spans a little under 300 years.  The first ideas to the theorem came from Fermat when he invented his infinite descent in 1659.  His infinite descent is important to this theorem because it gives us a way to reduce the elliptic equations to find the generators of E.  The next step occurred with Abel showing the elliptic curves have a group structure around 1820.  It wasn't until the turn of the century when Poincaré conjectured that E  was finitely generated.  Roughly 30 years later in 1930, Mordell proved this conjecture.
    In doing this thesis, I was able to apply many different ideas that I had learned in other math classes; two of which are abstract algebra and geometry.  As the year rolls to an end, I cannot believe that I actually accomplished my goal of completing a senior thesis.  For anyone who is considering writing thesis, I advise you to follow through with the thought, or at least look into it.  Especially because you have the opportunity to choose your topic.  So, if there is something that you have always wanted to learn, a senior thesis gives you the opportunity.  Lastly, I just want to give a big thanks to Professor Koch for being so helpful and patient.  Thanks to him, I understand.

by Nathan Collins

    Peng Lu was the speaker at Hilbert Space's May 7 Distinguished Speaker Colloquium (not too shabby, right?).  He is an assistant professor of mathematics at the U of O.  We subjected him to the usual barrage of questions.  Here is a little bit of what we gleaned:
    He is originally from China and did his undergraduate studies there.  He earned his Ph.D. at Stony Brook University in New York in 1996.  Before coming to the U of O he spent some time at University of Minnesota.
    We asked him when he became interested in mathematics, expecting to hear about some teacher he really liked in high school or whatever people usually say.  He said it was when he was writing his Ph.D. dissertation!  Apparently he was quite a good student in high school and after graduating he wanted to go to college, but was unsure what to major in.  He said that the main things available to him, besides vocational school, were programs in mathematics, physics, and biology (or was it chemistry?).  He wasn't particularly fond of any of them, but thought he preferred math or physics and finally decided on math.  He said it was while working on his dissertation that he first saw the beauty in mathematics because he was finally grasping something like a big picture, as opposed to many disconnected areas, as one sometimes perceives things taking undergraduate courses.  Well, we can probably assume he made a good choice, because he seems to do okay with this math stuff.
    We asked what his research was about.  He said he specializes in differential geometry and topology,

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