EAF Visiting Speakers Bureau
Biographical Sketches of Speakers

Edward B. Burger

Edward Burger is Professor of Mathematics at Williams College. His teaching and scholarly works have been recognized with numerous prizes and awards. In 2001, he received the Mathematical Association of America Deborah and Franklin Tepper Haimo National Award for Distinguished College or University Teaching of Mathematics. In 2003, he received the Residence Life Academic Teaching Award at the University of Colorado.  Burger was named the 2001-2003 George Polya Lecturer by the MAA.  In 2004 he was awarded the Chauvenet Prize by the MAA. In 2006, the MAA presented him with the Lester R. Ford Prize. In 2007, Williams College awarded him the Nelson Bushnell Prize for Scholarship and Teaching, and that same year he received the Distinguished Achievement Award for Educational Video Technology by The Association of Educational Publishers.  In 2006, Professor Burger was listed in the Reader's Digest special "100 Best of America" as "Best Math Teacher."

Burger is the author of over 30 papers appearing in scholarly journals.  He is the author of twelve books, seven virtual video CD-ROM textbooks, and has starred in a series of nearly 2000 videos that accompany the middle school and high school mathematics curriculum. His texts Exploring the Number Jungle and Extending the Frontiers of Mathematics were explicitly designed to foster inquiry-based learning. Burger serves as Associate Editor of the American Mathematical Monthly and is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Educational Advancement Foundation.

Professor Burger is a renowned speaker and has given over 400 lectures around the world. His lectures range from keynote addresses at international mathematical conferences; to mathematical colloquia and seminars at colleges and universities; to presentations at primary and secondary schools; to entertaining performances for general audiences; to television and radio appearances including WABC-TV, the Discovery Channel, and National Public Radio.

His lecture titles include: "How NOT to Teach: A practical approach to inquiry-based learning"

David M. Clark

David Clark studied at Emory University in the late sixties when the Mathematics Department was largely populated by first and second generation students of the Moore school, including John Neuberger and Bill Mahavier, who had a considerable influence on his career. He claims to have learned to do mathematics from his thesis director, Trevor Evans, but to have learned to teach mathematics from the Moore faculty.  He has taught by Moore's techniques ever since, extending them to forms of inquiry-based learning that suit whatever audience he has. He was a main speaker to the 2001 R.L. Moore Legacy Conference, and has been an active conference participant and mentor each subsequent year. He is co-founder and Submissions Editor of the newly established Journal of Inquiry-Based Learning in Mathematics, a refereed journal that publishes IBL course guides (www.jiblm.org).

His primary research in universal algebra, lattice theory and mathematical logic is augmented by additional publications in neural networks, game theory and quantum theory.  Much of his recent work has focused on the theory of natural dualities where he coauthored
the definitive reference, Natural Dualities for the Working Algebraist, published by Cambridge University Press in their Studies
in Advanced Mathematics series. He has held visiting research positions in Canada, Germany, Switzerland, Portugal and Australia.
In 2003 he was recognized by a promotion to SUNY Distinguished Professor of Mathematics.

Dr. Clark is a member of the faculty at the State University of New York at New Paltz where he chaired the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science from 1985 to 1991.  He served for a short period as founding dean of the New York College in Athens, Greece. Since 2001 he has been Associate Dean of the School of Science and Engineering, which he helped to found at SUNY New Paltz.

Here are several public lectures he could offer.  The first is directly about inquiry-based learning; the others are examples of how an inquiry-based perspective can lead to novel insights. Abstracts are available upon request.

“Inquiry-Based Teaching and the Learning Curve”

“Prospects for an Endangered Planet”

“The EPR Experiment: Einstein vs Quantum Theory”

“The Consecutive Integer Game”

“Axiomatizability of Topological Quasivarieties”

William A. Donnell

Bill Donnell received a B.A. and a M.A. from the University of North Texas, and a Ph.D. from Texas Tech University.  He also attended Rice University and Louisiana State University.  During his academic career, he has taught modified Moore type courses at:  Illinois Wesleyan University, University of the Incarnate Word, The University of Texas at Tyler, and the University of Texas at Dallas.

