Winners of the Alvin White Prize
2012
Palmer Mebane
The Alvin White Prize is awarded to Palmer Mebane for his numerous efforts to make mathematics enjoyable for so many people. He has shown great dedication to organizing the Caltech-Harvey Mudd Math Competition, mobilizing HMC students to write problems and volunteer for the event, which impacts many students across the Southern California region. In addition, in Palmer's impressive puzzle blog he demonstrates a great commitment to creating interesting mental challenges that many people worldwide can enjoy.
2011
Ryan Muller
The Alvin White Prize is awarded to Ryan Muller to recognize his creation of the CalTech/Harvey Mudd Math Competition and the Learnstream system for creating annotated online mathematics courses. The CalTech/Harvey Mudd Math Competition is an annual one-day mathematics competition aimed at high school students. The first competition happened at CalTech in 2010. In 2011 the competition was hosted at Harvey Mudd College. There were over thirty teams and over a hundred students in attendance. Ryan and his friends wrote all the problems, lined up corporate sponsorship (including Mathematica and MathWorks) and brought the competition off without a hitch. Ryan is also deeply interested in the process of learning and how media and technology can be used to enhance learning. From this curiosity was born Learnstream. Ryan has developed software that allows one to link documents and YouTube videos. He videotaped a semester of Analysis I taught by Prof. Francis Su and put it on the web in digestible chunks. He has done an enormous service for his fellow students by creating a review mechanism and resource for these lectures.
Nate Pinsky
The Alvin White Prize is awarded to Nate Pinsky to recognize his enthusiasm for Mathematics and Mathematics Education outreach. Nate has by a mainstay of multiple HMC outreach programs; he has been a tutor for high school students as part of HMC's Homework Hotline and taught mathematics to third graders at Chaparral High School. Nate has also been an enthusiastic member of the Math Club, an Academic Excellence tutor and is always willing to pitch in and help with departmental events.
2010
Alyssa Dray
The Alvin White Prize is awarded to Alyssa Dray to recognize her passion and enthusiasm for mathematics education and in particular her efforts in the creation of the new Math 9 course this year. We feel the course benefited immensely from Alyssa's careful planning and innovations, such as providing individual whiteboards for facilitating group work. We also appreciate Alyssa's commitment to the Academic Excellence program, where she is known for helping students with patience and diligence.
Dmitri Skjorshammer
The Alvin White Prize is awarded to Dmitri Skjorshammer in recognition of his leadership as SIAM Chapter and Math Club President, and in particular his efforts in advertising summer research and tutoring opportunities on the web. We also appreciate his efforts in support of the Science Bus program, as a grader his all around positive spirit in support of Mathematics.
2009
Natlie Durgin
The Alvin White Prize is awarded to Natalie Durgin to recognize her infectious enthusiasm for all things mathematical. Natalie reminded many of us about the joys of math on an almost daily basis. As president of the Math Club she organized many events, including a celebration of Pi Day and the first Harvey Mudd Integration Bee. Natalie is presently a mathematics graduate student at Rice University.
Sarah Fletcher
The Alvin White Prize is awarded to Sarah Fletcher for her leadership both as a head grader and through countless unofficial hours of tutoring in the dormitories. She is a passionate supporter of the Budapest Semester in Mathematics and Mathcamp. Sarah could also be counted on to raise one’s spirits through her willingness to help everyone with their mathematical studies and her amazing baked goods, which always put a smile on the faces of the people around her. Sarah is presently a Mathematics graduate student at Georgia Tech studying Algorithms, Combinatorics, and Optimization.
Note: Years not listed indicate years the award was not given.
