Ohio Wesleyan Math Student Receives $3,000 Award
Ohio Wesleyan student Amina S. Mendez accepts a $3,000 Trjitzinsky Scholarship from the American Mathematical Society (AMS). Presenting the scholarship is Alan Zaring, chair of the OWU Department of Mathematics and Computer Science. (Photo courtesy of the American Mathematical Society)
Ohio Wesleyan student Amina S. Mendez, a junior mathematics major and computer science minor, has been awarded a $3,000 Trjitzinsky (terr-JIN-skee) Scholarship from the American Mathematical Society (AMS).
Mendez, from the Philippines, credits her third-grade teacher for inspiring her passion for mathematics. While in high school, she jointly authored a research paper and presented at a regional science fair. She then was awarded national and private scholarships and attended the University of the Philippines, where she was a University Scholar and on the Dean’s List. Now at Ohio Wesleyan, she will complete her undergraduate studies (focusing on abstract algebra and statistics), and plans to continue her studies in graduate school to pursue a career in academia.
The AMS made $21,000 in awards to seven students, nationwide, through the Waldemar J. Trjitzinsky Memorial Fund. The fund is made possible by a bequest from the estate of Waldemar J., Barbara G., and Juliette Trjitzinsky, which stipulates that the income from the bequest should be used to establish a fund to assist students who need financial support to complete a degree program in mathematics.
The AMS chose seven geographically distributed schools in a random drawing from the pool of the Society’s institutional members, and the mathematics departments at those schools chose students to receive the funds. Read more about all of the recipients.
Waldemar J. Trjitzinsky was born in Russia in 1901 and received his doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1926. He taught at a number of institutions before taking a position at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, where he remained for the rest of his professional life. He showed particular concern for students of mathematics and in some cases made personal efforts to ensure that financial considerations would not hinder their studies. Trjitzinsky was the author of about 60 mathematics papers, primarily on quasi-analytic functions and partial differential equations. A member of the AMS for 46 years, he died in 1973.
About the American Mathematical Society
Founded in 1888 to further mathematical research and scholarship, the 30,000-member American Mathematical Society fulfills its mission through programs and services that promote mathematical research and its uses, strengthen mathematical education, and foster awareness and appreciation of mathematics and its connections to other disciplines and to everyday life.