At the University of North Texas, he took a variety of undergraduate and graduate R. L. Moore type courses from Professors John E. Allen, David F. Dawson, George C. Copp, and David R. Cecil.  He also took Moore type graduate courses in topology from James E. Kiesler and abstract algebra from Clifton T. Whyburn at Louisiana State University.

Undergraduate courses he taught by IBL or modified Moore methods are abstract algebra, linear algebra, foundations of mathematics, and mathematics for elementary teachers. Graduate courses he taught using an IBL approach are abstract algebra, topology, and history of mathematics.

Most recently he presented an IBL based paper entitled  “Discovering Divisibility Tests” at the 10th Annual RLM Legacy Conference, April, 2007, which has been scheduled for publication in the January or March 2008 issue of the British journal Mathematics in School.

W. T. (Tom) Ingram

Tom Ingram is Professor Emeritus of Mathematics at the University of Missouri at Rolla where he served as chair of the department.   He received his Ph.D. in 1964 from Auburn University under Howard Cook, a student of R. L. Moore.

Ingram has written approximately 40 research articles in continuum theory and a couple of non-refereed teaching articles distributed by the Educational Advancement Foundation.  He is currently working on a monograph on inverse limits with Bill Mahavier of Emory University.

Ingram began teaching courses by the Moore Method in 1965 and did so virtually every semester until retirement.  He developed notes for a Moore Method course on the topology of the line for students who had completed the calculus sequence and were preparing to enter upper level mathematics courses.  He also developed senior and graduate level courses in topology, all taught by the Moore Method.  A few years ago he participated with Leon Hall and Robert Roe in the development of a second semester calculus course taught by a modified Moore Method at the University of Missouri--Rolla. 

Upon retirement, with support from the Educational Advancement Foundation, Ingram visited Baylor University in Waco, TX, where Brian Raines and he developed notes for a transition course in Algebra and Combinatorics that Brian taught by the Moore Method.  He has mentored Robert Roe to take over teaching the elementary analysis course using the topology of the line notes at the University of Missouri--Rolla and Brian Raines the first couple of times he ran his Algebra and Combinatorics course at Baylor.  This past year he participated as one of the mentors for Stan Yoshinobu's workshop on inquiry-based learning.

Ingram could give talks on some of the joys and surprises in teaching by the Moore Method, development and implementation of notes for modified Moore Method courses, some techniques and common pitfalls in course note development for a modified Moore Method course, and frequently asked questions about teaching by the Moore Method.  Of course, he could also draw on his years of experience to develop talks tailored to the specific needs of an audience, if need be.

Gordon G. Johnson

Gordon Johnson is presently Professor of Mathematics at the University of Houston.  In 1958 as a first-semester graduate student in the college of engineering, he taught his first course (two sections of second semester Thermodynamics) and took John Neuberger's graduate course in integral equations taught by the Socratic or Moore Method. During the summer after John's course he happened into Bill Mahavier's course, and was, as they say, hooked. “I understood the carefully worded statements and I understood the mathematics (finally!). Before those two classes, I had had probably ten upper-level and graduate mathematics classes, did very well in all, BUT I realized that I did not really understand the mathematics until I took courses from John, Bill, and several other excellent practitioners of the Moore Method.”

