JPBM Communications Award
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JPBM Communications Award The 2010 Communications Award of the Joint the Riemann hypothesis, entitled The Music of the Policy Board for Mathematics (JPBM) was presented Primes, is a best seller which has been translated at the Joint Mathematics Meetings in San Francisco, into ten languages. In his 2008 book, Symmetry: California, in January 2010. A Journey into the Patterns of Nature, du Sautoy The JPBM Communications Award is presented guides the reader through groups and symmetry, annually to reward and encourage journalists from Babylonia to Moonshine theory, while at the and other communicators who, on a same time giving an engaging glimpse into math- sustained basis, bring mathematical ematicians’ minds. His four-part television series, ideas and information to nonmathe- The Story of Maths, presents a fascinating look at matical audiences. JPBM represents the the development of mathematics from the design American Mathematical Society, the of the pyramids in Egypt to Perelman’s proof of American Statistical Association, the Poincaré’s conjecture. Whether it is talking about Mathematical Association of America, Beckham’s choice of number on a sports radio pro- and the Society for Industrial and Ap- gram, explaining the work of the Abel prize winner plied Mathematics. The award carries on Norwegian television, writing a weekly math a cash prize of US$1,000. column for the London Times, hosting a television Previous recipients of the JPBM game show based on math puzzles, or delivering Communications Award are: James the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures, Marcus Gleick (1988), Hugh Whitemore (1990), du Sautoy invariably seizes opportunities to make Ivars Peterson (1991), Joel Schneider mathematics more accessible and more appealing. Marcus du Sautoy (1993), Martin Gardner (1994), Gina Kolata (1996), Philip J. Davis (1997), Biographical Sketch Constance Reid (1998), Ian Stewart (1999), John Marcus du Sautoy is the Charles Simonyi Professor Lynch and Simon Singh (special award, 1999), for the Public Understanding of Science and pro- Sylvia Nasar (2000), Keith J. Devlin (2001), Claire fessor of mathematics at the University of Oxford and Helaman Ferguson (2002), Robert Osserman and a Fellow of New College. His research seeks to (2003), Barry Cipra (2005), Roger Penrose (2006), understand the world of symmetry by using the Steven H. Strogatz (2007), Carl Bialik (2008), and concept of a zeta function, a classical tool from George Csicsery (2009). number theory, and involves a wide spectrum of The 2010 JPBM Communications Award was techniques, from p-adic Lie groups to model the- presented to Marcus du Sautoy. The text that ory, from algebraic geometry to analytic methods. follows presents the selection committee’s cita- In 2001 he won the Berwick Prize of the London tion, a brief biographical sketch, and the recipient’s Mathematical Society, which is awarded every two response on receiving the award. years to reward the best mathematical research made by a mathematician under the age of forty. In Citation 2009 he was awarded the Royal Society’s Faraday The 2010 JPBM Communications Award is made to Prize, the United Kingdom’s premier award for Marcus du Sautoy, the Simonyi Professor for the excellence in communicating science. He is the Public Understanding of Science and a professor of author of numerous academic articles and books mathematics at the University of Oxford. on mathematics and has been a visiting professor For the past fifteen years du Sautoy has comple- at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, the Max mented his love of mathematical discovery with a Planck Institute in Bonn, the Hebrew University in passion for communicating mathematics to a broad Jerusalem, and the Australian National University public. He has reached hundreds of thousands in Canberra. His presentations on mathematics, through his books, television shows, and hun- which include “Why Beckham chose the 23 shirt”, dreds of articles and appearances in newspapers, have played to a wide range of audiences: from magazines, television, and radio. His 2003 book on theater directors to bankers, from diplomats to 644 NOTICES OF THE AMS VOLUME 57, NUMBER 5 prison inmates. Marcus du Sautoy plays the trum- Apology. It is a book I love but also hate because pet and football. Like Beckham, he also plays in his opening sentence has cast a shadow over those a prime number shirt, no. 17, for Recreativo FC, who might want to communicate the joy of doing based in the Hackney Marshes. Born in 1965, he mathematics. He writes: “It is a melancholy expe- lives in London with his wife, three children, and rience for a professional mathematician to find cat Freddie Ljungberg. himself writing about mathematics. The function of mathematicians is to do something, to prove Response new theorems, to add to mathematics and not to Mathematics is about