Mathematicians Awarded for Expository Mathematical Writing in MAA Publications 2023

We are excited to announce the 2023 award recipients for the Chauvenet Prize, the Euler Book Prize, the Merten M. Hasse Prize, the Daniel Solow Author’s Award, the David P. Robbins Prize, the George Pólya Awards, the Paul R. Halmos-Lester R. Ford Awards, the Trevor Evans Award, and the Carl B. Allendoerfer Awards.

Kimmo Eriksson and Jonas Eliasson

The Chicken Braess Paradox, Mathematics Magazine, 92 (2019), No. 3, 213-221. 

“I hope the Chauvenet prize will lead many more readers to discover our paper and share our fascination with the Braess paradox,” Eriksson said.

“I’m incredibly honored and proud! What I personally enjoy the most about the paper is how it illustrates the connections between mathematics, economics, engineering and political science,” Eliasson added.

Susan D'Agostino, PhD, (independent author and mathematician)

How to Free Your Inner Mathematician: Notes on Mathematics and Life. United Kingdom: Oxford University Press (2020).

“Whoever you are and whatever your mathematics background, my book offers an invitation to linger, listen to, and get distracted by your own mathematical thoughts,” D’Agostino said.

Matt Davis, Adam E. Parker, and Daniel A. N. Vargas

Being Rational About Algebraic Numbers, The College Mathematics Journal, 52:5, 327-337, DOI: 10.1080/07468342.2021.1967651 (2021).

“We are so honored and pleased to receive the Merten M. Hasse award,” Davis said. “The collaboration that led to this paper began at an MAA Ohio Section meeting, and we had no idea quite where it would go when we started! We were consistently surprised and delighted to find the many connected threads in the paper, and we are happy to be able to share them.”

“I am very honored to have won the 2023 Merten Hasse Award. I hope readers find both the mathematics and the story connecting the three authors interesting,” Parker said.

“I am proud that this was the first step in my career in mathematics,” Vargas added.

David Lippman

“I am honored to be recognized for my work on MyOpenMath. I started the platform over 15 years ago with the simple goal to reduce the cost of educational materials for my students and have been amazed by how it has grown and how a vibrant community of users has developed,” Lippman mentioned. “I’m proud of the millions of dollars we have saved students on educational materials. I want to give a huge shout-out to the fantastic user community, whose question writing and course building and willingness to share their work with others is what truly has made the platform successful.”

Samantha Dalhberg, Angèle Foley, and Stephanie van Willigenburg

Resolving Stanley’s e-positivity of claw-contractible-free graphs. J. Eur. Math. Soc. (JEMS) 22 (2020), no. 8, 2673–2696

“When I first received the email, I couldn't believe it. It was only after reading the excited replies from my co-authors did I actually understand that this was real. I am extremely honored to be receiving this award with my two co-authors Dr. Angele Foley and Dr. Stephanie van Willigenburg,” Dalhberg said.

“I am honored and grateful to receive the Robbins Prize, especially as Robbins’ work has inspired much of my own research on alternating sign matrices,” Foley added.

“I am extremely grateful and truly elated to win the 2023 MAA Robbins Prize, which I dedicate to my parents, sister and husband,” van Willigenburg mentioned.

William Q. Erickson

Haste Makes Waste: An Optimization Problem, The College Mathematics Journal, 53:2, 122-133, DOI: 10.1080/07468342.2021.2022955 (2002)

“George Pólya famously encouraged the curiosity and inventiveness required by even the humblest mathematical problems; I am deeply honored to be included in his legacy,” Erickson said.

Johnner Barrett

Unlawful Calculations: A Look into Lie's Notebook, The College Mathematics Journal, 53:2, 104-115, DOI: 10.1080/07468342.2021.2019550 (2022)

“Unlawful Calculations" is distinguished with the George Pólya Award. I am exceedingly grateful for this chance to inspire people with Lie’s geometric methods,” Barrett mentioned.

Tristram Bogart and Kevin Woods

“A Plethora of Polynomials: A Toolbox for Counting Problems”, The American Mathematical Monthly, 129:3, 203-222, DOI:10.1080/00029890.2022.2010487 (2022)

“Polynomials are everywhere! This paper features a plethora of them and builds a theoretical framework for explaining their appearance in diverse areas of mathematics,” Bogart and Woods said.

Paul Thomas Young

“From Madhava-Leibniz to Lehmer's Limit”, The American Mathematical Monthly, 129:6, 524-538, DOI: 10.1080/00029890.2022.2051405 (2022)

“I am grateful to the Halmos-Ford committee and to the MAA for this award celebrating the art of mathematical exposition. In light of the long tradition of excellent articles in the Monthly, I am honored and humbled as a recipient,” Young mentioned.

Alex Rice

“Reciprocal Sums and Counting Functions”, The American Mathematical Monthly, 129:10, 903-912, DOI: 10.1080/00029890.2022.2115268 (2022)

“I am thrilled at the recognition of this work, as it combines my experiences from three perspectives: undergraduate student, number theory instructor, and arithmetic combinatorics researcher,” Rice said.

Paul Ramond

“The Abel-Ruffini Theorem: Complex but Not Complicated”, The American Mathematical Monthly, 129:3, 231-245, DOI: 10.1080/00029890.2022.2010494 (2022)

“I am honored to receive this prize and that my new take on the Abel-Ruffini theorem is now alongside other beautiful math gems of the Monthly,” Ramond added.

Lara Pudwell

“The Hidden and Surprising Structure of Ordered Lists.” Math Horizons. 29(3), February 2022, pp 5-7. DOI:10.1080/10724117.2021.20002646

“It’s a joy to communicate mathematics in general and the beauty of permutation patterns in particular,” Pudwell shared. “I’m honored by this recognition from the community!”

Tien Chih and Demitri Plessas 

“A Search for Champion Boxers,” Mathematics Magazine, 95:1, 37-48, https://doi.org/10.1080/0025570X.2022.2000819

“This paper was inspired by sleepless binge-watching of Netflix documentaries after the birth of my son, including one on algorithms, and on Evander Holyfield,” Chih mentioned.

“[We’re] deeply honored to receive the MAA Allendoerfer Award for our paper "A Search for Champion Boxers" and are grateful to the MAA for recognizing our interdisciplinary exploration,” Plessas added.

Steven J. Brams and Peter S. Landweber 

“Three Persons, Two Cuts: A New Cake-Cutting Algorithm,” Mathematics Magazine, 95:2, 110-122. https://doi.org/10.1080/0025570X.2022.2023300

“Solutions to the 3-player cake-cutting problem previously required the use of simultaneously moving knives, whereas we show that this problem can be solved by solving equations,” Brams said.

“The use of mathematical methods in fair division and game theory is well-established,” Landweber added. “Other areas, such as data analysis and robotics, are now benefiting from new topological methods.”

More information on the award and how to submit a nomination.

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