Iowa Section Awards

• Distinguished Teaching
  • Description of Award
  • Call for Nominations
  • Previous Recipients
• Meritorious Service

Certificate for Meritorious Service.

2016 - Ruth Berger

Since moving to Decorah, Iowa in 1993 to join the faculty at Luther College, Ruth Berger has been active in the Iowa Section. She is a faithful attendee and regular presenter at the annual section meetings. But Ruth’s commitment goes far beyond that. For most of the last two decades she has also served as either an officer or committee chair for the section.

Serving as vice-chair, Ruth organized the section meeting in spring 1998 and she continued her service on the section executive committee as chair and past chair. This was followed by a term (2001-2004) as section governor.

Further, Ruth's commitment to the section and to undergraduate mathematics education is best exemplified through her service as coordinator/director of the Iowa Collegiate Mathematics Competition. The competition is in its 22nd year and Ruth Berger has been its driving force for the last 15 of those years. Undergraduates from across the state work in teams of three to solve challenging mathematics problems in order to lay claim to the traveling trophy, a blown-glass Klein bottle. Ruth faithfully organizes all the details for the competition each year, finding an expert problem-writer to draft contest problems, overseeing arrangements on the host campus, publicizing the competition across the state, registering teams from participating colleges and universities, and organizing faculty to score the students' work. The competition owes its success to Ruth’s continuing dedication.