Gordon has used Socratic methods in his mathematics classes every year since that first class with John under whom he earned his Ph.D. at the University of Tennessee.  In addition to teaching he was an Institute of Nuclear Studies Fellow; a National Research Council Senior Research Associate for three years, one of which was at NASA Headquarters, Washington; a visiting research member for over two years at the Institute for Defense Analyses, Princeton; and a visitor at the National Security Agency, Fort Meade, with title “Distinguished Mathematician”, for over a half year. Gordon received numerous grants from NASA and has won several NASA awards for his work.  He holds two patents and has numerous publications. He was instrumental in the founding of the Houston Journal of Mathematics.  He served as a consultant to the Atomic Energy Commission in Oak Ridge and Barrios Technology in Houston.  He was an elected member and President of the Board of Directors of The Clear Creek Basin Authority, a former state agency. He has been a visiting Professor at both Emory University in Atlanta and The University of Texas in Austin.  He served as acting director of The Legacy of R. L. Moore Project at EAF during August - December of 2000.

“I am convinced that the Socratic method of guiding students is a best possible way to learn and understand mathematics. I enjoyed several classes from Professor Karl Menger. It was not that I learned so much directly from his lectures, but rather that I felt the excitement and intense interest that he had in the subject and that delicious feeling of simple curiosity.”

William S. Mahavier

Bill Mahavier is Professor of Mathematics at Emory University in Atlanta where he has taught since 1964.  He earned his Ph.D. under R. L. Moore at the University of Texas in Austin in 1957.  In addition to Emory, Bill has taught at the Illinois Institute of Technology and the Universities of Tennessee, Houston, and North Texas. His research interests are inverse limits, continua theory, and indecomposable continua.  He has written many research papers and technical reports and directed the theses of eight Ph.D. students.

Over a career spanning more than fifty years Bill has taught exclusively using the Moore Method.  Through his teaching and mentoring he has had a profound influence on many students and colleagues.  The latter include Cornelius Stallmann at Augusta State University and Bernd Rossa at Xavier University whom he mentored in the use of the Moore Method.  Both have become enthusiastic practitioners and advocates of the Moore Method and have mentored their colleagues in using inquiry-based learning. 

Bill has been an advisor and tireless supporter of the Educational Advancement Foundation’s Legacy of R. L. Moore Project and has written numerous reports and course notes distributed by EAF.  He also wrote “What is the Moore Method?” which appeared in the journal PRIMUS in 1999.

W. Ted Mahavier

Ted Mahavier is an Associate Professor of Mathematics at Lamar  University.  Educated at Auburn University, Emory University, and the University of North Texas where he earned his Ph.D. under John Neuberger in 1995. He has taken more than a dozen courses taught via the Moore Method by nine individuals, each an academic descendant of R. L. Moore or H. S. Wall.  He has taught modified Moore Method courses in college algebra, trigonometry, calculus, business calculus, discrete mathematics, analysis, topology, and graduate numerical analysis.  He has mentored more than a dozen faculty members, each of whom implemented the Moore Method for the first time under his direction and each of whom continues to use the method.  Mahavier has delivered nine invited addresses on aspects of the method including implementation, administrative hurdles, and material development.

His publications include thirteen papers in mathematics and mathematics education.  Others have authored as many papers highlighting the non-profit MathNerds (www.mathnerds.org), which Mahavier co-founded with Valerio De Angelis in 1996.  The core of MathNerds is a web-based volunteer network of more than 100 mathematicians and mathematics educators who use inquiry-based strategies to help students solve their mathematical questions.  Mahavier serves as co-founder and senior editor with David M. Clark on The Journal of Inquiry-Based Learning in Mathematics (www.jiblm.org), a journal dedicated to publishing refereed IBL course guides.  He is currently co-authoring, The Moore Method: A Pathway to Student-Centered Instruction, with Charles  A. Coppin, E. Lee May, and G. Edgar Parker. 

John W. Neuberger

John Neuberger is Regents Professor of Mathematics at the University of North Texas.  His research interests are partial differential equations with an aim toward a central theory of the subject, numerical analysis, functional analysis, real variables, superconductivity, and algebraic geometry.  He has published over 100 papers on these subjects and directed 28 doctoral students. 

