upper Atmosphere (A. Thompson) [More]

MKTG 597A: Simply Bayesian (J. Liechy) [More]

CE 563: Systems Optimization using Evolutionary Algorithms (P. Reed) More

MATH/CSE 597C: Numerical Methods for Hyperbolic Conservation Laws (W. Shen)

Colloquium: This week's Department colloquium will be presented by Jenni Evans, Penn State, Department of Meteorology, on Thursday, December 14 at 4:00 pm in 112 Walker Building. The title of her talk is "Hurricane Impacts on the Personal Scale: Meteorology Meets the Rest of the World." The Department's weekly colloquium schedule can be viewed by visiting: http://www.met.psu.edu/dept/events/MeteoColloq.html

Two students who participated in the summer 2006 Student Volunteer Program at the NWS in Baltimore/Washington presented their research through posters at the NWA conference in Ohio in October. Audra Henneke was awarded the "Best Poster by an Undergraduate Student" and Katie LaBelle, a senior, presented two aviation climatology posters at the meeting. [Read about Audra and Katie's accomplishments in the Fall 2006 edition of the Sterling Reporter, a newsletter of NOAA's National Weather Service in the Baltimore/Washington Forecast Office.]

Summer Student Opportunity Listing on the AMS web site Companies and radio/tv stations are advertising summer
employment and internship opportunities available in the
atmospheric and related sciences. To view the listings, please visit www.ametsoc.org and click on the link for Student Resources.

Graduation Reception: On Friday, December 22, graduating seniors and their families are invited to attend a reception in the Weather Station from 11-1 p.m. A light lunch will be served. Invitations will be mailed to your home address and an email invitation will be forthcoming to you.

PSUBAMS Desk and Wall Calendars are In! You may pick them up at the following times:

--Wed. 3-4 PM (look for Bryan), or 5:30-6:30 PM (Look for Racheal in Marisa/Jeff's office or the studio)

--Thurs. 9:30-10:30 AM (Look for Bryan), or 3:30-4:30 PM (Look for Andy)

--Fri. 3-5 (Look for either Racheal or Andy)

Join friends of the Earth and Mineral Sciences Museum and Art & Mineral Gallery for an OPENING of NEW EXHIBITS this Thursday, December 14, 2006. Food, friendship, and fun is on the agenda.

4:30 pm Presentation of Awards for 2nd Annual EMS Museum Student Photo Contest
5:00 pm Men at Work Art Exhibit Presentation
5:30 pm Seismology and Earthquakes
6:00 pm GEOWALL (3-D projection) Demonstration
6:30 pm Pioneers in Meteorology
6:45 pm Science on a Sphere

More information on Penn State Live: http://live.psu.edu/story/21201

Spring 2007 GIS Training Workshops: The Graduate School, in cooperation with Penn State Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Council, is offering the workshops listed below in GIS training. These workshops are geared toward faculty, staff, graduate and undergraduate students interested in incorporating GIS into their research projects.

Workshops begin in January. For more information, please visit http://www.gis.psu.edu

Sophomores: Entry-to-Major Process: All sophomores who have not already formally declared their major (i.e. who are still in the pre-major "EM SC" status) will have a letter describing the University's formal Entry-to-Major (ETM) process sent to their home address.

Graduating Seniors: Please remember to return your keys to Rhonda Spychalski in 502 Walker before you leave campus! Please also see Rhonda prior to graduation--she has some forms for you. Among the forms, is a questionnaire about what your plans are after graduation. Be sure to let us know so we can collect accurate statistics about where our alumni find employment after they graduate. Prospective students and their families are very interested in this data!

PSUBAMS has been recognized by AMS as one of the 2006 Honor Roll Chapters! Congratulations to all the officers and members of PSUBAMS who made the 2005-2006 academic year such a success! [View Letter from AMS]

The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) is pleased to announce the RISE (Research Internships in Science and Engineering) Program will take place in the summer of 2007. Undergrads spend the summer working on a research project with a German Ph.D. student, who serves as a personal and professional mentor. Students receive a scholarship to cover living expenses, and the Ph.D. student will help find housing. Participants get exposed to advanced research and learn about Germany from the inside, make new friends and establish professional contacts, and spend weekends exploring the heart of Europe. Online registration and internship database open on Thursday, December 7. Online registration opened on November 1. The internship database will be activated on Friday, December 1. Find out about eligibility and the application process, and read reports from past participants, at http://www.daad.de/rise/en/index.html

