Mathematician Campbell '90 Wins National Teaching Award

April 6th, 2006

For Immediate Release:  April 6, 2006
Contact:  Marsha Nishi Mullan    
610-328-8535                    
http://www.swarthmore.edu/news/


Swarthmore Mathematician Wins National Award for Distinguished Teaching

Garikai (Kai) Campbell, an associate professor of mathematics at Swarthmore College, has won the 2006 Henry L. Alder Award for Distinguished Teaching by a Beginning Faculty Member from the Mathematical Association of America (MAA).  The Alder Award is a national honor given for outstanding teaching of undergraduates by a young mathematician whose effectiveness in teaching undergraduate mathematics is shown to have influence beyond their own classrooms.  The MAA will present the award at the MathFest in Knoxville, Tenn., in August.


Garikai Campbell '90

  
Campbell, who has taught at Swarthmore since 1999, was nominated for the prize by his colleagues.  The award recognizes his intense interaction with students and his work with a wide variety of national programs and initiatives, particularly those supporting achievement in mathematics by underrepresented groups.  He has, for example, been an instructor in programs such as the Enhancing Diversity in Graduate Education (EDGE) Program for Women; served on the advisory board of the Figure This campaign of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) and the Math is Power ad campaign of the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering (NACME); and conducted summer research projects with Swarthmore students, with one recent project leading to a paper in the Rocky Mountain Journal of Mathematics.

Campbell received a B.A. in mathematics in 1990 from Swarthmore and received a Ph.D. in 1999 from Rutgers University.  Among the many academic honors and awards he has received are the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship, the National Science Foundation Minority Graduate Fellowship, and the Woodrow Wilson Career Enhancement Fellowship.