Harvey Mudd College mathematics professor Talithia Williams opened the decade with two honors: the Robert V. Hogg Award for Excellence in Teaching Introductory Statistics and a term as the Mathematical Association of America (MAA) P\u00f3lya Lecturer for 2020\u20132022.<\/p>\n
The Special Interest Group on Statistics Education (SIGMAA) of the Mathematical Association of America selected Williams to receive the Hogg Award, which recognizes an individual who has been teaching introductory statistics at the college level for between three and 15 years and who has shown both excellence and growth in teaching during that time.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn all of her student interactions, Talithia Williams communicates mathematical and statistical ideas by building relationships,\u201d says Art Benjamin, Smallwood Family Professor of Mathematics, who nominated Williams for the award. \u201cShe relates statistical concepts with applications involving real-world data and in the process, builds relationships with her students that are unlike any other professor at HMC.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cArt has been a huge advocate in getting members of the mathematics department the recognition that they deserve but don\u2019t always seek,\u201d says Williams. \u201cI\u2019m really thankful for him. And since data science has become an in-demand area of study, it\u2019s been exciting for me to build the statistics offering at Harvey Mudd. When I came to the College, there were only a few introductory statistics courses. Working with mathematics professor Susan Martonosi and statisticians at the 5Cs, we\u2019ve built a suite of upper-level statistics courses that fill up each semester.\u201d<\/p>\n
Williams accepted the Hogg Award at the Joint Mathematics Meetings earlier this month in Denver.<\/p>\n
Williams says she\u2019s happy to be recognized for her work, which is intentionally public facing. \u201cOften, faculty at other institutions may not see the value in this work because there\u2019s a disincentive for faculty to engage in the type of public visibility that I\u2019ve engaged in in my career and to instead focus on more traditional metrics for tenure.\u201d Williams\u2019 engagement with the public has included giving a TED Talk, hosting the PBS series NOVA Wonders<\/em> and authoring a book, Power in Numbers: The Rebel Women of Mathematics<\/em>, which is geared toward a wide audience. \u201cI want to encourage STEM faculty to engage in the kind of public work I\u2019ve been doing. It\u2019s important that we move the needle on issues that are affecting society today, such as global warming, and that we inspire the next generation to become STEM enthusiasts.\u201d<\/p>\n Williams\u2019 enthusiasm for mathematics and for increasing its audience is evident in the classroom as well. An excerpt from an anonymous student evaluation reads, \u201cProf. Williams is outstanding. She is energetic, enthusiastic, knowledgeable and has fantastic sense of humor. She does a great job engaging students, provides fantastic explanations, is excellent at answering questions and is very accessible outside of class.\u201d<\/p>\n As the 2020\u20132022 P\u00f3lya lecturer, Williams will have a chance to share her experiences with other mathematicians around the country. The MAA established the George P\u00f3lya Lectureship with the goal of encouraging high-quality exposition embodied by George P\u00f3lya, an educator, author and prominent figure in mathematics. Williams, notably the first African American to receive the lectureship, will speak at three section meetings each academic year during her term.<\/p>\n \u201cI look forward to getting the public excited about data science and statistics, engaging diverse groups in STEM and talking about how we can present math with equity, excellence and inclusion,\u201d she says. \u201cI want audience members to ask themselves what work they can do to engage the next generation in math and science and how they are making room at the \u2018mathematical table\u2019 for the shift in diversity that\u2019s happening in our country. It\u2019s an honor for me to have this platform and a chance to push people outside of their comfort zone.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Harvey Mudd College mathematics professor Talithia Williams opened the decade with two honors: the Robert V. Hogg Award for Excellence […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":145,"featured_media":8152,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,22],"class_list":["post-8148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-faculty","category-mathematics"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/145"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8148"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8148\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}