discovery, but it is also about talk about what he or other mathematicians have communication. Those new discoveries don’t done.” It is important that mathematicians prove begin to breathe until you bring them alive in the Hardy wrong, and indeed Hardy himself is the minds of others. The more minds that appreciate counterexample to his own statement, being a bril- the beauty of our discoveries, the more vibrant liant mathematician and communicator. and healthy our subject will be. I was inspired to I would like to thank all those in the mathemati- become a mathematician because of people in the cal community who have been extraordinarily sup- past like Martin Gardner, Christopher Zeeman, and portive over the years in my efforts to excite people George Gamow, who were keen to communicate about mathematics. It is really important to know beyond the confines of our research community. that your community is supportive of what you My efforts to spread the excitement and beauty of do. Prizes like the JPBM Communications Award mathematics to as wide an audience as possible is are important in sending out the message that our my way of paying back those who made the effort community values communication, and I am very to excite me. honored to have received the award for 2010. One of the books that inspired me as a student was G. H. Hardy’s beautiful book A Mathematician’s MAA Prizes Presented in San Francisco At the Joint Mathematics Meetings in San Fran- associate secretary and continued to be respon- cisco, California, in January 2010, the Mathematical sible for the MAA presence in the national joint Association of America (MAA) presented several AMS-MAA meetings. prizes. He was elected president of the MAA in 1994 and later became chair of the Response Group Gung and Hu Award for Distinguished on the NCTM Standards, furnishing insightful Service reports to NCTM that reflected a consensus of The Yueh-Gin Gung and Dr. Charles Y. Hu Award opinion among mathematicians. He is skilled at for Distinguished Service to Mathematics is the bringing people together to talk and iron out most prestigious award made by the MAA. It hon- their differences. He cochaired the advisory ors distinguished contributions to mathematics board on renovating part of MAA headquarters and mathematical education, in one particular for use as a conference center and set the agenda aspect or many, whether in a short period or over for the facility. He has been editor of the Carus a career. Monograph Series for the MAA and is currently a Kenneth A. Ross, professor emeritus at the member of the editorial board of the MAA’s Spec- University of Oregon, received the 2010 Gung and trum Series. He served on the Board of Governors Hu Award. Ross has made many contributions for many years, as well as on many committees to mathematics over a long career. From 1971 to concerned with finance, publications, meetings, 1980 he served the American Mathematical Soci- membership, awards, and prizes. Recently he ety (AMS) as associate secretary for the Western served as associate editor of Mathematics Maga- Section, and in 1984 he was elected secretary of zine and on committees on the Silver and Gold the Mathematical Association of America (MAA). Banquets, on Bylaws Revision, and on the MAA When the responsibilities of the secretary of the Centennial in 2015. He has also been active in the MAA were split in 1989, he became the MAA’s first MAA’s Pacific Northwest Section. He gave invited MAY 2010 NOTICES OF THE AMS 645 talks to at least twenty-one MAA sections as a on its editorial board for three years. He works in a national officer of MAA. variety of fields, including the study of geometries Ross’s publications include Abstract Harmonic associated to groups of Lie type, combinatorics, Analysis (with Edwin Hewitt); Elementary Analy- and the scholarship of teaching and learning. sis: The Theory of Calculus; Discrete Mathematics Michael Dorff has made many contributions to (with Charles Wright); Sidon Sets (with Jorge M. the teaching and learning of mathematics in his Lopez); and A Mathematician at the Ball Park, classrooms at Brigham Young University (BYU), which demonstrates his lifelong passion for base- regionally in public education, and nationally ball. He received his Ph.D. from the University of through his work with students and faculty related Washington in 1960. His mathematical interests to research by undergraduates in mathematics. His include abstract commutative harmonic analysis, undergraduate teaching at BYU is characterized elementary probability, and expository writing. by his care for the students while having high ex- pectations for them, even in large lecture classes Haimo Awards for Teaching of beginning calculus, and by efforts to help the The Deborah and Franklin Tepper Haimo Awards students see the bigger picture. For example, in his for Distinguished College or University Teaching large lecture calculus classes, he often has “com- were established in 1991.