32nd Annual Northeastern Storm Conference Call for Papers. Deadline for submission of abstracts is January 12, 2007. The conference, sponsored by the Lyndon State College chapter of the AMS and the National Weather Association will be held March 9-11, 2007 at the Springfield Marriott in Springfield, MA. [More Info]

Important Deadlines/Dates:

Dec 15 Friday—Withdrawal - Deadline

Dec 15 Friday—Classes End

Dec 18-21 Mon-Thurs—Final Exams

Dec 22 Friday—Commencement

There is still time to apply for Spring 2007 co-op positions with Walter Reed Army Institute of Research and the Naval Surface Warfare Center. Interested Meteorology students should register with the College of Science Co-Op Program by visiting: http://www.science.psu.edu/coop. A permanent link to the College of Science Cooperative program has been added to the Department's "Employment" page and "Undergraduate" page.

--Click on "Students"
--Click on "online registration"
--Follow the written instructions to register.
--Bookmark the database log-in page

--Complete your profile and upload your resume and over sheet (be sure to use the provided template)

--Call 814-865-5000 to schedule an appointment.

Water Bottles are on sale in the Weather Station. They are fantastic and make great gifts and great PSU Meteorology souvenirs. They are $8 each. Just look for one of the PSUBAMS officers to purchase one.

Sixth Semester Advising Reminder: All sixth semester students should make an appointment with their advisor to review their academic progress and scheduling plans.

IUG Open to All Students: The Graduate Council has recently approved the proposal to make the IUG program open to all students (as opposed to just Schreyer's Honors students). The new policy will go into effect in the Spring 2007. For those who aren't familiar with the IUG program, it is an integrated B.S./M.S. (IUG) program that is designed to allow academically superior students to obtain both the B.S. and the M.S. degree in Meteorology in five years of study. [More info]

New Commencement Schedule for Fall Commencement at University Park: For the announcement visit: http://live.psu.edu/story/19285

WxChallenge:
WxChallenge website: http://wxchallenge.com/

Chi Epsilon Pi Tutoring Services: For every undergraduate meteorology class and Math 140/140G and Math 141, a tutor has been selected who has extensive background in the topic. The idea is that this is a person you can contact if you feel you need more assistance with a course than the instructor and TA can provide. Most importantly, this service is completely free of charge! If you are struggling with a class this fall, please use Chi Epsilon Pi's tutoring services. The best way to contact tutors is via email, even though an impromptu visit to a tutor's office may be fruitful on some occasions. The tutoring list can be viewed at http://www.met.psu.edu/dept/courses/tutoringlist.html

Weekly forecast discussions will return on Tuesday, January 23, 2007! These discussions will take place each Tuesday afternoon at 2:45 in the Weather Station Classroom during the spring semester. They will be informal, last about 30 minutes, and will be lead by a Penn State, AccuWeather, or National Weather Service forecaster. Everyone with an interest in weather forecasting is invited! Feel free to drop in on the discussions whenever possible, whether it is on a weekly basis or just once or twice all semester. It is our hope that the experts giving the discussions can teach us a little more about weather forecasting and the audience engage and question the forecast discussion leader. We are still in need of more forecast discussion leaders for the spring semester, so if you have an interest in leading a forecast discussion or know someone you think would be interested, please contact Zack at zmb102@psu.edu.

2007 Student Career Experience Program positions at the Meteorological Development Lab located in Silver Spring, MD. Please visit the following website for details about this COOP opportunity: http://www.nws.noaa.gov/mdl/coop/coop.htm

Plan Ahead for Meteo 414! I thought I would give you some advanced notice concerning our plans for Meteo 414, Mesoscale Meteorology. By Spring '07 we are planning to schedule the course in a newly renovated room on the first floor of Walker that will have a maximum capacity of 36 students. This spring we were able to accommodate 40 students in the course, but we will not be able to do so in the future. If you were planning to take the course in Spring '07, but could take it in Fall '06, then please do so as there are currently spaces available. We wish to make the course available to each of you who wants to take it, but to ensure that you are able to register for the course, we ask that you plan ahead and take it at the earliest possible time in which there are openings in the class. Sincerely, Professor Shirer

Become a student member of the AMS: http://www.ametsoc.org/memb/


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