Awarded For: Teaching effectiveness that has been shown to have influenced the honoree’s own institutions. Up to three awards are handed out yearly, and individuals may only win once. 

Awarded Annually

Prizes: $1,000, partial support for travel to MAA MathFest, and a certificate of recognition

Recent Winners:
Candice Price, Smith College
Jan Rychtář, Virginia Commonwealth University
Malena Español

Past Winners

How to Nominate Someone for this Award

Nomination Due: August 1

Awarded For: Distinguished teaching by a beginning mathematics faculty member

Awarded Annually

Prizes: $1,000 and up to $1,000 of MAA MathFest travel reimbursed

Recent Winner:
R. Abraham Edwards, Lyman Briggs College, Michigan State University
Alison Lynch, California State University, Monterey Bay
Andrea Arauza Rivera, California State University, East Bay

Nomination Guidelines & Past Winners

Nomination Due: October 1

Awarded For: Middle and high school mathematics teachers who have done outstanding work to motivate students in mathematics by participating in the MAA American Mathematics Competitions (AMC).

Awarded Annually

Prizes: $500 and free registration, housing, and travel expenses to MAA MathFest

Nomination Guidelines & Past Winners

Nomination Due: October 1

Awarded For: Special work of service associated with mathematics or the wider mathematical community. Awarded intermittently, when appropriate for recognition of outstanding service

Prizes: Recognition

Recent Winner:
Mary Lee Wheat Gray, American University (2021)

Nomination Guidelines & Past Winners

Nomination Due: October 1

Awarded For: Extraordinarily successful service to mathematics. It is the most prestigious award for service offered by the MAA

Awarded Annually

Prizes: $5,000 

Recent Winner:
Barbara Faires, Westminster College (2022)

Nomination Guidelines & Past Winners

Nomination Due: October 1

Awarded For: Significant, sustained work to broaden access to mathematics and advance MAA’s core value of inclusivity

Awarded Annually

Prizes: $2,500

Recent Winner:
Candice Price, Smith College (2022)

Nomination Guidelines & Past Winners

Nomination Due: October 1

Awarded For: Bringing mathematical ideas and information to nonmathematical audiences

Prizes: $2,000

Recent Winners:
John Bailer, Richard Campbell, and Rosemary Pennington; and Erica Klarreich (2021)

Nomination Guidelines & Past Winners

Nomination Due: October 1

Awarded For: Remarkable service to an MAA Regional Section.

Each of the 29 MAA Regional Sections selects one recipient every five years 

Prizes: Certificate of Recognition

Recent Winners: (2023)
Timothy Comar, Benedictine University
Tom Richmond, Western Kentucky University
Lori McCune, Western State University
Gary Towsley, State University of New York at Geneseo (emeritus)
Benjamin Collins, University of Wisconsin – Platteville, now Epic Systems Corporation

Nomination Guidelines & Past Winners

Nomination Due: April 1

Awarded For: Significant, sustained work to develop leadership within the mathematical sciences, cultivating and strengthening leadership skills among the next generation of math leaders.

Awarded Annually

Prize: $5,000

Recent Winner: 

Nomination Guidelines & Past Winners

Nomination Due: October 1

Awarded For: Distinguished contributions to the mathematical education of K-16 students by pure or applied mathematicians.

Prize: $5,000

Recent Winner:
Roger Howe, Texas A&M University (2022)

Nomination Guidelines & Past Winners

Nomination Due: October 1

Awarded For: Outstanding mathematical research by undergraduate students

A Joint Award Given Annually by the MAA, AMS, and SIAM

Prizes: $1,200

Recent Winner:
Ashwin Sah and Mehtaab Sawhney, MIT (2021)

Nomination Guidelines & Past Winners

Nomination Due: October 1

Awarded For: A significant record of published research in undergraduate mathematics education by an early-career researcher

Awarded Biennially

Prizes: $1,500

Recent Winner:
Estrella Johnson, Virginia Tech (2022)

Nomination Guidelines & Past Winners

Nomination Due: October 1

Awarded For: Made to authors of expository articles published in Mathematics Magazine.

Up to two awards annually

Prizes: $1,000

Recent Winners: (2023)
Tien Chih and Demitri Plessas
A Search for Champion Boxers,
Mathematics Magazine, 95:1, 37–48. doi.org/10.1080/0025570X.2022.2000819

Steven J. Brams and Peter S. Landweber
Three Persons, Two Cuts: A New Cake-Cutting Algorithm,
Mathematics Magazine, 95:2, 110–122. doi.org/10.1080/0025570X.2022.2023300

Nomination Guidelines & Past Winners

Nomination Due: October 1

Awarded For: A noteworthy expository or survey paper. The pool of eligible papers shall be limited to expository or survey articles published in North American journals, and also all chapters in anthologies published by the Association, such as the books in the Studies series.

