NEWS RELEASE

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UW-Eau Claire Mathematician
Receives NSF Support for Research 

MAILED: June 21, 2002

         EAU CLAIRE — The National Science Foundation has once again recognized the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire's commitment to undergraduate research by awarding the university a $47,000 grant to continue a mathematics research project under the direction of Dr. Michael Penkava, assistant professor of mathematics.
         Penkava began the project, which involves collaborating with mathematicians in Hungary to study the versal deformations of infinity algebras, in 1997, but for more than four years he also has been including some of his undergraduate students in his research. This is one of the largest of the NSF grants he has received to support his project, "RUI: Versal Deformations, Deformation Quantization, Moduli Spaces and Graph Complexes."
         According to Donald Zeutschel, coordinator for research services at UW-Eau Claire, it is unusual for undergraduate research assistants to be involved in a major NSF mathematics research project. "Dr. Penkava should be commended for involving undergraduate students in his research," said Zeutschel.
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  News Bureau
Judy Berthiaume
UW-Eau Claire News Bureau
Schofield 201
(715) 836-4741
newsbur@uwec.edu

Updated: June 21, 2002