LEWISTON – Members of the Bates College science faculties recognized during 2003 for their achievements included a mathematician, a chemist and a geologist.

In August, Warren Johnson, visiting assistant professor of mathematics, received an award from the Mathematical Association of America for an article published in the association’s journal.

Also in August, assistant professor of chemistry Jennifer Koviach received a grant of more than $37,000 to support her research in organic chemistry.

In November, professor of geology J. Dykstra Eusden Jr. traveled to Seattle to present research at the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America.

Johnson was one of five mathematicians to receive the Mathematical Association of America’s Lester R. Ford Award. Established in 1964 and consisting of a citation and a cash prize, the award recognizes articles of expository excellence published in the American Mathematical Monthly.

Johnson’s article, “The Curious History of Fa di Bruno’s Formula,” was published in the March 2002 issue and discusses a calculus formula that, as he explains, involves the taking “of a derivative of a function of a function ‘n’ times for some unspecified number ‘n.'”

The Ford Award citation praised Johnson for “a great job of tracing the roots of this formula as it appeared in various forms over the years, and presenting them in a way that fully engages [readers] regardless of their background.”

Koviach received a grant of $37,218 to support her research into carbohydrates that are attached to certain naturally occurring antibiotics. She and her students are exploring methods of attaching these same carbohydrates to other kinds of molecules, research that could have important applications in the pharmaceuticals industry.

The grant, a Cottrell College Science Award from Research Corporation, defrays the costs of faculty and student summertime salaries, equipment and supplies. In addition to advancing this specific project, says Koviach, the funding is important because of its benefit to Bates students.

“Research students can perform organic synthesis in a modern lab with facilities that are comparable to research universities,” she says. “The best was to learn organic chemistry is to do it, and this grant allows students to do just that.”

Finally, Eusden, a member of the Bates class of 1980, presented research at the 115th annual meeting of the Geological Society of America. Working with researchers from the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand, Eusden is investigating a section of a geologic fault in that country’s South Island.

“The Hope fault is one of the most active faults in New Zealand, moving at a rate of about four centimeters a year,” Eusden explains. “We studied the relationships between the landscape and the faults along the Charwell River, which has jumped its channel at least three times in the recent geologic past as a result of the fast-moving Hope fault.”