John describes his experience with IBL this way:  “My first exposure to IBL (Moore Method) came from Moore himself in 1952-53 as a member of his calculus course.  It is an exaggeration, but not such a great one, to say that I have essentially coasted, mathematically speaking, on that course.  Moore used a notation which made discovery possible, and he instilled an inquiry-based attitude.  Most of my mathematics courses after that were with Moore, Wall, Ettlinger, and Lane, all IBL courses.  It was under H.S. Wall that I wrote my dissertation in 1957.  In my fifty plus years of teaching, almost all of my courses have consisted of a sequence of problems given out, a few at a time, to students.  I then call upon various members of the class to present their work, never asking one to present unless they first indicate that they think they have a solution they have worked out themselves.   I have directed some twenty-eight Ph.D. degrees in mathematics.  In addition to being a teacher, I have been, and continue to be, a research mathematician (see www.math.unt.edu/~jwn for publications).  I have also been an active long-term consultant to various industrial and governmental organizations.  This consulting work has enabled me to observe first hand consequences of the mathematical education of many scientific, technical, computational, mathematical workers.  These experiences have continually reinforced my commitment to IBL teaching.”

G. Edgar Parker

Ed Parker received a BS from Guilford College in 1969 with a major in Mathematics and minors in Philosophy and Religion.  After teaching at Bayside High School in Virginia Beach, Virginia for four years, he entered graduate school and received a PhD in mathematics from Emory University in 1977 with his thesis directed by J. W. Neuberger.  J. R. Boyd introduced him to the Moore Method as an undergraduate and he also took courses in the Moore style at Guilford from Ken Walker and Elwood Parker.  At Emory, Ed took Moore-Method courses from David Ford, Phil Tonne, William Mahavier, John W. Neuberger, and Mary Frances Neff.

Ed’s teaching experience includes four years as a secondary mathematics teacher and baseball and basketball coach; four years as a graduate student, teaching a class each quarter the last 10 quarters; summer school at Atlanta Junior College; seven years at Pan American University (now UT-Pan American); and the past 23 years at James Madison University where he is currently Professor of Mathematics.  In his post-doctoral teaching, Ed has used Moore-Method as the template for his primary pedagogical philosophy, and he has used Moore Method in all of his upper level courses.  In the past 20 years, he has broadened his use of Moore Method to the foundational levels of the mathematics curriculum and to an interdisciplinary freshman seminar.

Ed’s mathematical research has been primarily on the structure of families of solutions of differential equations and on the computation of classical solutions to differential equations.  In addition, he has published several papers on Moore-style pedagogy in refereed mathematics education journals and is the co-author, with Ted Mahavier, E. Lee May, Jr., and Charles Coppin, of THE MOORE METHOD : A Pathway to Learner Centered Instruction which is in the review process prior to publication.

Talks Ed can give :

“Using Moore Method in the Undergraduate Curriculum,” an overview of the method itself, including typical classroom scenarios, and a pitch for the perceived advantages of its use in the undergraduate major.

“Preparing Materials for a Moore-Method Course,” considerations for preparing to teach a Moore-Method course.

“Moore Method Outside the Major,” using Moore-Method in non-major mathematics courses and in courses outside of mathematics.

“Moore Method and Undergraduate Research,” an outline for providing context for undergraduate research.

Michel Smith

Michel Smith is Professor and Chair of the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at Auburn University.  He earned his Ph.D. under the direction of William S. Mahavier at Emory University, Atlanta, in 1974 and earned his B.A. from the University of Texas at Austin in 1969.  His research interest is in continuum theory, both metric and non-metric, inverse limits, and indecomposable and hereditarily indecomposable continua. He has written research papers in these areas and has directed two Ph.D. students and several Masters students.

