Elizabeth Wilcox
Department of Mathematical Sciences
Binghamton University
Binghamton, New York 13902
Email: wilcox@math.binghamton.edu
Office: LN 2408B
Summer office hours are by appointment only. I'll be around campus for most of the summer, so please don't hesitate to email and make an appointment.
Binghamton Graduate Students: Check out the dissertation template. To get things rolling, open up the file dissertation_template.tex. You can also look at the "finished product" by looking at the .pdf file.
Teaching
In the past at Binghamton University I have TAed for Math 330: Introduction to Higher Mathematics and taught Calculus I, Math 130: Math in Action, Math 147: Introduction to Statistics, Math 304: Linear Algebra, Math 314: Discrete Mathematics, and Math 330. At the University of Vermont, I taught College Algebra (Math 9) and Introduction to Discrete Math (Math 17).
Research Interests
I study group automorphisms and how to construct automorphisms based on the structure of the group. In particular, I'm interested in copmlete groups, groups with a trivial center all of whose automorphisms are inner automorphisms. I recently finished my dissertation, titled "Complete Finite Wreath Products and Frobenius Groups" under the advising of Dr. Benjamin Brewster. A link to my dissertation can be found in the Publications section. Currently we are studying complete semidirect products and normal subgroups of complete finite wreath products.
I earned an M.S. in Mathematics from the University of Vermont, where Dr. Richard Foote was my advisor. My master's thesis was an attempt to gain insight into M. Suzuki's proof that no odd-order CA-group is simple, an important step in Feit & Thompson's Theorem that all odd-order groups are solvable. Suzuki's original proof involves character theory while our partial results used permutation group theory and some graph theory. A link to my master's thesis is located in the Publications section.
After graduation from Carleton College in 2002, I received a 2002-2003 National Cancer Research Award and had the privilege of working at the National Cancer Institute at Frederick in Frederick, Maryland. I worked in a biochemistry lab under Dr. Ernest Hamel, studying nucleotide interactions with microtubule proteins for insight into the structure of these proteins. I examined the activity levels of potential anti-cancer drugs and began to establish a mammalian (kangaroo rat) cell line stably transfected with green fluorescent protein labeled tubulin. It was an interesting time, which ultimately led me to realize that my interests are more mathematical than laboratory in nature.
On Campus
With a committee of three other graduate students, I organized the fall 2008 Binghamton University Graduate Conference in Algebra & Topology. Last fall, on November 14 and 15, 2009, the conference was held a second time and was an even bigger success. The plan is to continue BUGCAT again this year. Please check the webpage (http://math.binghamton.edu/grads/gradconf) for updates. BUGCAT is a great opportunity for graduate students to network and discuss their work in an open and engaging environment. We're always looking for graduate students and faculty to give presentations and suggest keynote speakers.
Publication References
Wilcox, Elizabeth, Connor McGrath, Andrei V. Blokhin, Rick Gussio, and Ernest Hamel. "Evidence for a Distinct Ligand Binding Site on Tubulin Discovered Through Inhibition of GDP of Paclitaxel-Induced Tubulin Assembly in the Absence of Exogenous GTP." Archives of Biochemistry and Biophysics 484 (2009): 55 - 62.
De Martino, Gabriella, Giuseppe La Regina, Antonio Coluccia, Michael C. Edler, Maria Chiara Barbera, Andrea Brancale, Elizabeth Wilcox, Ernest Hamel, Marino Artico, and Romano Silvestri. "Arylthioindoles, Potent Inhibitors of Tubulin Polymerization." Journal of Medicinal Chemistry (2004): 6120-6123.
Wilcox, Elizabeth, Andrei Blockhov, Debbie J. Lee, Ernest Hamel. "An apparent absolute requirement for GTP in paclitaxel-driven tubulin assembly." Proceedings of the American Association of Cancer Research, 2003.
Professional Materials
Personal Links
The Outdoor Forum New York State Featured Hikes
New York State Hiking Trail Finder – Some of the links are dead ends, but some of them can lead to very nice websites with good information about hiking trails.
Updated May 18, 2010.