Page 29 - Laker Connection Spring 2013

student profile
MARCUS BARTLETT
HOORAY FOR THE BARTLETT INDEX
Dreams are being made real at Clay- ton State University by Marcus Bartlett. Coming to Clayton State by way of a GED and then transfer- ring from Southern Poly, Bartlett is now double majoring in mathematics and chemistry with a minor in physics while also working for UPS, volunteering for the Center for Academic Success as a peer tutor and supplemental instructor, and raising his now five-year old son, Chase. Quite a resume for someone who says, “I did not choose these majors, but instead they chose me. I was never the best at math and science in high school and instead my in- terests lay in drafting and architecture.”
It could also be said that this former budding architect has built some impressive accomplishments in chemical graph theoretic literature; recently Bartlett had a topological index for molecules repre- sentable by graph theoretic trees named after him – the Bartlett Index.
(In case you’re not a math or chemistry major, the Bartlett Index is calculated by summing the lengths of paths in such molecular representations between leaf and non-leaf vertices. But maybe you knew that already.)
“Hooray for the Bartlett Index!” says College of Information and Mathematical Sciences Dean Dr. Lila Roberts. “Marcus is a shining star for Clayton State -- given his background, coming in with a GED, double majoring in math and chemistry, work- ing like he has had to do, and raising his precious lit- tle boy, he is a poster child for ‘Dreams. Made Real.’”
“I have had the chance to take classes with some great professors at Clayton State and would owe my success and my transition from going from a “B” student to a mostly all “A” student to these people,” says Bartlett, singling out Dean Roberts, Dr. Elliott Krop, and Dr. Cathie Aust among the math
faculty, and Dr. Jonathan Lyon in chemistry. “I would like to give Dr. Lyon credit for introducing me to and heightening my interest in theoretical and computational chemistry. I plan on attending grad- uate school in these areas of chemistry. I have also been given the chance to work with Dr. Krop for four semesters of research now, and I have learned a lot about research from
him and how to suc- cessfully go about gaining results and thinking outside the box.”
In fact, Krop and Bartlett co-au- thored (along with Drs. Colton Magnant and Hua Wang of Georgia Southern
University, and Fedelis Mutiso, a Clayton State grad- uate currently studying at Georgia Southern) the paper, “Variations of Distance-Based Invariants of Trees,” which was accepted to the Journal of Com- binatorial Mathematics and Combinatorial Comput- ing.
“I plan on attending graduate school starting in the fall to study theoretical chemistry,” says Bartlett. “I would say that both the mathematics and chemistry undergraduate educations I have obtained from Clayton State have been great in preparing me for graduate school. Clayton State has been amazing, and I have had the opportunity to work with some great minds.”
That’s undoubtedly true, however, it’s also true that not many graduate students have a topolog- ical index for molecules named after them.
__ John Shiffert
Marcus is a shining star for Clayton State -- given his background, coming in with a GED, double majoring in math and chemistry, working like he has had to do, and raising his precious little boy, he is a poster child for “Dreams. Made Real.”
- Lila Roberts, Dean of CIMS
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