Feb 08, 2012 - Claremont, Calif. - The Mathematical Association of America has selected Susan Martonosi, associate professor of mathematics, to receive its 2012 Henry L. Alder Award for Distinguished Teaching by a Beginning Faculty Member. The award will be presented Aug. 3 at the MAA’s MathFest in Madison, Wis.

Susan Martonosi

Martonosi is the third Harvey Mudd College faculty member to receive the award since its inception in 2003, and HMC is the only college to land more than once on the Alder Award list. 

The award honors faculty whose teaching is effective and extraordinary and extends its influence beyond the classroom. Recipients receive $1,000 and a certificate of recognition.

“What sets Susan apart is a desire to bring real-world examples and applications to the fore in education. She is uniquely able to inspire her students to pursue both careers and graduate studies in operations research and related fields," said Andrew Bernoff, chair of the HMC Department of Mathematics.

The Alder Awards committee cited Martonosi’s ability to encourage the national operations research community to embrace undergraduate research as one of the reasons she was chosen. It also noted her work with students in the classroom and beyond.

Martonosi has supervised more than 30 students in research projects—senior theses, Clinic projects and summer research experiences—and more than half have pursued graduate programs. Five of her research students have received National Science Foundation grants.

As director of the Mathematics Clinic, Martonosi recruited industrial projects and added a professional development component that taught students how to thrive in a corporate environment. In 2007, as faculty adviser to HMC’s student chapter of Engineers for a Sustainable World (ESW), she helped students raise $40,000 to support an outreach project in Africa. Martonosi and the student ESW chapter developed a water filtration prototype and, in 2009, traveled to a village in Kenya to build it. While there, she taught a class on operations research to teenage Kenyan students.

Martonosi’s research focuses on applying operations research methodology and applied probability to solving homeland security issues. She also uses game theory, social networks analysis and graph theory to solve problems in resource allocation and terrorist network disruption.

The MAA established the Alder award in 2003 and presented its first awards the following year. Professor of Mathematics Francis Su received the award in 2004 and former Associate Professor of Mathematics Lesley Ward received it in 2006.