This year's award winner is a man who has devoted his career of over thirty years to excellence in the teaching of mathematics. His reputation among students and colleagues at his University is that of a master teacher. Colleagues tell us that "Students flock to John's classes, no matter what the subject or time of day. He is known to be tough, so they are not seeking easy grades. Rather they are drawn by his skill, his enthusiasm and excitement about mathematics, and his patience and sympathetic attitude."

John's students provide wonderful testimonials. One writes: "In the many courses I took from him, there was a common thread. The passion that he displayed for mathematics and the ability to transfer that same passion to his students. He is able to bring students together so they can struggle and learn together. Perhaps most importantly he teaches his students to think creatively and never to be afraid to share ideas." Another says "He shows an uncommon concern toward his students. As my advisor and member of my thesis committee, he did everything he could for me. He worried over all the details. He always seems to make the time to listen to his student's concerns, academic and otherwise." And another says: "He has an amazing ability to make lucid the most involved and technical topics through clarifying examples and simplifying insights. He is truly an expert in his field of Analysis, but unlike many experts, he can see his field through the eyes of a beginner and is able to present it at an appropriate level. After more than twenty years of teaching, he is still enthusiastic, innovative, and still trying to improve his courses."

John received his Ph.D. in 1966 at Indiana University, in the field of Operator Theory. At his university he has been department chair, undergraduate advisor, graduate advisor, and has served on countless master's oral exam committees. With two other department members, he has established an NSF-funded computer lab using Mathematica in teaching calculus. He has been an outside consultant to the mathematics department at Tennessee Tech. In 1993, John received his university's highest teaching award, the Reynolds Prize, which is given to only one faculty member in the whole university each year.

Of his many accomplishments, the most unusual has been John's success in teaching mathematics over many years to prison convicts at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility at Lucasville, reserved for the hardest of prisoners. He has taught courses at levels from liberal arts mathematics though calculus. He says the brightest calculus student of his career was serving a life sentence for murder. Another inmate student has completed his sentence and has "gone straight," now working in a career which uses some of the mathematics that John taught him. Perhaps this "small" success could be John's most impressive accomplishment of all.

The 1997 Ohio Section Award for Distinguished College or University Teaching of Mathematics goes to John S. Lancaster of Marshall University. Congratulations, John!

[John Michel]

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Address comments and suggestions to hern@math.bgsu.edu.