Awarded Annually

Prizes: $1,000 and certificate

Recent Winner: (2023)
Kimmo Eriksson and Jonas Eliasson
The Chicken Braess Paradox, Mathematics Magazine, 92:3 (2019) 213–2211.
doi.org/10.1080/0025570X.2019.1571375

Nomination Guidelines & Past Winners

Nomination Due: October 1

Awarded For: A noteworthy expository paper appearing in an Association publication, at least one of whose authors is a younger mathematician, generally under the age of forty.

Awarded Biannually

Prizes: $1,000 and certificate

Recent Winner: 2023
Matt Davis, Adam E. Parker, and Daniel A. N. Vargas
Being Rational About Algebraic Numbers
The College Mathematics Journal, Vol. 52, no. 5, pp. 327–337.
doi.org/10.1080/07468342.2021.1967651

Nomination Guidelines & Past Winners

Nomination Due: October 1

Awarded For: Presented to an author or authors of an exceptional article that is accessible to undergraduates and published during the preceding year in Math Horizons.

Awarded Annually

Prizes: $1,000

Recent Winner: 2023
Lara Pudwell
The Hidden and Surprising Structure of Ordered Lists, Math Horizons, 29:3 (February 2022) 5–7.
https://doi.org/10.1080/10724117.2021.2002646

Nomination Guidelines & Past Winners

Nomination Due: October 1

Awarded For: Given for articles of expository excellence published in The College Mathematics Journal.

Up to two awards each year

Prizes: $1,000

Recent Winners: 2023
William Q. Erickson
Haste Makes Waste: An Optimization Problem,
The College Mathematics Journal, 53:2, 122–133.
doi.org/10.1080/07468342.2021.2022955

Johnner Barrett
Unlawful Calculations: A Look into Lie’s Notebook,
The College Mathematics Journal, 53:2, 104–115.
doi.org/10.1080/07468342.2021.2019550

Nomination Guidelines & Past Winners

Nomination Due: October 1

Awarded For: Recognizes authors of articles of expository excellence published in The American Mathematical Monthly.

Up to four awards each year

Prizes: $1,000

Recent Winners: 2023
Tristram Bogart and Kevin Woods
A Plethora of Polynomials: A Toolbox for Counting Problems,
The American Mathematical Monthly, 129:3, 203–222.
doi.org/10.1080/00029890.2022.2010487

Paul Thomas Young
From Madhava-Leibniz to Lehmer’s Limit,
The American Mathematical Monthly, 129:6, 524–538.
doi.org/10.1080/00029890.2022.2051405

Alex Rice
Reciprocal Sums and Counting Functions,
The American Mathematical Monthly, 129:10, 903–912.
doi.org/10.1080/00029890.2022.2115268

Paul Ramond
The Abel-Ruffini Theorem: Complex but Not Complicated,
The American Mathematical Monthly, 129:3, 231–245.
doi.org/10.1080/00029890.2022.2010494

Nomination Guidelines & Past Winners

Nomination Due: October 1

Awarded For: Honors the author or authors of a paper reporting on novel research in algebra, combinatorics, or discrete mathematics. Papers are judged on quality of research, clarity of exposition, and accessibility to undergraduates.

Awarded every three years.

Prize: $5,000

Recent Winner: 2023
Samantha Dahlberg, Angèle Foley, and Stephanie van Willigenburg
Resolving Stanley’s e-positivity of claw-contractible-free graphs,
Eur. Math. Soc., (JEMS) 22(8), (2020), 2673-2696.
doi.org/10.4171/JEMS/974

Nomination Guidelines & Past Winners

Nomination Due: October 1

Awarded For: Intended to recognize the author(s) of a distinguished, innovative book published by the MAA and to encourage the writing of such books.

The Committee determines the awarding schedule.

Prizes: $2,500

Recent Winner: (2022)
Ron Taylor and Patrick X. Rault, A TeXas-Style Introduction to Proof, MAA Textbooks series, 2017

Nomination Guidelines & Past Winners

Nomination Due: October 1

Awarded For: Intended to recognize authors of exceptionally well-written books with a positive impact on the public’s view of mathematics and to encourage the writing of such books. Eligible books include mathematical monographs at the undergraduate level, histories, biographies, works of fiction, poetry, collections of essays, and works on mathematics as it is related to other areas of arts and sciences.

Awarded Annually

Prizes: $2,000

Recent Winner: 2023
Susan D’Agostino
How to Free Your Inner Mathematician: Notes on Mathematics and Life, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press, 2020.

Nomination Guidelines & Past Winners

Nomination Due: October 1

Awarded For: Recognizes the author or authors of undergraduate mathematics teaching materials.

Awarded Annually

Prizes: $2,500

Recent Winner: 2023
David Lippman, Pierce College Fort Steilacoom in Lakewood, Washington

Nomination Guidelines & Past Winners

Nomination Due: October 1