Black holes are a common scientific discussion topic today -- but to the astrophysicists, theoretical physicists and mathematicians attending Indiana University's Capra Conference on radiation reaction, predictions still outweigh proof when it comes to black holes and their interstellar antics. The conference begins Monday, June 15 and culminates Friday, June 19.

A newly-arrived mathematician to Indiana University has been named among 118 young scientists, economists and mathematicians as an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow. Ciprian Demeter, 33, will receive a $50,000 research grant from the Sloan Foundation, which since 1955 has made awards to young researchers having gone on to win a cumulative 38 Nobel Prizes and 14 Fields Medals, considered the highest honor in mathematics.

A 19-year-old Indiana University student who this spring will graduate Phi Beta Kappa with majors in chemistry, mathematics and Germanic studies has been named a 2009 Marshall Scholar by the British government. The scholarship, one of 40 awarded this year to students in the U.S., will allow Yun William Yu to travel to Britain and earn master's degrees over the next two years in computational biology at the University of Cambridge and biomedical physical chemistry at Imperial College London.

Supplemental National Science Foundation funding will expand the already successful Robert Noyce Scholarship program at the IU School of Education at IUPUI to establish the Noyce Teaching Fellowship. Three Noyce Scholars will be named Noyce Fellows and will receive additional scholarship money to complete work toward an M.S. degree in secondary education.

Indiana University Bloominton's newest science building, Simon Hall, has won high honors in R&D Magazine's 2008 "Lab of the Year," an architecture competition for research facilities. Madison, Wisc.-based Flad & Associates, which designed Simon Hall, submitted their contest entry in January. Flad architects worked closely with IU architects to design a 141,000-square-foot structure that encourages interdisciplinary collaboration among researchers in fields as disparate as biology, chemistry, physics, and mathematics.

Indiana schools that need qualified math teachers will benefit from a nearly $500,000 grant awarded by the National Science Foundation's Robert Noyce Scholarship program to Indiana University Bloomington.

Talented students make fine lobbyists for higher education in Congress. In fact, they can accomplish some things there that professional lobbyists can't, as three Indiana University undergraduates recently discovered. The students spent a day in Washington, D.C., meeting with staff members of Indiana senators and representatives in support of funding for the National Science Foundation.

Indiana University Bloomington juniors Elizabeth Adams and Robert Koffie have been named Goldwater Scholars for the 2006-07 academic year. The third student nominated by IU for this prestigious award, Bryan Schmidt, received an Honorable Mention. Adams and Koffie were among 323 scholars selected by the Goldwater Foundation from a field of 1,081 mathematics, science and engineering students nationwide.

Prospects for peace in the "Math Wars" are brighter, following a conference here funded by the National Science Foundation and Texas Instruments and hosted by the Mathematical Association of America.

A noted Colombian anthropologist is among several experts who will share their views about the globalization of information and communications technologies at an upcoming conference hosted by the Indiana University School of Informatics. Arturo Escobar, distinguished professor at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, is the keynote speaker at "Informatics Goes Global: Methods at a Crossroads," March 3-5, at IU Bloomington.

A twisted soap bubble with a handle? Experts had thought for more than 200 years that such a structure was not even mathematically possible. But no longer. In the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Indiana University mathematician Matthias Weber and two colleagues presented a proof of the existence of a new kind of surface. "This tells us that our intuition was not quite right about what is possible and what is not possible," Weber said. "Probably one reason it was not discovered sooner is that no one imagined that something like this could exist."

Indiana University will receive a $4.4 million grant from the National Science Foundation to help improve TeraGrid -- a network of advanced computing, storage, visualization systems and instruments connected by high speed conduits. The grid allows scientists across the nation to share data, collaborate and accomplish difficult computing tasks.

Leading informatics experts from the United States, Sweden and the United Kingdom will come to Indiana University Bloomington next week to decide where their field should be going as part of a conference, "Informatics: Defining the Research Agenda," Sept. 10-12. The IU School of Informatics is adding 21 new faculty members to its IU Bloomington and Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis rosters.

The Indiana Biocomplexity Consortium will host a workshop on "Complex Behavior in Unicellular Organisms" on the Indiana University Bloomington campus from Wednesday through Sunday (May 12-16). This is the sixth in a series of workshops organized to address important topics in the field of biocomplexity -- a cross-disciplinary area fusing physics, chemistry, computer science, mathematics and the life sciences.

In an unusual tribute for any scholar, International Science Publishers recently published three volumes titled Madan Lal Puri: Selected Collected Works. Not more than three researchers nationwide have been accorded this publication honor in the past 15 to 20 years.

Students, teachers and administrators in nine urban Indiana school districts are learning that mathematics can be challenging and fun -- for the students and the teachers, for the academic "eagles" as well as struggling students. This newfound enjoyment appears to be translating into better ISTEP-Plus scores.

Indiana University Bloomington juniors Stephen Helms and Keith Turpin have been named Goldwater Scholars for the 2004-05 academic year. Helms and Turpin were among 310 scholars selected by the Goldwater Foundation from a field of 1,113 mathematics, science and engineering students nationwide.

March is Women's History Month. Indiana University is home to many faculty members whose work involves issues related to women's lives and history. Below is a sample of story ideas. You are encouraged to contact these faculty members directly, but please contact us if you need further assistance.