The Department of Mathematics and Statistics along with Dr. William LaCourse, Dean of the College of Natural and Mathematical Sciences, join the entire UMBC community in mourning the passing of Professor Emeritus Thomas Seidman on August 14, 2024.

A native of New York, Dr. Seidman earned a B.A. from the University of Chicago, an M.A. from Columbia University Teachers College, and an M.S. and Ph.D. from New York University. He worked at Boeing Scientific Research Laboratories and Lawrence Livermore Lab in the 1960s, and held positions at UCLA, the University of Wisconsin, Wayne State University, and Carnegie Mellon University. He joined the UMBC faculty as an associate professor in 1972. In January 2017, he retired after 45 years of distinguished scholarship and service to UMBC, with wide-ranging contributions to the mathematics community.

During his time at UMBC, Tom was an esteemed and omnipresent entity in the department. In addition to his extensive contributions to the intellectual life of the department, Tom also played a strong role in the department. He wrote the departmental bylaws on the chair election procedure and was the promotion and tenure (P&T) committee chair for a long time. In 1992, he served as the acting Chair of the Department of Mathematics and Statistics. 

He was a prolific mathematician with well over a hundred publications (169 with 69 co-authors from MathSciNet) and a Google Scholar citation count of over 4000. His area of research was “all things applied analysis,” which included partial differential equations, control theory and semigroup theory, and was often applied to various mathematical modeling problems. He also contributed to the field of operations research. It was almost customary for him to kick off the math colloquium series, as well as the differential equations seminar series every semester, by being the first person to volunteer to speak. There was a special seat reserved for him in the front row of MP401 from where he would dim and brighten the room lights during seminars and colloquia. His colleagues remarked that they could always count on Tom to pose insightful questions to the speaker after the talk. 

Despite his mathematical stature, Tom was a very friendly and unassuming colleague. Conversations with him always wound up centering around an interesting mathematical problem, whether from first year calculus or advanced functional analysis. Tom was also an enthusiastic mentor to many junior faculty. He collaborated with multiple colleagues in the department and also with many others from North America, Europe, Australia, and South America. He spent the 1980-81 school year as a visiting professor at the University of Nice, and during one sabbatical, he visited seven countries on five continents. Tom had an Erdős number of three. 

Tom married his late wife, Dr. Marjorie Shriro, in 1969. He is survived by his son, Gregory, daughter-in-law, Carrie, and grandchildren, Ren and Avery. He will be greatly missed. Services for Dr. Seidman will be held at the Owen Brown Interfaith Center in Columbia, MD on Saturday, January 11, 2025. 

Dear UMBC Community,

Since my arrival at UMBC last year, I have had the opportunity to speak with and learn from so many of you. I want to share some staffing updates to the Division of Institutional Equity (DoIE) that come as the direct result of these conversations; our response to last spring’s Department of Justice investigation; our goal of being the best partner and resource to our students, faculty, and staff; and our shared vision of inclusive excellence at UMBC.

I am pleased to share that UMBC is following through on its commitment to build DoIE and the resources that are so needed on our campus. For those unfamiliar with our division, I’d like to share the DoIE organizational chart and an overview of some recent changes, along with exciting hires:

• Equity and Civil Rights (ECR) – This existing office is responsible for managing UMBC’s efforts related to Title IX as well as other civil rights issues, including discrimination, harassment, hate, and bias.
  
  We will welcome Marcus Foster as our inaugural assistant vice president for Equity and Civil Rights and Title IX coordinator on September 10. Marcus most recently served as assistant provost for Title IX compliance and education at Tulane University, where he oversaw the university's efforts to prevent and respond to incidents of gender-based discrimination, harassment, and retaliation. Originally from Reading, Pennsylvania, he earned his bachelor's degree in politics from Ursinus College and his Juris Doctorate from Tulane University Law School.
  
  
  We also recently welcomed a new hearing officer, Tamara Kosic, former director and Title IX coordinator for the Office of Civil Rights and Title IX at Randolph University, and administrative assistant Irene Vizcarra ’19, who previously worked in UMBC’s Office of Financial Aid.

• Community and Culture – This unit of the division will focus on ensuring the university upholds its core value of inclusive excellence by furthering DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion), belonging, and social justice initiatives for students, faculty, and staff.
  
  I am pleased to share that on September 9, we will welcome Jasmine Lee as our inaugural associate vice president for Community and Culture, and as co-director of the newly-created Center for Social Justice Dialogue. Jasmine most recently served as vice president of equity and inclusive excellence at Goucher College, where she worked with students, staff, and faculty to create inclusive campus environments through programming and strategic leadership. Prior to Goucher, she served as director of inclusive excellence and Initiatives for Identity, Inclusion, and Belonging (i3b) at UMBC. She earned her bachelor’s of social work degree from Eastern Michigan University, a master’s of social work from the University of Michigan, and her Ph.D. from Michigan State University.
  
  
  
  We also recently welcomed Ciara Christian, M.A. ’18, Ph.D. ’22, former acting director of i3b, and Adam Watkins ’17, former administrative assistant for i3b. Ciara will serve as co-director of the Center for Social Justice Dialogue, which is focused on facilitating and training others to facilitate and engage in constructive conversations and critical dialogues across differences. Adam will serve as administrative assistant for the center.
  

This restructuring and new hiring represent the significant investment UMBC is making in this important work. Please join me in welcoming our new colleagues to DoIE!

Sincerely,

Tanyka M. Barber

Vice President for Institutional Equity and Chief Diversity Officer

All power has been restored to campus. True Grit’s will open for dinner at 5 p.m. Thank you for your patience.