The following are the instructors who will teach for at least one week at MathPath 2011, listed in alphabetical order.
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Gene Abrams
Professor of Mathematics, University of Colorado – Colorado Springs
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Professor Abrams first visited MathPath in 2009, when he gave a two-part plenary on "Mad Veterinarian" Problems. This year he returns to give a full four day breakout session on the same subject. His mathematical interests are in algebra, specifically in noncommutative rings. He is director of the Pikes Peak Math Teachers' Circle. He is a University of Colorado President's Teaching Scholar, and was recognized in 2002 as the Rocky Mountain Section MAA Teacher of the Year. In addition to mathematics, Professor Abrams' passions include bicycling, skiing, baseball, and the New York Times Sunday Crossword.
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Glen Van Brummelen
Quest University, British Columbia, Canada
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Distinguished mathematical historian, with special expertise in Islamic mathematics and astronomy, and past president of the Canadian Society for History and Philosophy of Mathematics, Professor Van Brummelen returns to his seventh year at MathPath. He is author of The Mathematics of the Heavens and the Earth: The Early History of Trigonometry.
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Owen Byer
Professor of Mathematics, Eastern Mennonite University, Harrisonburg VA
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Like the rest of the Mathpath faculty, Owen is a lover of beautiful mathematics, especially topics from Discrete Mathematics. In recent years he has become fond of geometry, coauthoring the text "Methods for Euclidean Geometry," published in 2010 by the Mathematical Association of America. Owen's favorite courses to teach are History of Mathematics and Probability. He has also been a coach at his son's elementary school for the MOEMS contest (Math Olympiads for Elementary and Middle Schools). His favorite hobbies include playing basketball and duplicate bridge.
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Silva Chang
Lecturer, Department of Applied Mathematics, University of Colorado at Boulder
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As director of the Colorado Math Circle, coach of the Colorado ARML Team, and five-time coach of the Colorado MATHCOUNTS Team, Ms. Chang has mentored and taught MOSP attendees, USAMO qualifiers, and state MATHCOUNTS champions. Her son is a former MathPath participant and daughter a former MathPath counselor. Ms. Chang taught a mathematical origami course last year and is looking forward to returning to MathPath this summer.
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John H. Conway
John von Neumann Distinguished Professor of Mathematics, Princeton
University
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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.
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Thomas Drucker
Department of Mathematics, Univ. of Wisconsin at Whitewater
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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 table tennis game, and is the man to beat when students are competing in the tournaments he organizes. Professor Drucker returns to his seventh summer at MathPath. |  |
David Grant
Professor of Mathematics, University of Colorado at Boulder
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This is Professor Grant's first year at MathPath, but he is no stranger to summer math programs: He was an instructor at MIT's MITES program and a student at the Hampshire College Summer Studies in Mathematics Program.
He is an award-winning teacher at the University of Colorado, where
he researches in number theory and the applications of algebra to digital communications. He has also taught at the University of Michigan and at Cambridge University. He has dabbled in polling and in science journalism,
and has just published an article on sabermetrics in The Cambridge Companion to Baseball.
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Alan Lippert
Mathematics Teacher and Math Team Coach, retired first from IBM and then from Lakeside Middle School, Seattle, WA
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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.
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Stephen Maurer
Professor of Mathematics, Swarthmore College, Swarthmore PA
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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.
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Isil Nal
Harmony School of Excellence, Houston TX
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Isil Nal is a mathematics teacher and assistant principal at the Harmony School of Excellence in Houston TX. As a math coach at HSE, Mrs. Nal has taught State and National MATHCOUNTS participants, USA(J)MO qualifiers and MOSP attendees. In 2011 she was the coach of the Texas MATHCOUNTS Team that placed 3rd at nationals. She is a recipient of the MAA's Edyth May Sliffe Award for Excellence in Teaching and the Raytheon MathMovesU Heroes Award.
This will be her 2nd year at MathPath.
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Osman Nal
Assistant Professor of Finance, North American College, Houston TX
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Professor Nal has a deep passion for teaching math (and its applications in business). He has special interest in utilizing games and experiments to explain fundamental ideas and concepts in economics and finance. HeÕs also been helping high school students prepare for math olympiads over the last 3 years. He was a mathematics major as an undergraduate in Turkey. Dr. Nal enjoys reading books about economics and philosophy.
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Jonathan Rogness
Assistant Professor of Mathematics, University of Minnesota
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Professor Rogness loves to make complex mathematical ideas accessible to students of all ages. He is well known for his beautiful
mathematical visualizations, including an award-winning video,
Möbius Transformations Revealed, which went viral online
and has been viewed by nearly two million people. Rogness was
recently named the new Director of
the University of Minnesota's Mathematics Center
for Educational Programs, which runs one of the nation's premier
accelerated mathematics programs for middle school students.
2011 will be his 2nd year at MathPath
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Francis Edward Su
Professor of Mathematics, Harvey Mudd College, Claremont, CA
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| 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 fourth year at MathPath (4th week).
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Amelia Taylor
Assistant Professor of Mathematics, Colorado College
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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 one week. 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.
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George R. Thomas
Executive Director of MathPath, Founder and Executive Director Emeritus of
Canada/USA Mathcamp for mathematically talented high school students
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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.
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Sam Vandervelde
Assistant Professor of Mathematics, St. Lawrence University, Canton NY, and Coordinator
of the Mandelbrot Competition
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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 fifth year at MathPath. |
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John Watkins
Professor Emeritus of Mathematics, Colorado College
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| Professor Watkins has worked mainly in the area of graph theory and many of his published papers have included undergraduates as co-authors. He has written several highly regarded books, including Graphs: An Introductory Approach (with Robin Wilson), Across the Board: The Mathematics of Chessboard Problems, and Topics in Commutative Ring Theory. He is currently working on two more books: Elementary Theory of Numbers and The History of Combinatorics (the latter again with Robin Wilson). This will be his third year at MathPath.
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MathPath – "BRIGHT AND EARLY"
Copyright © 2001– MathPath
Last updated June 1, 2011
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