Dr. Tyler Jarvis, professor and former department chair in the BYU Department of Mathematics, recently received the Deborah and Franklin Tepper Haimo Award presented by the Mathematical Association of America. He was presented the award at the Joint Mathematics Meeting of the Mathematical Association of America and the American Mathematical Society in early January.
This award is given to honor university professors “who have been widely recognized as extraordinarily successful and whose teaching effectiveness has been shown to have had influence beyond their own institutions.”1
The Haimo Award can be thought of as the “Hall of Fame” for math professors. From the over 20,000 members of the Mathematical Association of America, only three professors are chosen to receive this prestigious award. BYU now has two mathematics professors who have received this award; most universities do not have any. Dr. Michael Dorff, the BYU Department of Mathematics’ current chair, received the Haimo Award in 2010.
Jarvis has made many impressive contributions to the teaching of mathematics at BYU and at a national level:
- Co-founder and co-director of the Center for Undergraduate Research in Mathematics (CURM), which teaches professors around the country how to mentor effectively.
- Co-creator of BYU’s Applied and Computational Mathematics Emphasis (ACME), as well as co-author for the program’s textbooks and lab manuals.
- Consistent recipient of “excellent” student ratings for regular, honors, and large class sections. His students regularly outperform students in other sections on common department finals. His classes have low dropout rates. Additionally, Jarvis knows the name of each student and elicits comments and questions from all over the classroom.
- Organizer of WeUseMath.org, a resource for students and teachers to answer the question, “When will I use math?”
- Creator of a Mathematics Internship Program to prepare math majors for careers in business, industry, or government.
- Leader of a research group in algebraic geometry for several years that has mentored 33 undergraduates, many of whom have had their work published in high-quality journals.
The BYU Department of Mathematics congratulates Dr. Jarvis on receiving the Haimo Award and thanks him for his positive influence in the department.
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About the Deborah and Franklin Tepper Haimo Award
—Annie Tyler, Department of Mathematics