Faculty of the MathPath summer math camp for the highly gifted


Glen Van Brummelen Quest University, British Columbia, Canada
Renowned expert in the history of Greek and other early mathematics, past president of the Canadian Society for History and Philosophy of Mathematics, Professor Van Brummelen returns to his sixth year at MathPath. He is author of the recently published The Mathematics of the Heavens and the Earth: The Early History of Trigonometry.

John H. Conway John von Neumann Distinguished Professor of Mathematics, Princeton University
	Conway is one of the great creative thinkers of our time and a master of mathematics communication with mathematical audiences at all levels. Conway originally suggested the name MathPath as fitting a national program for the very young students beginning their journey on the mathematical path. Conway will be present for the first week and give the kick-off lecture.

Thomas Drucker Department of Mathematics, Univ. of Wisconsin at Whitewater
An expert in the history and philosophy of mathematics, Drucker has contributed to and edited books and journals on the use of history in the classroom. He speaks about this and related issues in Europe and North America. He is also current president of the Wisconsin Association of Scholars. In addition, he plays a mean ping-pong game, and is the man to beat when students are competing in the table tennis tournaments he organizes. Professor Drucker returns to his sixth summer at MathPath.
Alan Lippert Mathematics Teacher and Math Team Coach, retired first from IBM and then from Lakeside Middle School, Seattle, WA
Academic Director of MathPath 2003-2005, with long experience in training highly gifted middle school students for Mathcounts competitions, and with national and regional winners to his credit, Mr. Lippert now gives practice courses and advice for national and regional Mathcounts competitions. But at MathPath he is probably most famous for his daily Problem of the Day and for the great puzzles he gives out as prizes.

Stephen Maurer Professor of Mathematics, Swarthmore College, PA
	Professor Maurer is former Chair of the American Mathematics Competitions, co-author of "Discrete Algorithmic Mathematics" and "Contest Problem Book IV", and an expert on mathematical writing, in which he will lead the students at MathPath through discussion of their solutions to the Qualifying Test. He also runs MathPath courses on AMC competitions and various fundamental discrete mathematics topics such as mathematical induction. Beyond MathPath and Swarthmore, he has been a participant in several mathematics curriculum projects and is the Editor of the Notes series of the Mathematical Association of America.

Francis Edward Su Professor of Mathematics, Harvey Mudd College, Claremont, CA
Author of the hugely popular Math Fun Facts website, and awarded prizes by Mathematical Association of America for expository writing (2001 Merten M. Hasse Prize) and distinguished teaching (2004 Henry L. Alder Award). He has a passion for popularizing mathematics and is coach of a Putnam problem-solving group at his college that attracts a remarkable 10 percent of the student body. He enjoys exploring mathematics problems that are motivated from the social sciences. This will be his third year at MathPath (4th week).

Amelia Taylor Assistant Professor of Mathematics, Colorado College
	Professor Taylor first visited MathPath in 2007, when she gave a special lecture and workshop on the Game SET.^® This year she returns as regular faculty for two weeks. Her mathematical interests range from polynomials to evolutionary biology, and she gives talks to a wide variety of audiences on a regular basis, including the Colorado Math Circle. In addition to mathematics, Professor Taylor fills her time with rock climbing, skiing, and trail running.
George R. Thomas Executive Director of MathPath, Founder and Executive Director Emeritus of Canada/USA Mathcamp for mathematically talented high school students
	After a short stint of seven years teaching college in South Carolina, Thomas has worked with summer camps he founded. He has taught at these camps since 1993 and is in his ninth year at MathPath. He will lead at least two sessions on geometry, as always, one of them non-Euclidan. He has published journal articles in Extremal Graph Theory and is also a soccer player and an inventor.

Sam Vandervelde Assistant Professor of Mathematics, St. Lawrence University, NY and Coordinator of the Mandelbrot Competition
Professor Vandervelde delights in presenting beautiful mathematics in an engaging manner to students of all ages. He is an experienced problem solver and writer, and has spent a number of summers working with middle school students. Aside from math, he enjoys building with Zome Tools, playing soccer, and going rock climbing. He returns to his fourth year at MathPath.

Paul Zeitz Professor of Mathematics, University of San Francisco, CA *Tentatively visiting for one or two guest lectures in 2009*
Professor Zeitz specializes in mathematical problem solving. As a high school student, he was a member of the first USA team to compete in the International Mathematical Olympiad, and, as a college professor, has helped to coach several USA teams, including the 1994 team that received a perfect score in Hong Kong. He has organized several math competitions in the San Francisco Bay Area, and is the author of "The Art and Craft of Problem Solving."

MathPath – "BRIGHT AND EARLY" Copyright © 2001– MathPath Last updated February 14, 2010