As an undergraduate at the University of Texas he took courses from R. L. Moore and H. S. Wall as well as many of their graduate students.  He learned to appreciate the Moore Method very early in his mathematical career.   At Emory he experienced the Moore Method under William Mahavier and John Neuberger.  He uses the Moore Method in upper-level and graduate courses and a modified Moore Method in Freshman and Sophomore courses including Calculus I-III that emphasize the development of problem solving skills.  He is a senior investigator on an NSF Mathematics and Science Partnership grant that seeks to implement the pedagogical technique of guided problem solving in K-12 education. He has also been a presenter at the summer workshop in 2004-2007 where he has modeled this technique for high school teachers. 

Michel has written articles on the Moore Method included in the EAF archives and gave a presentation, "The Moore Method and High School Teachers," at the April 2007 Legacy of R. L. Moore conference in Austin, Texas.

Elwood Parker

Elwood Parker is Professor of Mathematics at Guilford College, a small undergraduate liberal arts institution in Greensboro, North Carolina.  A 1964 graduate of Guilford, he begins his 40th year teaching mathematics at Guilford in fall 2007.  His 1972 Ph.D is in general topology (cardinal invariants) from UNC-Chapel Hill, though his more recent mathematical interests have shifted to applied topics and foundations questions. 

Elwood has taught every undergraduate mathematics course offered at Guilford as well as occasional inter- and co-disciplinary courses.  He has worked frequently with students in special topic seminars and undergraduate research projects, resulting in 25 papers either published in undergraduate journals, presented at MAA sectional meetings, or accepted as Honors theses at Guilford.  Eleven Guilford students with whom he worked as undergraduates now hold Ph.D’s in mathematics. 

For his entire career, practically all of Elwood’s teaching uses some variation of inquiry-based learning (IBL), with much pedagogical experimentation.  He has written IBL style course notes for many courses, including:  elementary statistics (in progress), probability and statistics (for math majors and concentrators); one-variable calculus (for students having had “high school” calculus), real analysis (published as a monograph in undergraduate mathematics); discrete mathematics (under revision), for a co-disciplinary mathematics/philosophy course (“Infinity, Undecidability, Non-computability”).

Full resume is available upon request.

Elwood has formats for talks—more accurately “conversations”—on the following:

“Inquiries and Discoveries on Discovery/Inquiry Based Learning,” an inquiry-based exploration of questions he asks himself about D/IBL courses, including his tentative answers from 40 years of experience.  For faculty.

“Questions That Have Worked”, particular examples of inquiries that have led students (sometimes) to results, from both specific courses and undergraduate research projects.  For faculty.

“2⁴ = 4², any other such pairs?,” leading calculus students through an inquiry-based pursuit of a particular question.  For students taking or having taken calculus.  Faculty may attend.

“The Limit Question,” an inquiry-based approach to limits in calculus. For students taking or having taken calculus.  Or discussion with faculty about the approach.

Cornelius Stallmann

Cornelius Stallmann received his doctorate at the University of Tennessee in 1996 and began teaching at Birmingham-Southern College.  Since 1998 he has been teaching at Augusta State University in Augusta, Georgia.  ASU is primarily a commuter school of about 7000 students, a relatively high proportion of which are non-traditional.  Classes typically have no more than 40 students.

During the fall semester of 2001 Cornelius had the unique opportunity through a grant from the Educational Advancement Foundation to spend an entire semester at Emory University observing Bill Mahavier teach two classes.  Bill is a student of R.L. Moore and has been using the Moore Method for about 50 years.  In graduate school Cornelius had taken a Modified Moore Method topology class taught by Bob Daverman, an academic grandson of Moore.  Although that experience left a lasting impression on him, it was his observation of Bill Mahavier that finally convinced him to use some variation of the Moore Method in his own classes.  Since the spring semester of 2002 he has been teaching Calculus I and Calculus II using an inquiry-based approach.  He developed his own set of notes and problems for both of these courses.

