Few undergraduates in the world produce mathematics research papers. Olexei Motrunich, a Mizzou student on an exchange from Uzhhorod State University in Ukraine, is one of them.
Motrunich has jointly written "A sharp Estimate for the Hardy Littlewood Maximal Function" with Dr. Loukas Grafakos and Dr. Stephen Montgomery-Smith.
The collaboration began when Olexei showed up at the Putnam Exam study session conducted by Grafakos. "I was immediately impressed that Olexei could do all the problems," Grafakos says.
Grafakos and Montgomery-Smith then applied for a grant from the Research Council to support Olexei for a semester to do numerical computations. They set him to work on a problem that has been around since the 1930s, and their collaboration resulted in the solution of a special case of this problem. "This is a difficult problem, and even our special case is widely appreciated," Grafakos says.
Grafakos lectured on the results in a special session at a regional meeting of the American Mathematical Society in Kent, Ohio, in November. "It became even more clear how many people are interested in this problem," he says, "when I lectured to a standing room only audience."
The experience has been an interesting and rewarding one for Olexei. After Grafakos identified Olexei as co-author during his talk at Kent, an audience member, who assumed Olexei was an MU professor, sent him a stack of his papers and inquired about obtaining a job in the department, so he could work with people such as Olexei. "This is the first time I had any experience with research," Olexei says. "It was exciting, challenging, and informative. It's a good way to learn and to see what research in science is like and what to expect. In textbooks, everything is easy and clear."
With Olexei's participation the department has produced its strongest Putnam Exam team in the history of the department. Olexei is a joint physics and mathematics major who wants to pursue a PhD in physics, where he can use his strengths in mathematics. He has been accepted in the graduate program at Princeton University starting in fall 1996.
He considers his American educational exchange equally valuable. "There are many more resources here, especially the library, and the availability of computers is incredible," he says. "Also, class sizes are much smaller, professors are more approachable and the faculty is younger at MU. Something that is really good here is the Research Experience for Undergraduates program. They should continue and even expand that program."
His adviser says the experience of interacting with students such as Olexei is "wonderful" for the faculty. "We are very fortunate to have Olexei here," Grafakos says. "We should stress exchange programs even more. Unfortunately, Congress has just voted to eliminate the program that brought Olexei to our university."
