Notes and News
The Alma College Percussion Ensemble performed at the prestigious Centrum Jazz Festival, an international festival in Port Townsend, Wash., in July 2007. Alma was the only college group invited to perform. “It’s a huge honor,” says faculty director Dave Zerbe. “You can’t apply to perform there; they seek you out.”
Faculty Profile
Dr. Robert Molina
Departments: Mathematics
Associate Math Professor Robert Molina has a puzzle obsession. From Sudoku to Rubik’s cubes, he has a vast collection of puzzles in his home - and always brings a table-full to the annual math taco dinner.
Mind puzzles are a branch of his expert field, combinatorics, which is the study of discrete (and usually finite) objects. In other words, it deals with arrangement of items like books on a self, or numbers in a defined set.