In News on Friday, October 9, 2009 by Eric Fu
My heartiest congratulations to the forty-fourth President of the United States Barack Obama; he was bestowed the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize by the Norwegian Nobel committee this morning.
Everyone is surprised — there was no discussion of Obama being a possible candidate prior to this announcement. His “extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples” has landed him this amazing honor, which is indeed an extraordinary recognition for such a young president.
Again, congratulations Mr Obama. Félicitation, Monsieur Obama.
In Academics on Friday, October 9, 2009 by Eric Fu
Last week, I was talking to several professors whose research area is analysis because I was hoping to start a reading course.
One of them is currently on sabbatical; the other is currently supervising three PhD students. At the end, I narrowed down to two options — functional analysis or distribution theory.
Personally, I do not know much about both fields. (I guess that’s why I chose to do a reading course at the first place, duh!) So the decision making relied heavily on the 30-minute brief preview of what I would be doing should I decide to have them as my adviser. As the title of this post suggests, I picked the latter.
I am now reading with Professor Mark Williams. By choosing distribution theory, I am positioning myself closer to the field of partial differential equations (PDE). As an undergraduate at the University of Michigan (UM), I did not take a PDE class; instead, I enrolled in a Fourier analysis course as an elective. Like every other people to whom I spoke, Professor Williams said that basic background in PDE can always be built through additional readings.
A reading course, more commonly known as an independent study at UM, is a 3-credit-hour “course” without the traditional classroom settings. There are neither lectures nor deadlines for homework or exams. Instead, a text was chosen by the professor and there will be a weekly meeting where I will present what I have self-studied and difficulties (which arise from problems I choose to attempt). As my adviser, Professor Williams will facilitate my learning by filling in gaps (e.g. lines in between proof which I do not comprehend) and sharing germane remarks (in addition to that of the text). The text that I am using is Introduction to the Theory of Distributions by Friedlander and Joshi.
In Health on Thursday, October 8, 2009 by Eric Fu
I got my seasonal flu shot this afternoon. Even though the vaccine is not too expensive, I am glad that it is covered under my Blue Cross Blue Shield insurance.
Next injection — H1N1 influenza shot.
