The following are the instructors who will be teaching for at least one week at MathPath 2020, listed in alphabetical order.
|
Glen Van Brummelen
Dean of the Faculty of Natural and Applied Sciences
Trinity Western University, British Columbia, Canada
|
 |
Distinguished mathematical historian, with special expertise in ancient and medieval mathematics and astronomy, and past president of the Canadian Society for History and Philosophy of Mathematics, Professor Van Brummelen returns in 2020 for his 17th year at MathPath. He is author of The Mathematics of the Heavens and the Earth: The Early History of Trigonometry. His book, Heavenly Mathematics: The Forgotten Art of Spherical Trigonometry, is based partly on his MathPath breakouts. In 2016 Professor Van Brummelen won the Mathematical Association of America's Haimo distinguished teaching award, and in 2017 he was named a 3M National Teaching Fellow (Canada).
|
|
Jane Butterfield
Assistant Teaching Professor
University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
|
|
Professor Butterfield studies graph theory and math education. She has successfully talked about graph theory and combinatorics to many different types of audiences and age ranges. Her PhD research was in extremal graph theory, but she also enjoys topological graph theory, Ramsey games, and pursuit games on graphs. While a graduate student at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, she received three teaching awards, including the Campus Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching. She spent two years teaching calculus to talented high school students for the Math Center for Educational Programs at the University of Minnesota, and is now an Assistant Teaching Professor at the University of Victoria in British Columbia. At UVic, she manages the Math & Stats Assistance Centre—because of the US & Canadian spelling differences, this means she has worked for both a Center and a Centre! This is her fifth year at MathPath.
|
 |
|
Owen Byer
Professor of Mathematics
Eastern Mennonite University
|
|
This will be Owen's seventh year at MathPath, and like the rest of the faculty, he is a lover of beautiful mathematics. He has authored two textbooks, Methods for Euclidean Geometry and Journey into Discrete Mathematics. Each contains some of his favorite problems, which he'll share with Mathpath students upon request. Owen has previously taught breakouts at MathPath on Inversions, Affine Transformations, Area, Probability, the Poisson Distribution, Advanced Graph Theory, and History of Mathematics. His favorite hobbies include playing basketball, disc golf, board games, and bridge.
|
|
Patricia Cahn
Assistant Professor of Mathematics & Statistics
Smith College
|
|
Patricia works in Knot Theory and its connection to 3- and 4-dimensional spaces. In her spare time, she plays the double bass, and particularly enjoys playing orchestral music. This is her second year teaching at MathPath.
|
 |
|
Matt DeLong
Professor of Mathematics
Marian University of Indianapolis
|
 |
Professor DeLong has won two national teaching awards from the Mathematical Association of America (2005 Alder Award, 2012 Haimo Award). He has taught summer mathematics courses for high ability high school and middle school students. He has also been a successful mathematical contest coach at both the college and elementary school levels. His mathematical interests are primarily in knot theory and number theory. In addition, he enjoys performing and directing choral music and musical theatre. This will be Professor DeLong's seventh summer at MathPath.
|
|
Aaron Hill
Proof School, San Francisco
|
|
Aaron received a PhD in mathematics and a master's degree in education from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Before taking his position at Proof School, he held positions as a postdoctoral research associate (University of North Texas) and assistant professor (University of Louisville). His primary research was in the areas of mathematical logic and dynamical systems. He has taught at Epsilon Camp and BEAM. He is excited to be teaching for the first time at MathPath.
|
 |
|
Silas Johnson
Lecturer
Washington University in St. Louis
|
 |
Silas is a number theorist and an avid teacher of mathematics. He has previously worked as the head counselor for SUMaC and as a teaching assistant for Stanford's EPGY Summer Institutes. He's also an enthusiastic coach, writer, and organizer for math competitions for students of all ages. In his free time, he plays percussion instruments and trombone, and occasionally does some composing and arranging. He also enjoys bicycling and Ultimate Frisbee. This will be Silas' fourth time teaching at MathPath.
|
|
Deborah Kent
Senior Lecturer in History of Mathematics
St. Andrews University, Scotland
|
|
Prof Kent was formerly on faculty at Drake University, where she enjoyed teaching a wide range of mathematics courses and the occasional class in her speciality, the history of mathematics. She is transitioning this summer to a new position at St. Andrews. She's always on the lookout for a colorful classroom narrative or a chance to incorporate 3D printing in class. Her current research passion is 19th–century solar eclipse expeditions. (Mark your calendars for 2024!) Prof. Kent won an MAA Halmos–Ford award for expository writing and Technology Association of Iowa Academic Innovation and Leadership Award in 2017. She was selected as Drake A&S Professor of the Year in 2018. Prof. Kent is excited to draw on material from her recent AMS Game Theory book in her second time teaching at MathPath!
|
 |
|
Asia Matthews
Quest University, British Columbia, Canada
|
|
Asia has been teaching at Quest University in Canada since 2014. Her primary professional interest is mathematics education, specifically problem design, creativity and communication. She is also interested in discrete mathematics, especially combinatorics, the geometry of paper folding, and the history of mathematics. She has been involved in a number of mathematics outreach programs for elementary and high school students and their families. She finds joy in teaching people what it is to think mathematically and to develop and communicate their own mathematical ideas. This will be her third year at MathPath.
|
|
Kathryn Nyman
Associate Professor of Mathematics
Willamette University
|
|
A combinatorialist at heart, Professor Nyman enjoys counting visually appealing objects, such as graphs, partially ordered sets, and colorings. She also has a fondness for the mathematics of decisions and preferences, and she works on questions in voting theory and fair division. She is a recipient of the Clark Distinguished Teaching Award from Cornell University (where she did her graduate studies). This is Professor Nyman's third year at MathPath. Her outside interests include swing dancing, board games, hiking and photography.
|
 |
|
Lara Pudwell
Associate Professor of Mathematics and Statistics
Valparaiso University
|
 |
Professor Pudwell studies enumerative combinatorics, which means she loves to count! Her work usually involves counting permutations with special properties. She is a winner of a national teaching award from the Mathematical Association of America (the 2014 Alder Award). For the past decade, most of her summers have been spent directing the Valparaiso Experience in Research by Undergraduate Mathematicians program, and she really enjoys working on new problems with students. Away from math she enjoys reading, travel, and drinking good tea. She is excited for her second year at MathPath.
|
|
Jonathan Rogness
Director of the Math Center for Educational Programs and UMTYMP
University of Minnesota
|
|
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 is the 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. 2019 will be his tenth year at MathPath.
|
 |
|
Sam Vandervelde
Head of School
Proof School, San Francisco
|
 |
Dr. Vandervelde delights in presenting beautiful mathematics in an engaging manner to students of all ages. He is an experienced problem solver and problem writer. He currently oversees school operations and directs the program in mathematics at Proof School, a new independent school for kids who love math in the San Francisco Bay Area. Aside from math, he enjoys playing pickleball, spending time outdoors, and eating Thai food. Summer 2020 will be his fifteenth year at MathPath.
|
|
April Verser
Program Director
MathPath
|
|
April has been involved with MathPath since 2007. April loves interesting and elegant mathematics, as she has since middle school. Her favorite field of mathematics is Graph Theory, though she also enjoys probability, counting, and mathematics that is related to games or crafts. April is a Math Team Coach at the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy, and a problem-writer for ARML and NSML. Outside of the math community, April enjoys textile crafting and is a professional freelance musician with experience in several states across the country (she's even played in Carnegie Hall - twice!).
|
 |
|
Page last updated June 12, 2020
Copyright © 2001– MathPath
Send suggestions to webmaster@mathpath.org
|
