The awards add up for math

It’s been a banner year for the Department of Mathematics and its faculty and graduate students. The department shared some impressive year-end highlights with us.

Professor Joseph Harris, Ph.D. ’78, was among 100 new members elected to the National Academy of Sciences on May 3. An honorific society of distinguished scholars engaged in scientific and engineering research, The National Academy of Sciences has just over 2,100 active members. Harris was also elected to the Harvard Faculty Council. Chaired by the dean of the faculty, the council consists of 18 elected members of the faculty.

Professor Benedict Gross, Ph.D. ’78, the George Vasmer Leverett Professor of Mathematics, was named Harvard College Professor. Also this year, Gross and his Ph.D. student, Pei-Yu Tsai, received the Joseph R. Levenson Memorial Teaching Prize. The award is given annually by the Undergraduate Council to one senior faculty member, one junior faculty member, and one graduate student to celebrate exceptional teaching of undergraduates at Harvard.

Ph.D. student Jack Huizenga received the Derek C. Bok Award for Excellence in Graduate Student Teaching of Undergraduates. Given each year to five teaching fellows, the award includes a $1,000 prize from a gift given by David G. Nathan ’51, M.D. ’55, the Robert A. Stranahan Distinguished Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, and his wife, Jean Louise Friedman Nathan.

The Harvard University Certificate of Teaching Excellence was awarded to junior faculty members Jameel Al-Adroos, Juliana Belding, Janet Chen, and Paul Bourgade. Using Q evaluation data gathered by the Registrar’s Office, the certificate — awarded by Harvard’s Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning — recognizes lecturers and preceptors who achieve an overall rating of 4.5 or above, on a five-point scale, for courses taught in FAS during the fall semester of 2010. Using the same scale, the Harvard University Certificate of Distinction in Teaching was awarded to Ph.D. students Nathan Kaplan, Xiaoheng (Jerry) Wang, and Yu-Shen Lin.