During the fall semester of 2005 Cornelius and Barry Spieler at Birmingham-Southern College received a grant from the Educational Advancement Foundation to pursue a mentoring arrangement that was to ease Barry into his first attempt at using an inquiry-based approach in the classroom.  Even though at that time Cornelius had more than three years of experience using inquiry-based learning, he had not yet taught the course that he and Barry would be teaching.  They taught a transition course using essentially the same notes Cornelius had observed Bill Mahavier use in his Math 250 class at Emory.  “The mentoring experience was extremely beneficial for both of us.  We were teaching the same course in parallel at two different locations and had almost daily contact via phone and or email.  We had the opportunity to practice, reflect, and learn from our mistakes.  In some sense we were using the spirit of inquiry-based learning to guide our own learning of the Moore Method.”

Michael Starbird

Michael Starbird is Professor of Mathematics and a University Distinguished Teaching Professor at The University of Texas at Austin. He received his B.A. degree from Pomona College in 1970 and his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, in 1974, supervised by Mary Ellen Rudin. That same year, he joined the faculty of the Department of Mathematics at UT, where he has stayed except for leaves including to the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. His UT administrative appointments including serving previously as Associate Dean in the College of Natural Sciences and co-director of the Discovery Learning Project; and currently as director of the Inquiry Based Learning Project.

Starbird is a member of UT’s Academy of Distinguished Teachers. He has won many teaching awards, including the 2007 Mathematical Association of America Deborah and Franklin Tepper Haimo National Award for Distinguished College or University Teaching of Mathematics; a Minnie Stevens Piper Professorship; the President’s Associates Teaching Excellence Award; the Jean Holloway Award; the Chad Oliver Plan II Teaching Award; and the Friar Society Centennial Teaching Fellowship. Also, in 1989, he was UT’s Recreational Sports Super Racquets Champion.

Starbird’s mathematical research is in the field of topology. He served as a member-at-large of the Council of the American Mathematical Society and on the national education committees of both the American Mathematical Society and the Mathematical Association of America. He has given numerous presentations to students, faculty, and the public including more than 20 minicourses and workshops on effective teaching.

Starbird’s textbooks include (with co-author Edward B. Burger), The Heart of Mathematics: An invitation to effective thinking, and (with David Marshall and Edward Odell) the guided-discovery textbook Number Theory Through Inquiry, which will appear in 2008. Starbird has produced four courses for The Teaching Company.

His presentation titles include “Getting students to think.”

Harrison W. “Chuck” Straley

“Chuck” Straley teaches statistics, mathematics and mathematics education courses at Wheaton College in Norton, Mass.   He has been involved in Inquiry Based Instruction for over 30 years, as a result of taking graduate courses from two Moore Method Professors, Bill Mahavier and Phil Tonne.  “Chuck” has practiced Discovery Teaching at most grade levels from kindergarten to graduate school, and in both the United States and Australia.   

While teaching at Woodberry Forest School in Virginia he created a High School Group Theory course that was greatly influenced by the teaching philosophy of R. L. Moore.    He also developed a set of open ended discovery exercises appropriate for research work by both secondary and college students.   His high school students produced over 200 original (to the authors) mathematics research papers. 

“Chuck” has written two monographs on Discovery Teaching for the Educational Advancement Foundation and is currently organizing a group to produce an Inquiry Based Instruction oriented high school geometry course.  He received his undergraduate education at the University of Richmond, his masters at Emory University and his doctorate at The University of Virginia.    He did post doctoral work as a Woodrow Wilson Fellow at Princeton University and in 1989 President George H. W. Bush honored him at The White House for his teaching excellence.

The titles of talks related to IBL that he is prepared to give are:

“The R. L. Moore Method, Inquiry Based Learning, at the Secondary Level”

“Getting High School Students To Do ‘Original’ Mathematics Research”

“Teaching Inquiry Based Mathematics Courses to Elementary School Pre-Service Teachers”

“An Inquiry Based ‘Structure of Mathematics Course’ For Middle School Teachers”

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Last Revised 11/7/2007