News & Events

"America's Best Math Teacher" Offers Lecture Safe for Mathphobes at UNC Asheville

February 24, 2011

Promising to avoid all explicit mention of mathematics, Edward Burger, arguably the nation's premiere math teacher, will deliver the 10th Annual Parsons Lecture at 7 p.m. Thursday, March 24, in UNC Asheville's Lipinsky Auditorium.

Burger's lecture, "Monkeys, Mathematics, and Mischief," is sponsored by UNC Asheville's Math Department, but he says it is designed for those made queasy by the sight of equations. Burger will offer a lively look at how to apply life lessons learned in math to see oneself and the world more clearly, all the while considering the antics of monkeys. The event is free and open to the public.

Burger is the winner of the 2010 Robert Foster Cherry Award for Great Teaching – the richest ($250,000) and most prestigious prize in higher education teaching and scholarship across all disciplines in the English-speaking world. In 2006, Reader's Digest listed Burger in its annual "100 Best of America" as America's Best Math Teacher. He is the author of over 30 research articles and 12 books, including the Holt McDougal Middle School and High School mathematics text books; he stars in the entertaining videos associated with the texts. He was featured throughout NBC's coverage of the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Burger is Professor of Mathematics and Lissack Professor for Social Responsibility and Personal Ethics at Williams College. He is also an associate editor of The American Mathematical Monthly and Math Horizons Magazine and has received numerous awards from the Mathematical Association of America.

Each year, UNC Asheville’s Parsons Lecture showcases well-known mathematicians who are able to explain their field of study to a general audience. The lecture is made possible by an endowment from an alumnus in honor of UNC Asheville Professor Emeritus Joe Parsons, who served in the Mathematics Department from 1952 to 1980.

For more information, call UNC Asheville's Mathematics Department at 828.251.6556.