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| Section Meetings | Governance and Committees |
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| Newsletter | National Awards | Distinguished Teaching Award |
| NExT/PFF | Student Activities | History and Archives |
The process of awarding the Certificate for Meritorious Service occurs essentially at the Section level. Each Section is entitled and encouraged to nominate one person for the award every five years. For this purpose, the Sections of the Association are separated into five groups, with one group of Sections making their nominations to the Board each year on a rotating basis. Previous winners of the Award for Distinguished Service to Mathematics are not eligible for the Certificate. The Certificate may be issued posthumously.
In each Section, a committee of at least three members should be
appointed to select a single candidate for the award. The committee's
choice should then be communicated to the Section Governor, who will
present the name of this nominee to the Board of Governors at the
appropriate meeting. The nominating committee should provide to the
Section Governor a brief summary indicating the reasons for the
selection of the nominee. In presenting the nominee to the Board of
Governors, the Section Governor should include the citation
summarizing the MAA service contributions of the nominee. After the
Board?s approval, the name of the Awardee is public knowledge and will
be presented to the Section and the public at large. The Section
Governor will assist in making the public presentation of the
Certificate at the MAA summer business meeting.
The Seaway Section is pleased to nominate Dr. Luise-Charlotte Kappe for the
Mathematical Association of America Certificate of Meritorious Service.
With this award, we recognize her diverse contributions to the section as
officer, committee member and chair, meeting host, and speaker.
Dr. Kappe is a native of Germany, where she studied at the universities at
Erlangen and Freiburg. She obtained her Ph.D. under Theodor Schneider in
the area of transcendental numbers, and now works in group theory. In 1963,
Luise and her husband Wolfgang immigrated to the U.S. They came to SUNY
Binghamton in 1968, after five years at Ohio State.
Dr. Kappe served the section from 1994-2000 as First Vice-Chair,
Chair-Elect, Chair, and Immediate Past-Chair. She has served on and
chaired the Gehman Lecture Committee, has served on the Nominations
Committee, and was a founding member of the Seaway NExT Advisory Committee.
She helped host two meetings of the section at Binghamton, in 1993 and
2001. In addition, she is a frequent speaker at section meetings and at
math clubs throughout the section, and recently gave the post-banquet
talk at the section's 2002 spring meeting, "It's a Wonderful Life!
Observations on a Career as a Mathematician." On the national level,
Dr. Kappe is a member of the MAA's Committee on Graduate Students.
In addition to two sons, Dr. Kappe is very proud to have "raised" a
dozen Ph.D. students. Her interest in helping graduate students
become successful faculty members led her to apply for and receive
an NSF grant in 1999 for the Preparing Future Faculty (PFF) program.
It was at about this same time that Luise was instrumental in getting
the section's Project NExT program up and running, and indeed since a
couple of years the PFF and Seaway NExT participants are meeting
together at the section's spring meeting.
For her dedicated service and inspirational leadership, the Seaway
Section, with the approval of the Board of Governors, is proud to
present the MAA Certificate of Meritorious Service to
Dr. Luise-Charlotte Kappe.
"As I am sure, you are aware..." was how Martha Siegel's letter started,
announcing to me the Meritorious Service Award of the Seaway Section.
No, it came as a complete surprise! When I saw the MAA envelope in my
mailbox, I first thought it was another one of those letters, extolling
the virtues of MAA membership and urging me to join. I feel deeply
honored by this award and want to thank the MAA and its Seaway Section
for giving me the opportunity to serve.
As often in life, I made the right decision to become more active in
the MAA for the wrong reason, which was recruiting graduate students.
But in the over twenty year since then I realized that there was much
more to it. The reasons are too numerous to list them individually,
but among them are making friends with colleagues at other institutions
and helping young faculty on their way through our Seaway NExT program.
The grass roots approach of the MAA on the section level gives so many
opportunities to serve. I am looking forward to continue tending to my
"favorite grass roots", the graduate students, in helping them to get a
successful start in their professional careers.
Mentoring students is a way of life for Olympia Nicodemi, writes one
of her colleagues. Whether offering extra help to struggling students
in calculus, encouraging students with budding ability, prodding
students to take on a difficult challenge, assisting students to
obtain summer REU's and then providing a forum for them to present
their work when they return to the campus of SUNY College at Geneseo,
she is always finding ways to help students to aspire to a higher
level.
In her twenty-two years at SUNY Geneseo, Olympia has provided a role
model of excellent teaching and is undoubtedly responsible, in large
part, for the unusual growth in math majors (a current high of about
250), 65% of whom are female. She has been recognized by the SUNY
Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching and nationally, but the
Elena Lucrezia Cornaro Award for significant contributions to her
profession and community. A popular, but demanding teacher, she
developed and wrote the text for an undergraduate course in Discrete
Mathematics and developed a master's course in Classical Algebra, also
writing a text for publication. One student wrote, "According to
Webster, the definition of a teacher is one who shows or helps someone
to learn how to do something, or to provide someone with knowledge and
insight. Based on this definition, Dr. Olympia Nicodemi is not your
ordinary teacher. She goes above and beyond the call of duty?she
tries to not only teach the material, but to instill a lifelong love
of learning and math."
