WASHINGTON, DC -- Awards for the year’s best mathematics writing were given on July 27 in Chicago by the Mathematical Association of America at MAA MathFest, one of the largest gathering of mathematicians in the country.

“These award winners represent the best in mathematical writing, and we are proud that they are choosing to publish their work with the Mathematical Association of America,” said Michael Pearson, executive director of the MAA. “Clear and effective writing is the foundation of the mathematical community and the wider scientific community.”

The MAA also honored outstanding mathematics educators and MAA members with the Meritorious Service award for service to the association and sections.

Carl B. Allendoerfer Awards

Seven mathematicians are recipients of the Carl B. Allendoerfer Awards, which is given to authors for excellent mathematical writing published in the Mathematics Magazine, a journal of the MAA.

The authors of “Intransitive Dice” are recognized for their work: Brian Conrey and Kent Morrison of the American Institute of Mathematics, and undergraduate students James Gabbard, University of Southern California; Katie Grant, University of California San Diego; and Shang-Chi Andrew Liu, University of California Los Angeles. Vladimir Pozdnyakov, University of Connecticut, and Michael Steele, from the University of Pennsylvania, are honored for their publication “Buses, Bullies, and Bijections.”

Trevor Evans Award:

Each year an author is recognized for their excellent writing for an undergraduate audience, published in MAA’s magazine Math Horizons. This year’s recipient of the Trevor Evans Award is Cornelia A. Van Cott, University of San Francisco, for her article “A Pi Day of the Century Every Year.”

Meritorious Service Award:

The Certificate of Meritorious Service is presented for service at the national level or for service to a Section of the association. The process of awarding the Certificate for Meritorious Service occurs essentially at the Section level.

James Alvarez, University of Texas at Arlington

Scott Hochwald, University of North Florida

Heidi Keck, Western Colorado State

Jason Molitierno, Sacred Heart University

Gerard A. Venema, Professor Emeritus, Calvin College

The Paul R. Halmos-Lester R. Ford Award:

This award recognizes exceptional authors that have published in The American Mathematical Monthly, the MAA’s flagship journal. This year’s winners are:

Harold P. Boas, Texas A&M University, “Mocposite Functions”

Adrien Kassel, Ecole Normale Supérieure, and David B. Wilson, Microsoft Research, “The Looping Rate and Sandpile Density of Planar Graphs”

Deborah Kent, Drake University, and David Muraki, Simon Fraser University, “A Geometric Solution of a Cubic by Omar Khayyam ... in Which Colored Diagrams Are Used Instead of Letters for the Greater Ease of Learners”

Lawrence Zalcman, Bar-Ilan University, “A Tale of Three Theorems”

George Pólya Awards:

This award recognizes the exceptional papers published in The College Mathematics Journal, a publication of the MAA. Winners Viktor Blåsjö of the Mathematical Institute of Utrecht University wrote “How to Find the Logarithm of Any Number Using Nothing But a Piece of String,” and Travis Kowalski, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, published “The Sine of a Single Degree.”

Merten M. Hasse Prize:

Co-authors Lasse Rempe-Gillen, University of Liverpool, and Zhaiming Shen, a graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania, are the recipients of the Merten M. Hasse Prize, which is given to a noteworthy paper published by the MAA. In particular, this prize recognizes works where at least one of the authors is a younger mathematician. They are honored for their paper “The Exponential Map is Chaotic: An Invitation to Transcendental Dynamics” published in The American Mathematical Monthly.

About MAA

The Mathematical Association of America is the world’s largest community of mathematicians, students, and enthusiasts. We accelerate the understanding of our world through mathematics because mathematics drives society and shapes our lives. Learn more at maa.org.