Mathematical Association of America
Southern California-Nevada Section
Greetings from the MAA Southern California-Nevada Section Chair
Sam Nelson, Claremont McKenna Collge, Claremont, CA
Sam Nelson at NyNy Casino in Las Vegas
As the incoming chair of our MAA section for this year, I see that it is my responsibility to say a few words of greeting to you, the members of our SoCal-Nevada section. Welcome, and I hope to see many of you at our various events this year, including not only the Fall and Spring meetings but also at the national AMS-MAA Joint Meetings in San Diego this January!
At our Fall meeting we will have featured talks by Erica Flapan of Pomona College as well as Bogdan Suceava of CSU Fullerton and Lily Khadjavi of Loyola Marymount University, in additional to sessions of contributed talks, MAA booksale and much more. This meeting also marks the debut of new section officers Candice Price as Section Vice Chair and Rob Rubalcaba as 2nd Vice Program Chair. If you or someone you know would be interested in joining our board, please contact Past Chair Chris Towse, myself, or any of the other officers.
The Joint Math meetings will include a plenary MAA talk by our section's own Alissa Crans of Loyola Marymount as well as an assortment of great invited and contributed talks and social events, many of which are organized by our local section members.
As I like to tell my incoming freshmen here at CMC, mathematics gives us tools for extending our ability to understand concepts beyond the limits of our intuition (e.g., infinite sets, objects in n dimensions, etc.) analogously to how we use machines to extend our ability to move physical objects beyond the limitations of our muscular strength. I want to wish everyone a great fall semester or quarter (or, for the lucky few, sabbatical :) as we work together to create and refine our knowledge and understanding of this intellectual technology we call mathematics and to effectively pass it along to the new generation of aspiring mathematicians, scientists, artists and citizens!
Sam Nelson at Kusatsu Onsen in Gunma Prefecture, Japan before International Conference on Spatial Graphs at Waseda University, 2016
2017 Fall Section Meeting
Meeting Web Site
Visit the meeting web site for a program, speakers' abstracts and bios, directions, and information about registration.
Join us for our
Fall Section Meeting
Chapman University
Saturday, October 21, 2017
See our Meetings Page for more information and the call for papers for the Contributed Paper Session.
Invited Speakers include:
- Erika Flapan, Pomona College
- Bogdan Suceava, CSU Fullerton
- Lily Khadjavi, Loyola Marymount Univeristy
Darryl Yong Receives the Section's 2017 Teaching Award
Our 2017 Section Teaching Award for Distinguished College or University Teaching of Mathematics goes to Darryl Yong of Harvey Mudd College. Dr. Yong has a lengthy record of innovative and caring teaching at Harvey Mudd College. He has shown a consistent commitment to inclusive pedagogy in his own classes and in his scholarship on secondary math education. He co-founded the nonprofit Math for America Los Angeles which supports local teachers though professional development. Most recently, he became the inaugural director of the new Center for Teaching and Learning at the Claremont Colleges. You can read more at his blog profteacher.com.
Teaching Award
Recipients
2014 Shahriar Shahriari
2015 Daphne Liu
2016 Shirley Gray
Call for Nominations for Section Teaching Award
Candice Price, University of San Diego
SoCal/Nevada Section Vice Chair
Chair of MAA SoCal/Nevada Teaching Award Committee
Preliminary nominations for the 27th annual MAA Southern California-Nevada Section Award for Distinguished College or University Teaching of Mathematics are now being accepted. The deadline for submissions is November 3, 2017.
If you have an eligible and qualified colleague in your department, we urge you to nominate her/him so that s/he may be considered for the award. The initial nomination consists of a one-page form, together with a one- to two-page description of the candidate's qualities and teaching successes.
From the preliminary nominees, the selection committee will choose two to three semi-finalists. Each nominator will then be asked to complete a full nomination packet for the semi-finalist. The full packet will be required only for semi-finalists and will be due by early January of 2018. (Full nomination requirements may be found here).
Upon receipt of the full nomination, semi-finalists will automatically become finalists. Each finalist will receive an official letter of commendation from the Chair of the Section, which will be copied to the candidate's department chair and dean. The selection committee will choose the winner from the pool of finalists. Finalists who are not selected will automatically have their full applications considered the following year for the Section award.
The recipient of the award will be recognized and given the opportunity to give a talk at a future meeting of the MAA Southern California-Nevada Section. The awardee will also be the official Section nominee for the MAA Deborah and Franklin Tepper Haimo Award for Distinguished College or University Teaching of Mathematics.
Successful nominees are individuals who are widely recognized for their extraordinarily successful teaching effectiveness and for teaching that has had influence beyond their own institutions. To be eligible, nominees must be current MAA members who teach mathematical science courses at least half-time during the academic year and have at least seven years experience teaching at the college or university level. Because the Section Award winner will be forwarded for consideration for the national Haimo award, successful nominees will have an extended record of teaching success. Eligibility requirements are detailed here.
The Preliminary Nomination deadline is Friday, November 3, 2017.
Questions? Contact Candice Price at cprice@sandiego.edu
Initial nominations may be sent electronically Candice Price at the email address listed above.
Candice Price
SoCal/Nevada Section Vice Chair
CPrice@sandiego.edu
Click here for the full Call for Nominations for the MAA Southern California-Nevada Section Teaching Award.