Beyond her classroom teaching, Olympia has directed undergraduate
research projects and honors theses in a variety of subjects, and been
a guiding force in the "Research Weekend Experience" at Geneseo in
which prominent mathematicians visit the campus for three days,
culminating in a Saturday research seminar. As a Project NExT mentor,
she has taken a leadership role in the formation of a regional Project
NExT for the MAA Seaway section. She has been a frequent presenter on
a wide variety of subjects at regional math gatherings for both
students and faculty.
Olympia has served as faculty advisor to Geneseo's student MAA chapter
for over 10 years, reaching out to student groups and nearby colleges.
Her success led to her current appointment as Student Chapter
Coordinator for the Seaway Section.
For her excellence in teaching and her extraordinary devotion to
students, we are delighted to honor Olympia Nicodemi with the Deborah
and Franklin Tepper Haimo Award for Distinguished College of
University Teaching of Mathematics.
Bio
I was born in Brooklyn, to an extraordinary mother and teacher, Anne
Nicodemi. She made learning - music and literature primarily - part
of the happy fabric of life. I found my way into mathematics as an
undergraduate at NYU through Richard Courant's book at time when he
was still at the Institute. (I recognized him from the statue!) I
continued the mathematical quest at the University of Rochester where
I learned to watch birds, attended concerts at the Eastman School, and
worked on mathematics with David Prill, an exceptional mentor to whom
I owe many thanks. At the U of R, I met Gary Towsley. Our wonderful
sons are Adam and Jacob. I have spent most of my teaching career at
SUNY Geneseo, a remarkable institution where the best scholars are the
most dedicated and innovative teachers and the students are the best
teachers of all.
MAA-Meritorious
Service Award
Haimo Award
The Mathematical Association of America's Deborah and Franklin
Tepper Haimo Award for Distinguished College or University Teaching of
Mathematics
In 1991 the Mathematical Association of America instituted Awards for
Distinguished College or University Teaching of Mathematics in order
to honor college or university teachers who have been widely
recognized as extraordinarily successful and whose teaching
effectiveness has been shown to have had influence beyond their own
institutions. In 1993 the MAA Board of Governors renamed the award to
honor Deborah and Franklin Tepper Haimo. Each year at most three
college or university teachers are honored with this national award
and receive $1000 and a certificate of recognition from the
MAA. Typically all are selected from the recipients of MAA section
teaching awards but there is the provision that one of the winners may
be selected from another source.
Directions for
nomination.
Henry L. Alder Award for Distinguished Teaching by a Beginning College or University Mathematics Faculty Member
In January 2003 the MAA established the Henry L. Alder Award for Distinguished Teaching by a Beginning College or University Mathematics Faculty Member to honor beginning college or university faculty whose teaching has been extra ordinarily successful and whose effectiveness in teaching undergraduate mathematics is shown to have influence beyond their own classrooms. An awardee must have taught full time in a mathematical science in the United States or Canada for at least two, but not more than seven, years since receiving the Ph.D. Each year at most three college or university teachers are to be honored with this national award and are to receive $1,000 and a certificate of recognition from the MAA. Award recipients will be expected to make a presentation at one of the national meetings of the MAA. Nominations for the award may be made by any member of the MAA or by any section of the MAA.
Additional
information and nomination forms for the Alder Awards.
This Lustrum's Recipient of the Meritorious Service Award
Citation
Luise-Charlotte Kappe, SUNY-Binghamton
Response from Professor Kappe
Past Recipients of the Meritorious Service Award
Recipient of the Haimo Award
Haimo Award 2004
Citation
Olympia Nicodemi, SUNY Geneseo
Deborah and Franklin Tepper Haimo Award for Distinguished College of
University Teaching of Mathematics: OLYMPIA NICODEMI
Response from Olympia Nicodemi
Receiving the Tepper-Haimo award is an overwhelming honor. My deepest
thanks go to the MAA, my school, my department and my family for their
support of the joy of learning and teaching. But I must share the
award with my students. It is mostly theirs; they learned more than I
taught.
Past Recipients of the Haimo Award
Recipient of the Alder Award
ALDER AWARD 2007
Citation
Darren A. Narayan, RIT
Darren A. Narayan is an effective, enthusiastic classroom instructor
at Rochester Institute of Technology. To help students learn and
appreciate mathematics, he incorporates innovative teaching tools,
such as web-based Java Applets and out-of-class projects involving
real world applications. For example, he has collected problems from
Microsoft Research, Mack Trucks, JetBlue Airways, and elsewhere for
classroom use. Professor Narayan has an NSF grant, "The STEM Real
World Applications Modules Project," that involves faculty members
from departments outside mathematics in writing modules for the
classroom. He continues to do research in mathematics, and has also
built up a research experience program for undergraduates that has
involved students from underrepresented groups. He regularly secures
travel support for students to attend and present work at
conferences. He has co-authored published research articles with
students, and he served as a co-organizer of a session for
presentation of research by undergraduates at the national AMS/MAA
meetings. Further, he has worked with high school teachers at DIMACS
Connect Institutes. For all these accomplishments and more, Darren
Narayan is an Alder Award recipient.
|
Home
| Section Meetings | Governance and Committees |
|---|---|---|
| Newsletter | National Awards | Distinguished Teaching Award |
| NExT/PFF | Student Activities | History and Archives |
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