Jessica Sklar, associate professor of mathematics at PLU, was named a recipient of the Carl B. Allendoerfer Award from the Mathematical Association of America. She received the honor, along with her co-author Gene Abrams, for the article "The Graph Menagerie: Abstract Algebra and the Mad Veterinarian," Mathematics Magazine (2010).
The article by Sklar and Abrams is described as "accessible and well-written...with a fanciful concept from recreational mathematics: a machine that can transmogrify a single animal of a given species into a finite nonempty collection of animals from any number of species."
So, with that premise, the two ask and address the question: "if a Mad Veterinarian has a finite slate of such machines, then which animal menageries are equivalent?"
The Allendoerfer Award are given to authors of expository articles published in Mathematics Magazine. Established in 1976, it was named after Carl B. Allendoerfer, a distinguished mathematician at the University of Washington and President of the Mathematical Association of America from, 1959-60.