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Jennifer Quinn to Receive Top Mathematics Teaching Award
Jennifer Quinn, associate professor of mathematics at Occidental College, will receive a 2001 distinguished teaching award from the Mathematical Association of America (MAA), the top honor bestowed on college and university math instructors.
A March 17 ceremony at Cal State Fullerton will recognize Quinn’s eight-year tenure at Oxy, a span in which she has taught everything from calculus to abstract algebra and number theory.
Quinn’s ascension to distinguished teaching status is no small feat. “This certainly is the award, and she came out No. 1,” said W.A.J. Luxemburg, emeritus professor of mathematics at Caltech and vice president of the MAA’s Southern California section. Luxemburg helped make the selection.
Quinn will represent MAA’s Southern California section, which includes 1,500 members from San Luis Obispo to San Diego. Her Oxy colleagues nominated her for the distinction, and she will now be considered for the association’s national awards. Three instructors will be honored with that recognition in August.
“It’s nice to know that people think you’re doing a good job,” Quinn said. “Occidental is a very special place. The math department has given me the opportunity to figure out what good teaching is.”
The MAA is the largest professional society of college and university math teachers in the world. Its mission is to advance the mathematical sciences, especially at the collegiate level.
Quinn received her doctoral degree in 1993 from the University of Wisconsin – Madison, where she worked on cycle packings and colorings in graphs and digraphs. She is married to Mark Martin, an assistant professor of biology at Oxy.